Open practice with the Saints

[Arky]

From the chron - 6 fights: Headliners; Demeco vs. Shockey, Leach vs. DT Rod Coleman....

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...t/6580151.html

[Arky]

Video - Demeco vs. Shockey

[Big Texas]

Originally Posted by Arky

Video - Demeco vs. Shockey

It was nice to see demeco and xavier jump on shockey

[painekiller]

Originally Posted by Arky

Video - Demeco vs. Shockey

And one guy in the pile without a helment, Travis Johnson, yes the guys who is rehabing from hernia surgery, jumping in the middle. Not to smart. But he does have his guys back.

[HPF Bob]

Jamaal Brown is having his groin checked out and not expected to play Saturday so there's a reason Mario treated him like a rag doll.

[barrett]

Originally Posted by HPF Bob

Jamaal Brown is having his groin checked out and not expected to play Saturday so there's a reason Mario treated him like a rag doll.

Was it hurt before or after yesterday's practice? If his groin is being checked out now it likely had nothing to do with Mario dumping him yesterday.

[gunslinger57]

Originally Posted by Arky

Video - Demeco vs. Shockey

I love the caption for the video. "Saints tight end Jeremy Shockey squared off with several Texans during a practice." Makes it sound like Shockey's the hero in a Jet Li movie or something instead of getting slung around by DeMeco after mouthing off.

[nunusguy]

I went to yesterdays practice and there was a ton of Saints fans attending, but no surprise there since way before Katrina there's always been lots of LA natives living and working in Houston. And I heard way back in the 80s when I arrived in Houston that it had more LSU grads than any other city.
Anyway, what a shame the 2 citys can't be in a common NFL division ? The geography and all, the love of football both states and both citys have, it would such a tremendous rivalry. Maybe it could happen the next time the league reorganizes ?

[Keith]

Originally Posted by nunusguy

Anyway, what a shame the 2 citys can't be in a common NFL division ? The geography and all, the love of football both states and both citys have, it would such a tremendous rivalry. Maybe it could happen the next time the league reorganizes ?

This is one of those times when I wish we still had the HPF board up and running since we had these convo's logged (though this one may have been far enough back to pre-date our transtion to vBulletin) but I digress...

Saints owner Tom Benson had proposed to put the Texans in the NFC in a division that would have included the Falcons and Bucs in addition to his Saints team. Benson reportedly wanted a "Gulf South" division.

"My preference is for Houston to be in the same division with us," Benson said at the Saints' training camp at Nicholls State. "Just think what a great rivalry it could become. Our team and our fans would compete like hell with Houston - like Texas competing against Texas A&M." ...

Benson says in his plan for realignment, one possibility might be to move Carolina into the AFC in a southern division with Jacksonville, Tennessee and Indianapolis.

Carolina and Jacksonville could capitalize on a natural rivalry that has been building since they entered the league as expansion teams in 1995 ...

McNair had wanted his yet unnamed team to fall back on its Oilers roots and play in the AFC with the Bengals, Steelers, and Browns.

The notion of the Texans in the NFC was always a pipe dream. The Texans were almost pre-ordained as an AFC team from before the franchise was awarded to McNair, I think mostly because of the TV rights aspect.

League sources say CBS, which televises AFC games, would frown on Houston moving into the NFC. They say CBS wants to establish a presence in Texas and would balk at both Texas teams being televised by Fox. ...

"Bud and I talked about this," Benson said. "If he hadn't moved the Oilers to Tennessee, he and I were talking about doing this when the league was realigned.

"Think about it for a minute. Don't you think the fans would like to see Houston and New Orleans in the same division? It'd be exciting for them. Forget everything else for a minute - it would be great for the fans."

Funny to think about this stuff as somewhat nostalgic now. Time flies, eh?

[NBT]

I think Benson's idea would have been a good one. I don't like being in the same division with a team that was, for so many years, ours!