Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints? Archie?

Archibald Elisha Manning III was an All-American quarterback for Ole' Miss and was selected No. 2 overall by the New Orleans Saints in the 1971. He was drafted behind Heisman Trophy Winner, Jim Plunkett from Stanford who was taken No. 1 by the New England Patriots. Plunkett would later come to fame as the winning QB for the Oakland Raiders in both Super Bowl's XV and XVII.

When the Saints drafted Archie Manning, they were just a four year old franchise. The Saints were an expansion franchise in the 1967 expansion draft resulting from the AFL / NFL merger. In the franchises four year existence, they had a record of 14-40-2. The Saints faithful were convinced that this All-American QB from neighboring Mississippi was the guy who would lead them to the 'Promised Land.'

As you probably know by now, Archie was an extremely gifted athlete who could run and throw but spent most of his time running from defenders or looking at the top of the Super Dome while lying on his back after being sacked.

The unanimous feeling in NFL circles is that Archie Manning would have been a prolific winning NFL QB for the Saints had they ever bothered to bring in some linemen who could block or some receivers who could catch.

Perhaps no franchise misused a potential superstar the way the Saints did with Archie. Manning managed to make two Pro Bowls despite a 35-91-3 record in New Orleans. He was sacked a disgraceful 339 times, including four seasons when he was sacked 40 or more times. By comparison, his son Peyton was sacked just 10 sacks this season.

Archie Manning had one of the strangest careers anyone has ever seen - even rival players said they sometimes took it easy when sacking Manning because they felt bad for the guy.

Archie played ten full seasons with the Saints and parts of three additional seasons with the Houston Oilers and Minnesota Vikings. Archie's career record as a starter was 35-101-3, a .263 percentage that ranks as the worst in league history among quarterbacks with at least 100 starts. After the punishment he took, at 60 years old, it's truly amazing that he's still able to walk and talk.

Archie, a Sothern native of Drew, Miss., never left New Orleans after his playing days; in fact, he still lives there today. New Orleans is where he raised his family, wife Olivia and three sons Cooper, Peyton and Eli. He has been synonymous with New Orleans Saints football for 39 years now. If there is a Saints franchise milestone or milestone reached by a Saints player, Archie is there to present the award. He was, is, and will always be the face of the New Orleans Saints franchise.

"I've lived in New Orleans for 39 years and I'm very proud of what the Saints have done. I'm very proud."

In a strange way Archie will have a chance to exact some revenge from the Saints for never getting him some offensive linemen. Who knows what kind of career he could have had if someone blocked for him. But for Archie, as like all the Manning's do, is taking the high road and saying all the right things (that's probably where the Manning boys get it from).

"Football gave me a gorgeous home in the city's Garden District, where my three boys developed into football stars (Cooper a high school star until injuries did him in.) It's where Peyton and Eli developed their skills and honed their craft. I have nothing but good things to say about the City of New Orleans and the New Orleans Saints franchise."

Things would be a lot easier for the Manning's if the Saints weren't playing a Manning. That seems to be almost a regular thing these days though as it will be the third time in four years that a Manning brother is one of the game's starting quarterbacks - Peyton won it in 2007, Eli in 2008. For a dad who experienced so little professional team success, it's sure been one hell of a run.

Even though the world knows the answer, the uncomfortable question obviously had to be asked.

AP Reporter - "So Archie, who are you going to root for?

Archie - "I'm pulling for the Colts 100 percent. It's not even close."

How cool would it have been if he said, "Screw Peyton, I have money on the Saints!" Well, it would have made for an interseting storyline anyway..... - Adam Foster

Adam is a freelance sports writer contributing to various online and print publications for over 12 years.

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Comments (3)

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written by Amy91, January 27, 2010

Archie raised his wife?

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HA HA
written by Adam Foster, January 27, 2010

Yeah, he picked her up.

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written by Janet05, January 31, 2010

Look up one post above ~ Amy91 = retard
I mean really, if you had 1/10th of an understanding of language & grammar you wouldve
seen how the sentence referencing Archie raising his family in New Orleans, is written correctly. Any idiot can see the punctuation & figure out how the text should be spaced, read & interpreted. Well any idiot EXCEPT you. Loser. Go buy a book on punctuation.

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