Jim E. Mora - New Orleans Saints

New Orleans Saints

Mora was hired by new Saints General Manager Jim Finks to turn around the franchise largely viewed as the NFL's most inept. The Saints had only won 90 games in their first 19 seasons, had never achieved a winning record, and only twice had reached .500, in 1979 and 1983. In late 1984, then-owner John Mecom. threatened sell the team to a group of investors who planned to move the franchise to Jacksonville, Florida if he could not find an owner or group of owners who would buy the team and keep them in New Orleans.

Mecom sold the Saints to Tom Benson in May 1985 for $70 million. Benson, who grew up in the city's Ninth Ward, pledged to keep the team in New Orleans. The Saints limped along to a 5-11 record in 1985, and coach Bum Phillips resigned with four games remaining. Benson hired Finks in January 1986 and charged the former Vikings and Bears executive with the task of hiring the new coach.

Mora spent his first off-season remaking the Saints roster. He convinced several players from the USFL to come to New Orleans. The imports included linebackers Sam Mills and Vaughan Johnson, who went on to form the inside tandem of the legendary "Dome Patrol" linebacking corps with veteran Rickey Jackson and draftee Pat Swilling on the outside. Mora inherited quarterback Bobby Hebert and receiver Eric Martin from Phillips, and drafted running back Reuben Mayes and tackle Jim Dombrowski.

After a 7-9 record his first season, Mora led the Saints to a 12-3 record in 1987. In week 6 of the 1987 season the Saints lost a 24-22 game to the San Francisco 49ers, missing a last-second field goal. After the game Mora launched what became known as his "Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda" speech. In his postgame press conference, Mora angrily said the following:

"They're better than we are; we're not good enough. We shouldn't be thinking about beating these 49ers; we shouldn't be talking about it, 'cause the Saints ain't good enough. And you guys shouldn't write about us being a playoff team and all that bullstuff--that's malarkey. We ain't good enough to beat those guys and it was proven out there today. It's that simple. We're not good enough yet. We've got a long way to go; we've got a lot of work to do; we're close, and close don't mean shit. And you can put that on TV for me. I'm tired of coming close, and we're gonna work our asses off until we ain't close anymore, and it may take some time; we're gonna get it done; we aren't in their--we aren't good enough. They're better than us--black and white, simple, fact! "Could've, would've, should've" is the difference in what I'm talking about! The good teams don't come in and say "Could've." They get it done! All right? It's that simple! I'm tired of saying "Could've, should've, would've." That's why we ain't good enough yet! 'Cause we're saying "Could've" and they ain't! I'm pissed off right now. You bet your ass I am. I'm sick of coulda, woulda, shoulda, coming close, if only."

The Saints responded by winning their last 9 games, notching the franchise's first-ever winning record and playoff berth. The team's 12–3 record in the 1987 season was the second-best in the NFL that year. Unfortunately for them, the 49ers had the league's best record (13–2), and also played in the NFC West. Therefore, the Saints were a wild-card team (since 1987 was a strike-shortened season with replacement games, it should be noted that the Saints and 49ers had identical 10–2 records in regular season non-replacement games). Nonetheless, the Saints were able to play their first playoff game at home, which they lost 44–10 to the Minnesota Vikings. Mora received the NFL Coach of the Year Award.

Mora's Saints finished 10–6 in 1988, and were part of a three-way tie for first in the NFC West with the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams. However, the 49ers won the division on tie-breakers, and the Saints lost the wild-card tiebreaker with the Rams and missed the playoffs. In 1989, the Saints again had a winning record (9–7) but finished 3rd in the NFC West and missed the playoffs.

Thereafter his Saints teams made the playoffs three more times. In 1990, the Saints only finished 8–8, but managed to make the playoffs as a wild card. They lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Chicago Bears, 16–6.

In 1991, Mora's Saints finished 11-5 and won the team's first division title. However, the Saints lost again in the first round of the playoffs. They lost at home to the Atlanta Falcons 27-20, in spite of finishing one game ahead of the Falcons in the NFC West during the regular season.

