I apologize in advance for the length of this post. This is a complicated issue, with a lot of factors at play, and I don’t think everyone is considering them all when they talk about it, so I’m going to attempt it. I’ll try to keep the read as interesting as possible as I go, even though I’m doing this more for my own sanity than for any of yours. I really just need to get some of these thoughts out of my head and on paper (or what passes for it in our digital age). Hopefully, it’ll be a cathartic experience for all of us, and not just myself. I also hope to maybe provide some ammunition to the folks that seem to just be outraged out of blind loyalty to the organization, as well as temper some of the outrage stemming from the people that think Goodell’s punishment was completely justified. More than anything, I want to explain how I ultimately arrived at the conclusion that the punishment was overly-harsh when my initial, knee-jerk reaction to all the bounty news was, “Fire ‘em all.”

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Just going to go ahead and get this out of the way now. Great game. Crappy outcome. You can say all you want about the five GD turnovers, but we had this. The D had the chance to win this game, and they couldn't get it done. Jeff was right. Sure, the offense put them in a crap position time and again, but when it came time to count the chips, they let us down. It's not right, and it's not fair, but you have to close this game out, fellas. That's why you get paid the big bucks. Jeff, you were right, dude. For all the crap I gave you throughout the season, our defense is what got us in the end. "Playing with the lead" and being "opportunistic" amounted to crap all. I'm not too proud to say that you were right, man.

It's terrible, and it hurts. But remember the good things you have in your life today, guys. Family, friends, a job. Whatever is good in your life, focus on that today. Have a beer. Raise your glass to Drew and what he did this year. Start thinking about the draft. Do that housework you've been putting off every Sunday. The end of the world came, and we will survive it, just like always. I'm going to put my Saints hat on backwards and punch the first guy I can find with the last name Davis. Then I'm going to play with my dog, kiss my girlfriend, and go on with my life. At least Tebow got beat.

Congrats, Gronk! I know I'm a little late here, but I wanted to stop by and say unequivocally and without any qualifiers that Gronkowski deserved the single season TE yardage record, and I'm glad you guys have a head coach that has the balls and loyalty to put him in the game to make sure he got it. After the season he had, Gronk deserved that cherry on top. I really hope to see your team in the Super Bowl so we can see two of the league's best QBs and the league's two best (three best with Hernandez?) TEs go at it head to head. Good luck in the playoffs, fellas.

Don’t stop reading. This isn’t going to be what you think it is. Well, not exactly, anyway. There will definitely be some "Drew for President" propaganda to be found herein, but not as much as you might think. This is going to be less of a love letter to the single season passing machine and more of a "Dear John" letter to the MVP debate, and those who are discussing it ad nauseam, especially those of us on blog sites. That’s right. I’m starting with the man in the mirror, then moving on to the rest of our community of keyboard quarterbacks.

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Per Rotoworld:

 Saints waived RB Joique Bell.
 Bell goes to make room for DE Will Smith, who is coming off suspension. With Chris Ivory appearing healthy and set to come off the PUP list in Week 7, Bell is likely done in New Orleans.

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So there's been talk for awhile here at CSC about the Saints not having a "true" number one wideout with the ability to stretch the field and demand attention. If the Saints front office decided that it was a real need and aggressively pursued one in free agency (assuming free agency ever gets started), which receiver would you be most interested in landing? For the purpose of this exercise, let's assume we retain Lance Moore, but let Courtney Roby walk.

It's been a weird year in the NFL thus far. As Saints fans, we know that all too well. In an effort to try to distract myself from some concerns about our own team, I've let my vision out of the tunnel and allowed it to take a brief wander around the rest of the NFL house. While we need to clean up our Saints bedroom, some other residents have it much much worse. Okay, enough with the house analogy. What I'm getting at is that in a league that prides itself on parity, the NFL has really come through this season. While most seasons have a handful of weeks where teams that are generally considered to be awful grab some unlikely wins, and there always seems to be at least one team that more or less comes out of nowhere to make a playoff run, this year's version of the NFL really and truly seems like the "any given Sunday" sport that it's so often made out to be. After the jump are some observations about some NFL teams (in no particular order). Enjoy the brief distraction.

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First off, the following link contains some "low" humor. It's from network TV, but I still feel the need to issue the warning anyway.

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Rotoworld and Yahoo! are both reporting that Favre has told the Vikings he will not be returning this year.  Is Favre pulling a fast one again because everyone assumed he was coming back, or are the Saints destined to be the playoff team that knocked two future Hall of Fame QBs into retirement on their way to the Superbowl?

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While it's possible that someone else has already brought this to the attention of CSC, I must've missed it somehow, so it needs to be brought to the forefront again, I think. For those that don't know who Kyle Turley is, the first video is meant as an introduction of sorts.

Videos after The Jump contain explicit lyrics, so steer clear if that sort of thing offends you. Nothing excessive, just some naughty language.

