The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans, Louisiana. They are a member of the South Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The NFL awarded the city of New Orleans the sixteenth franchise in the league on November 1, 1966, All Saints' Day, five months after the 89th United States Congress approved the merger of the NFL with the American Football League (AFL).[1] In January 1967, the team was given the name "New Orleans Saints", and began playing in their first season in September of that year. Throughout the franchise's history, it has always been based in New Orleans. Home games were originally played at Tulane Stadium from 1967 to 1974. The team relocated its home games to its current stadium, the Caesars Superdome (originally Louisiana Superdome from 1975 to 2011 and later Mercedes-Benz Superdome from 2011 to 2021), in 1975.[2][3] The Saints were owned by oilman John W. Mecom Jr. from 1966 to 1985, when the team was sold to Tom Benson.[4] He remained owner until his death in 2018, at which point primary ownership of the team passed to his wife Gayle Benson.[5] She has since made arrangements with the NFL to sell the team and keep the Saints in New Orleans when she dies.[6]
Over their 57 seasons in the NFL, the Saints have accumulated a record of 412 wins, 468 losses, and 5 ties, which is the tenth-worst all-time regular season record among active franchises.[A][7] They have also made the playoffs fourteen times and have the eighth-worst playoff record[A] with 10 wins and 13 losses.[7] The Saints won their first and only Super Bowl championship in 2010 when the team defeated the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV.[8][9] In addition to their Super Bowl win, the Saints have won the NFC Championship once and a division title nine times, winning the NFC West twice (1991 and 2000) and the NFC South seven times (2006, 2009, 2011, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020).[1] The team currently has eighteen winning seasons, seven 8–8 seasons, and thirty-two losing seasons.[8] The Saints did not have their first winning season until 1987, their twenty-first season in the league.[10] That same season, the Saints made their first playoff appearance.[1] During the team's worst season in 1980 (in terms of win-loss percentage) the fans began to wear paper bags over their heads to games and started to call the team the "'Aints".[11]
Seasons
_(cropped).jpg)
| Legend | |
|---|---|
| Finish | Final position in league, division, or conference |
| T-# | Finished tied in that position with one or more teams |
| Pct | The team's winning percentage for the season |
| ‡ | Super Bowl champions |
| * | Conference champions |
| ^ | Division champions |
| § | Wild Card berth |