METAIRIE, La. — The disrespect card has become such a cliché in professional sports that players and teams routinely deal it to manufacture motivation instead of just shutting up and performing.

To be sure, the Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints are not martyring themselves this week as they prepare for their NFC championship game rematch with the Vikings, who did everything last January to punch their ticket to Miami and a showdown with the Colts — except hold on to the football.

Nor are the Saints deaf to the chatter emanating from Minnesota for seven months that the Vikings, who dominated every statistical category, lost that game more than New Orleans won it.

They simply do not care.

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2. What if Drew Brees has another mega season?

Over the last decade, the NFL has been littered with defending Super Bowl champions. Five of the last 10 champs have missed the playoffs all together, the 2008 Steelers the latest victims.

Over the last 11 seasons, only one team has been able to repeat as Super Bowl champions: the 2004 New England Patriots.

Brees, fresh off setting the NFL record for completion percentage (70.6), is back to see if he can turn in another mega-season and help the Saints defend their title. Until last season, the Saints had won only two postseason games in their 43-year history.

The Saints needed to improve their run defense, which gave up 122.2 yards per game and ranked 21st in the NFL. They’ll get a stiff test early when they face Minnesota’s Adrian Peterson to open up the season.

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ESPN.com’s inaugural 2010 regular-season NFL Power Rankings are out, and let me make one thing very clear as I get ready to head to New Orleans for Thursday night’s opener between the Vikings and Saints: I did not have a vote.

Somehow — and this is beyond my comprehension — the defending Super Bowl champions are No. 2 in the rankings. How’d that happen? Well, three voters did the only prudent thing they could and gave the Saints their No. 1 vote.

The fourth voter ranked the Saints No. 5. Yes, No. 5.

For the record, that voter is John Clayton and he and I will have a little discussion about this Wednesday when we roll out the final segment in our Great Debate series.

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Of all the TV specials, NFL Films mash-ups, newspaper articles, magazine spreads and books about the New Orleans Saints’ Super Bowl season, none has been anticipated more eagerly by Who Dat diehards than the one that premieres Wednesday night.

“America’s Game: 2009 New Orleans Saints” does not disappoint.

Bowing at 8 p.m. on the NFL Network, and repeated numerous times thereafter, the 44th installment in the Emmy Award-winning Super Bowl documentary series adds new anecdotal delights and emotional resonance to New Orleans’ version of The Greatest Story Ever Told. At turns funny, revealing, heart-wrenching and exhilarating, it rates as not only the most complete film account of the 2009 season, but the most cathartic.

Read more of the story here... and make sure you check it out tonight !

In a conference call earlier Sunday with the New Orleans media, Minnesota coach Brad Childress said he believed the Saints’ defense crossed the line in last season’s NFC Championship Game and attempted to intentionally hurt quarterback Brett Favre.

In a separate conference call with the New Orleans media a bit later, Favre was asked about Childress’ claim that the Saints crossed the line between aggression and trying to hurt people

“So did a lot of people,’’ Favre said. “But do you know what my response is? It’s football. [Saints coach] Sean Payton and I are good friends. I talked to him several days after the game and said, ‘great win for you guys.’ A win’s a win. In a roundabout sort of way, every defense wants to get the opposing quarterback out and that’s just the way it is. Had that been us and say we played Drew [Brees] here and we were able to hit him like that and we sure would have been saying, ‘great.’ I wish we had won the football game. I’m not so concerned about how we lost it. It’s physical. It’s football. I’m not going to get caught up in that.”

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We’re going to resume our series of NFC South position rankings with the defensive ends.

This is not exactly a position of strength entering the season, but I think that could change as time goes on. There are a lot of young defensive ends around the division and some of them are bound to rise up as the season goes on. For the moment, though, there aren’t a lot of sure things.

Once again, I’m basing my rankings on talks with coaches, scouts, front-office folks and players. Here we go.
Can you guess who # 1 is ??? Well click here now to find out.

The New Orleans Saints and San Diego Chargers are turning things over to the backups as we approach the end of the third quarter of Friday night’s preseason game in New Orleans. I’ll keep an eye on what happens the rest of the way, but since the important part’s over, I wanted to get my observations up here as quickly as possible.

Read his observations here.

The linebackers are next in our series of NFC South position rankings and this one took a lot longer and was way more agonizing than our previous installments on safeties and cornerbacks.

It started right at the very top because this division has two linebackers I’d put up against anybody. Everyone knows Jonathan Vilma and Jon Beason are absolutely great. But how the heck do you pick between the two? I don’t want to overdramatize this, but my gut said this was like picking between Larry Bird and Magic Johnson or Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio. You make a call, but there’s a part of you that feels like you’re slighting the other guy.

For all of these rankings, I rely on conversations with coaches, personnel guys and players to make my decision. When it came down to making the call between Beason and Vilma, I reached for the phone and made even more calls. The sources are anonymous, but I called some high-ranking people that I trust most on this one and they also were torn.

I took what they said, processed it and analyzed it and came to the decision that ultimately was mine. Here it is:

To the his picks click here now.

CLIFTON — They may be the nation’s gladiators capable of performing awe-inspiring feats and sustaining violent collisions but a group of thankful NFL players have teamed up with a Clifton priest to inspire people facing tall odds and sobering hardships.

The Insightful Player program employs current and former NFL athletes who have endured life’s tragedies such as drug addiction, alcoholism, gang involvement, reckless personal behavior, divorce, suicidal thoughts, poverty, life-threatening illness, physical limitations and low self-esteem.

Read about Billy Miller… HERE.

After entering the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 2008, New Orleans Saints linebacker Jo-Lonn Dunbar was happy just to be a part of the team the past two seasons.

Known mostly for his crushing special-teams hits, it was a bonus when Dunbar was called on to start five games — three of them last season — when strongside linebacker Scott Fujita was sidelined by injuries.

But something happened in early March that dramatically changed Dunbar’s outlook on the future. When Fujita signed with the Cleveland Browns as an unrestricted free agent, Dunbar suddenly became a candidate to be a starter in Gregg Williams’ attacking, multifaceted defense.

While he’s got a long way to go before he can claim the job, Dunbar has to prove himself beginning with the team’s exhibition opener at 6:30 p.m. today against the New England Patriots in Gillette Stadium.

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