In what is certainly a landmark media occurrence, in this week's Monday Morning Quarterback, the lofty, heavily overcaffeinated, thoroughly befavred Peter King had this to say . . .

I have my own problems with McNabb. I don't consider him on the Manning-Brady-Brees plane.

That's the first time I've ever seen an unqualified inclusion of Drew Brees in the top tier. As little quality recognition as he gave the Saints last year ("Not bad for #24!"), you gotta hand it to the old Latte' Guzzler.

Although one might argue that the billing should be "Brees-Brady-Manning" for "sayability" and to acknowledge the best of the three.

Saw this in one of the Deadspin mailbags, and I have to admit, it frightened me a little:

"I worked at a summer camp in Texas throughout college. The camp director, an old Texas high school football coach, told numerous stories about the camp's most famous alum, Drew Brees. One of his favorites involved Drew's absolute dominance for many years of camp dodgeball, breaking several noses along the way."

Guess he's not always such a nice guy!

I think everyone in the WDN, including me, is bracing themselves for the possibility of the Saints going to camp next summer without the biggest defensive play-maker of our first and only title season. I've seen quite a few people express confidence bordering on certainty that Darren Sharper will be back under a gold helmet when we kick off as defending champs. But, given the obvious dissatisfaction with the situation on his part, the proposition of him returning seems to be about as close to 50/50 as you can get, and it's got me a little worried. 

Yes, most are fully on board with re-signing him and wouldn't have had a moment's second thought about putting the tag on him and paying him six-point-whatever million. But for myself, I have to admit, that's less to do with front office acumen, of which I have little (OK, none), than with a sense of personal loyalty and nostalgia. It'd be sad to see, so soon, one of our most charismatic and highlight friendly championship veterans acrimoniously depart and sadder to get an unfortunate glimpse of the sausage-making that goes into creating Pigskin Paradise on Airline Drive.

So, in an attempt to steel myself for the worst-case scenario, I'm trying to break through my SB glow and invite in a little realism. One fellow over at Football Outsiders has examined last year's Saints' defensive performance and put together a more front-office type assessment of Darren Sharper's value to the team (scroll down at link). He argues that most of the credit for the improved pass defense belongs to Jabari Greer (I agree totally with this) and that chances of Sharper enjoying another season like he had in 2009 is a long-shot.

. . . whoever signs Sharper this offseason will be paying for last year's interception total, Jabari Greer's excellent play, and a reasonable amount of veteran leadership. Of course, if veteran leadership was so important, the Vikings probably wouldn't have let go of Sharper in the first place.

Now, a grain of salt: to justify their "outsider" status, we all know the guys over at FO do their best to come up with any counter-intuitive angle they can to buck conventional wisdom and prove they're smarter than everyone else (I thought that early season "NFL parity is dead!" meme that they basically started and on which sports media harped for a few weeks was total BS; Saints as new champions, Jets in the AFC Championship game, the Chargers and Pats both one-and-done, Steelers out of the playoffs, etc. puts the lie to that).

But sometimes they are smarter than everyone else, and they're almost always the most objective. Certainly Sharper came up big early on, but to be honest, there were a few times in the biggest games late last season where I was wondering, "When is Sharper going to show up?"

So anyway, you don't have to agree totally with their curt dismissal of one of the all-time great Saints ballhawking heroes (I certainly don't), but at least there might be a little something to console us if we lose him.

I apologize in advance for introducing any negativity into what is, for us Saints fans, this most joyous of all Februaries, but I just saw a disturbing clip on an NFL Conference Championship round-up on NHK here in Japan. I'd already seen it on YouTube or somewhere, but this seemed to have been edited a little longer and there were some things I hadn't seen before.

One thing I've loved about the Saints this year is the almost complete lack of selfishness and an overall atmosphere of virtue and good character on the part of the team. So, I was pretty shocked to see a clip of Anthony Hargrove, after No. 4 had limped off with an apparent game-ending ankle injury, going up and down the defensive bench slapping hands and celebrating, "Favre's done! Favre's done! Favre's out the game!"

What the f*** is that? Is this the f***ing WWF?

When I saw Brett Favre on the turf--and Kurt Warner last week--I was upset. I love and respect these guys and it should be an honor and a pleasure to play against them and have a chance to beat them. Would a Super Bowl victory be as enjoyable if Peyton came out after the first series with a broken finger and we ended up beating Curtis Painter? Not for me, it wouldn't. I couldn't see the faces of the other players, but from the rear, to their credit, it wasn't apparent that they shared any of Hargrove's enthusiasm for Favre's misfortune. I'll call that a big saving grace.

As for the hit itself, I didn't think there was any flagrant cheap-shottery on the part of McCray; he was coming off a block and it looked to me like he was just trying to wrap him up by the calves (I could be wrong). But I personally don't feel that there's anything to celebrate when an opponent goes out on a stretcher, even if he was put there unintentionally.

This isn't going to ruin my enjoyment of the Saints first Super Bowl, and I'm not buying all of the Cryking fans whining about the Saints being a dirty team; before this last game, I'd never seen anything to suggest that, and I don't think that the character of a team can change overnight.

But I am certainly concerned about to what extent our D is willing to go to neutralize the opposing offense and whether GW is teaching them that toughness and sportsmanship are oil and water.

Anyway, again, I'm sorry. But I just wanted to get that off my chest before reverting to full Who Dat mode, starting . . . NOW!

The pent-up, anti-Saints joy that started seeping out into sports media last Sunday morning is becoming simply tedious.

Romo fanboy, Peter King, who had next to no interest in the 2010 Saints until his bone-idol became the hero against us, dedicated about a third of his column explaining how epic the upset was and he seems to be ready to crown the Cowboys NFC Champions.

Well, the bottom line is this: The Cowboys played by far their best game of the season while the Saints, with what seemed like dozens of injured starters, played by far their worst. And the Saints still almost pull it out in the last minute. The Saints won't play that poorly again nor will the Cowboys again play that well.

I'll stick with the Black and Gold, thank you, and bask in Drew's vengeance come playoff time.

There certainly is no lack of material from which to build the Drew Brees legend. Check out this article which offers some keen insight to 9's brilliant comeback after his worst year as a pro with the Chargers.

I still CAN'T believe how fortunate we and the Saints are to have this guy. I wish I was back in N.O. to celebrate every Sunday with y'all. God, I miss my old season tickets; I hope you're enjoying them, whoever you are.