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It appears that I missed a lot of discussion while I was off enjoying Mardi Gras. I'll be sure to add some long-winded, pointless responses to the various posts when I have some more time. In the meantime, someone finally posted that Wynton Marsalis bit from the Bowl that I was rambling on and on about shortly after the game. It doesn't look like anyone has posted a link yet, so here it is for those that missed it the first time around:

Wynton Marsalis: Spirit of New Orleans

Perhaps I'm not looking in the right places, but I still can't find any video online of the Wynton Marsalis piece that aired near the beginning of the CBS Superbowl broadcast. I figured someone would have put it up by now. It was epic. Even James Brown, who can't even come close to pronouncing "New Orleans" correctly called it brilliant. Should anyone happen to have it Tivo'd, I think Saints fans that weren't able to watch it would love to see it. Make that happen.

Ridiculously Early Ridiculous Predictions

Well, my ability to predict the future needs a little fine-tuning, but I was surprisingly close. I completely whiffed on the Arrington thing. There was a Henderson reverse (obviously no TD), and everyone saw the onside kick. When the Saints make it to the Superbowl next year (WHEN, not IF), maybe I'll get a little closer.

It was an amazing game. Maybe it's the hangover, maybe I'm still in shock, but I feel like it hasn't completely registered yet. When I leave for NOLA on Wednesday night for Mardi Gras I'm sure it'll hit me full force. Wow. Just wow.

Yes, I know I'm jumping the gun, but I want the fans here to keep talking and keep thinking, so I figured I would post a few ridiculous predictions for people to shoot some holes through. While I think it's actually fairly likely that one of these will happen, calling for all three is me going completely off the reservation. Just wanted to give the fans here something else to look at.

Devery Henderson will score on a reverse.

Adrain Arrington will catch a touchdown pass.

The Saints will successfully execute an onsides kick in the first half.

Okay, maybe I'm crazy, and please correct me if I'm wrong. During the Pro Bowl last night, during the Brees and Manning interview at halftime, did Peyton call Darren Sharper "Jamie" Sharper? It's entirely possible that I misheard, and I haven't bothered to go looking for the interview on the internet, but I swear that's what I thought he said. Maybe he does need some of those now infamous "remember me" shots that Williams was talking about if he can't even get our players' names right. I'm obviously making something out of nothing here, but maybe an INT return for a TD will make Sharper a little easier to remember.

That aside, that interview, and watching Brees and Manning interact afterwards really was the highlight of the game last night for me. It's going to be awesome watching them duel it out on the field.

This morning, I really just wanted to bask in the afterglow of having watched the Saints extend their amazing season to their first ever Superbowl appearance. But everywhere I look, there's talk about how the Vikings got robbed. I expected a pretty big shipment of sour grapes, but this is ridiculous. It's really taking focus away from what was a tremendous game. While I know that the worst of the Minnesota fanbase (who seem by and large to be good, intelligent folks) are going to be the most vocal and negative in the next few days, it feels like there's some creedence being leant to their claims, which is both silly and surprising to me. So I just wanted to make a few points in plain english, since on a lot of blogs and recaps they seem to be being mentioned only as afterthoughts.

The Vikings had 5 turnovers. I guess the refs came in and made them fumble the ball, right? The Vikings actually fumbled the ball six times. The Saints only recovered half of those. I am hoarse this morning from yelling "just fall on the ball!" at the television for most of last night. You can't put the ball on the ground six times and say that the Vikings played a better game with a straight face.

The Vikings got almost every call for 60 full minutes of regulation and couldn't take advantage of it. The Saints were penalized 9 times for 88 yards. The Vikings were penalized five times for 32 yards. The Saints had some iffy calls go against them, but a lot of those calls were Saints mistakes. What was annoying to me was that the Vikes were commiting some penalties, but the refs weren't seeing them. I saw at least two obvious holding calls against the Vikings o-line that were not called. Those noncalls kept Favre upright and allowed him to extend drives, just as the penalties against the Saints allowed Minnesota to continue to move the ball. So let's not complain about the refs too much, okay?

If you don't want the refs to call pass interference, play D without running into the receiver.

If a call is made, reviewed, and upheld, it's probably right. I know it's easier to say the refs had it out for you and that the game is rigged, but people need to realize that saying things like that make you look pathetic, delusional, and desperate. Favre made a crusial mistake and his offensive line couldn't keep him clean. The Vikings had every opportunity to win, but the Saints defense kept forcing fumbles over and over again. The Saints were 100% in red zone and goal to go efficiency. When it mattered, they made the plays they needed to. The Vikings did not.

It was an epic game. Don't detract from that by saying the refs gave the game away or that the better team didn't win. The Saints weren't handed anything. They earned it. By making plays on offense when they needed to, and by forcing turnovers when their backs were against the wall on defense. There are better ways of dealing with a tough loss. There are better ways to generate traffic on your website. Don't trade your integrity as a fan or a reporter to take the easy way out. Hold your head up, be proud of your team in a losing effort, and admit that they got outplayed in crucial spots.

The game was amazing. Many thanks to the Vikings fans that are being gracious in defeat. You guys rock. For all the rest, feel free to direct them here so they can dump their hate all in one place and hopefully not bombard other places meant to shine some light on the Saints' accomplishment.

