New Orleans Saints: The Lesser of Two Evils; Garrett Hartley or John Carney?

I remember the days of bags on our heads. I watched our team lose every week and anxiously tuned in those rabbit ears the next week to watch it all over again. That is what makes a fan. 

The loyalty to a team comes with wins and losses and I've had more than my share of losses as a Saints fan. This leads me to my point of what makes a true fan: Loudly protesting against the snickers of other teams' fans while your team is the laughingstock of the league. 

Proudly wearing a jersey, face paint, or just team colors to public venues, and holding your head high as if you were champs several times over and finding the good, may it be only one singular moment in every game. Sure we got our butts handed to us, but did you see that?

How quickly we forget that dreadful day, Dec. 21, 2003, when John Carney missed an extra point attempt to get us to the playoffs, after an amazing last-minute battle by the offense to get it in the end zone against the Jaguars with no time left in the game. 

Now, that one point would have only sent us into overtime, but the chance was lost for a playoff game. How quickly everyone blocks out the number of field goals he missed when we only had a kicker to rely on for winning a game. Seven years and it still stings.

Fair weather friends, you have your wish. 

After a shaky start to the season by a young guy who hasn’t yet suffered the pain of being on a losing team in the NFL, Garrett Hartley will be benched and that ancient little man that looks like he was an extra in the Wizard of Oz will be taking the field once again.

Now I heard it said that it was the decision of Sean Payton to replace Hartley with Carney, but to any true New Orleans native, we all know it was pressure from the top to sit him out. 

No one in the world flips from happy-go-lucky to Satan-in-a-suit better than Tom Benson, the owner of the Saints.  I have seen more people come and go on that team over the years, including coaches, than a red-light district turnover during shore leave. 

Garrett Hartley is supposed to earn his way back on the field, but with Carney actually doing the kicking, I’m not sure that the plan is for Hartley to prove his worth. One missed kick, a loser does not make. 

I hate losing.  I hate losing to Atlanta more than any other team, but it’s happened more times than I can count and it will inevitably happen again some time in the future. 

Had the rest of the team done a better job, those three points would not have made the difference and set us back so far as to put Carney back on the field. Where is the blame for the defense not stopping the Dirty Birds from scoring?  Where is the blame for the offense not scoring more points when we had the No. 1 spot for fourth-quarter comebacks in the NFL last year? 

The Saints are a team and when one fails, they all fail, but to punish that kid for a missed field goal (granted it was a chip shot) and leave the team in the hands of Carney, well, it’s a sad day for this fan.

I will watch the game, without fail, but I will do so while making yet another voodoo doll of that dreadful little man in hopes that he will simply retire and stop torturing me with his presence on the team. 

Carney got a ring; now go away!

(Opinion written by my beloved wife, a long-time suffering, die-hard Saints fan)

Matt Regaw is a B/R Featured Columnist and the founder of BookieBlitz.com, your one-stop shop for sports articles, previews, and predictions. Feel Free to contact Matt at [e-mail]