In 1992, Mora led the Saints to its second 12-win season in 6 years, finishing 12-4. They were a wild card again, however, as the San Francisco 49ers finished 14-2. But for the second time in two years, the Saints were upset at home in the first round the playoffs, as the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Saints, 36–20. This would be the Saints' last playoff game during Mora's tenure, leaving Mora with an 0–4 playoff record in New Orleans. The Saints would not win a playoff game until 2000.

(Following a 33-3 exhibition loss to the Houston Oilers in 1992 marred by poor kick returns) "I'm sure people vomited in the stands after watching our kicking game. I'm sure they vomited in the stands. That was just horrible, embarrassing. Was that on national television? (told it was blacked out locally) Thank God."

1993 marked the beginning of the decline of Mora's Saints. The team started the season 5–0 and appeared to be headed to the postseason again; however, after the Saints' bye week, the team went into a tailspin and went only 3–8 in the final 11 games, including losing 4 out of their last 5 games. 1993 was Mora's last season of .500 or better in New Orleans. In the Week 16 game against the New York Giants, quarterback Wade Wilson was injured on Monday Night Football and fans were cheering that fact, earning an angry retort:

"You know I'd like to begin my remarks by saying this, and I mean this in all sincerity; I've been coaching for 34 years, and tonight I saw and heard one of the most disgusting, rudest, sick, demonstrations in my entire career. Probably the worst. When Wade Wilson got hurt, I actually looked up into the stands and saw people standing, clapping, and cheering when he was laying on the ground with a knee injury. And I say this, those are some sick, sick, sick people! Mentally sick! I thought it was horrible, disgusting, embarrassing, shameful, it stunk! People are sick when they do something like that; absolutely friggin' sick! Guy's out there busting his ass like all our guys were, gets his knee blown up, not badly hopefully, and they're standing and cheering and clapping! Those are sick people! Sick in the head! They oughta get their ass thrown right out of the stadium!"

After two 7–9 seasons in 1994 and 1995, Mora appeared increasingly frustrated with his team's situation in New Orleans. The Saints' defense went into a steep decline, negating the passing heroics of quarterback Jim Everett, acquired from the division rival Rams in 1994 for a seventh-round draft choice. Everett came to the Saints shortly before his infamous incident with Jim Rome on ESPN2 when Rome insulted the quarterback by calling him Chris Evert, a reference to Jim Everett's lack of toughness.

The 1996 season started off very badly. The Saints lost their first five games, including an embarrassing 28-14 loss at home to the then-winless Arizona Cardinals in which LeShon Johnson rushed for 214 yards, a Cardinals franchise record which has since been broken by Beanie Wells in 2011. Following a road loss to the Baltimore Ravens, the Saints won back-to-back home games vs. the Jacksonville Jaguars and Chicago Bears, but the turnaround was a mirage.

After the Saints were beaten 19–7 by the Carolina Panthers on October 20, a loss which put them at 2–6 midway through the season, Mora walked out of the postgame press conference in disgust after a profanity-laced tirade. His outburst became famous on sports highlight reels for years to follow, largely because of Mora's use of the phrase "Diddley Poo." On the Saints' performance, Mora said the following:

"Well, what happened was, that second game we got our ass kicked. Errr - the second half, we just got our ass totally kicked. We couldn’t do diddly...poo offensively. We couldn’t make a first down. We couldn’t run the ball; we didn’t try to run the ball. We couldn’t complete a pass - we sucked. The second half, we sucked. We couldn't stop the run. Every time they got the ball, they went down and got points. We got our ass totally kicked in the second half - that's what it boiled down to. It was a horseshit performance in the second half. Horseshit. I’m totally embarrassed and totally ashamed. Coaching.........Coaching did a horrible job. The players did a horrible job. We got our ass kicked in that second half. It sucked. It stunk."

The next day, Mora unexpectedly resigned his position as head coach and was replaced by interim coach Rick Venturi. The Saints finished the season at 3–13, their worst season since going 1-15 in 1980. Venturi was replaced by veteran Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka. Mora is still the winningest coach in Saints history; his 93 wins in 10-plus years in New Orleans are three more than the Saints had won in their first 20 years combined.