Let's take the way-back machine to just 12 months ago. If I asked you what you would give me if I could promise you a 13-2 Saints record heading into the final game of the season, a guaranteed playoff spot, a first round bye, and possible homefield throughout, what would you do? Answer: you'd go directly to WebMD and start looking up which internal organs you could live without. So many fans live from week to week and either cannot or will not look at the big picture. I blame the media for this, as it's their job to keep stories interesting and keep people reading their columns and watching their programs on a weekly basis, so for them whatever happened this week is far more important than anything that came before. So when a team just keeps winning and winning it gets harder and harder for them to write eye-catching stories (there's only so many synonyms for "dominant" in the thesaurus) and a two game skid can easily be spun to look like a complete collapse. However, I have to blame the sad little fans for their own ignorance if they buy into the nonsense that the most recent performance defines what the team truly is above and beyond all else. The Giants were a sure-fire Superbowl contender after a 5-0 start. The Cowboys were December chokers and Wade Phillips was on his way out. The Eagles were mediocre. Denver was for real. Pittsburg was surely going to defend its title. The Chargers were done after 5 weeks, as was Greeen Bay. The Pats were going to be a powerhouse, then they were going to be crap, and now they're back to being more awesome than intercourse. Yeah, the wise ones at ESPN, NFL Network and all the others are infallible. Their opinions outweigh what I've seen with my own eyes for the past four months, let me tell you. Even the local NOLA media is turning on the Saints. I can't wait until all the circling buzzards suddenly and violently realize that the giant wasn't dead. It wasn't even asleep. It just tripped and fell briefly.

It's two losses, folks. Ugly losses, for sure, but two losses.Take a step back. Take a deep breath. Remember that team that dominated the first six games? We're getting healthy. That's the team we're heading into the playoffs with. Do you honeslty believe that anyone wants to face the Saints in the playoffs? Do you think opposing head coaches are praying at night to get that matchup because the Saints are "going to choke," or "have never been there before," or "have already peaked," or "can't win when it really matters?" Somehow, I doubt it. Do not get so wrapped up in that sick to your stomach feeling you got watching the Bucs game. Don't let the media tell you that the Saints have peaked. That they have big problems on offense and defense that can't possibly be fixed. Don't let fear of future disappointment make you forget all the joy you've felt watching this team all season. Don't focus on all the negativity as you try to steele yourself against what in past years has been an inevitable collapse. In short, keep the faith. Our coach is extremely smart, our QB is truly amazing, and we'll have a bye week to get healthy and prepared for our first playoff game. I for one, like our chances regardless of how next week plays out. Big picture, logic-driven thinking. Try it sometime. You may like it.

The Saints have played largely mistake-free football this year. Those mistakes have turned up these past few games and people are hitting the panic button with a quickness. The missed field goal was awful. The Colston fumble was inescusable. The run defense looked bad. But just because a team isn't perfect doesn't mean that it's a pile of wet garbage, my friends. I would prefer that mistakes happen now, when there's a chance to identify, address, and correct them as opposed to in the playoffs when you can't lose a game and live to fight another day.

The Saints were driving for the tying score at the end of the Cowboys game and you could see on the faces of the Dallas coaches that they were concerned. Even with the the offense stalling in the scond half, the Saints had the Bucs game won before a complete collapse on special teams (and a ref that should've been wearing a Bucs uniform on that punt return). Special teams, guys. Not offense. Not defense. Neither looked good in the second half, but two plays involving kickers lost that game. I don't expect the Saints to make a habit of going out like that. Do you?

If at all possible, can we as fans (as well as the media) stop saying things like "they didn't have the will to get it done" or "great teams find a way to win these games." You don't look under the bench and magically "find" a way to win. No one uses Jedi mind powers to throw a touchdown. No one says "Hey, I just realized we need to win this game, so I totally just caught my second wind with five minutes left to go to put our team over the top!" Please. Just stop. It's idiotic and stupid, and I'm not sure why so many people buy into the banal platitudes about willing yourself to victory or having the heart of a champion. These guys push themselves incredibly hard. I find it hard to believe that anyone would ever question their desire to win games. If there's ever a lack of effort, call it out. But I haven't seen it. Mistakes and lack of solid technique does not translate into a lack of effort or "will to win." Which team is it that has the guys with the physical and mental skills to play mistake-free every single play of every single game? Show me that team, please.  A complete breakdown of concentration or prolonged mental mistakes would be one thing, but I haven't seen that either. When we trade for Russel, Moss, or Marshall then you can start questioning work ethic. Until then, let up on the players after a loss, and stop using vague, fairytale phrases to bash your team because you think it sounds cool.

If anyone is too afraid to keep the faith after two losses, good riddance. Go to your message boards and talk about how concerned you are. Do whatever you need to do to make yourself feel better. Longtime Saints fans can see the big picture here. We are really, really good for the first time in a really, really long time. The first time ever, really. We are watching the best team in franchise history. And we are enjoying it.

I'm looking forward to the playoffs. I'm looking forward to watching this team work against the best of the best. I'm looking forward to winning. I'm looking forward. And I'm loving it.