Saints kicker Morten Andersen

Morten Andersen -- despite kicking in (shudder) Atlanta, New York, Kansas City and Minnesota --- is still a member of the New Orleans Saints at heart.

This week Andersen learned that his old team will induct him into the Saints Hall of Fame. The Pro Football Hall of Fame could also have a spot for Mort in a few years.

I caught up with Andersen not long ago and asked him questions on a variety of topics.

On his desire to finish his career where it started with the Saints before retirement: "I just wanted to do a ceremonial thing, but there was no precedent for it. It wasn't that big a deal, but I thought it could have been fun for the fans and everybody.

His most special memory with the Saints: "Just the years we had. The Bum Phillips years were great, with John Mecom. Then of course, with Jim Finks coming in with Jim Mora and turning the program around, winning games and going to the playoffs. New Year's Eve against the Rams, having to kick a field goal to go into the playoffs for the first time. That was special. There were a lot of highlights, so it's tough to mention one. But the relationships that you create and you forge in a long career, those are the things that you appreciate now."

On sleeping with the enemy, otherwise known as his years kicking for the Falcons: "I was pretty fortunate. Fans weren't too rough on me. They might not have forgiven, but they understand that it was a business decision. My hand was forced by the Saints back in the day. It was just a matter of me finding employment really. It just happened to be a rival, so that made it a little more intense. But it all worked out."

On the Dome Patrol, the team's legendary linebacking crew: "The Dome Patrol was special. That was a big part of our success in the late '80s and early '90s. We ran the ball pretty well back then and we kicked a lot of field goals. We stopped the run and we sacked quarterbacks. That's why we had success back then."

The late, great Ernie Ladd

I was fortunate enough to meet and visit with the late Ernie Ladd on several occasions in the 1990s and early 2000s. The gentle giant from Grambling was a pro football star first, but that was before my time.

My friends and I were introduced to Ladd as a wrestling villain. Before I actually knew the man, I'm sure I booed him -- lustily.

Yet upon his death in March of 2007, I was moved to write a tribute to the Big Cat of wrestling fame.

Wrestling went haywire sometime in the late 1980s and I lost interest. But there was a time when my Saturday nights were reserved for Mid-South Wrestling.

I’m sure many of you shared those same experiences and can recite all the names with ease. Junkyard Dog, Ted DiBiase, Paul Orndorff – and of course Ernie Ladd, who passed away on Sunday after a lengthy bout with cancer.

I didn’t meet Ladd in person until I began writing about sports for a living.
Still, I felt like I already knew the “Big Cat” -- the gruff TV personality I’d grown up watching on Mid-South.

Ladd started wrestling in the early 1960s while he was still playing football and starred in several territories over the years. He’s one of a handful of wrestlers to be inducted into both the WWE and WCW Halls of Fame.

Before retiring in 1986, Ladd spent five or six years in Cowboy Bill Watts’ Mid-South region. As a wrestler and later the manager of The Wild Samoans -- Afa and Sika -- Ladd was one of Mid-South’s most memorable characters.

When Packers quarterback Brett Favre came to Monroe for the first Doug Pederson golf tournament in 2003, even he was awestruck to meet Ladd.

“I remember Big Cat Ernie Ladd as a `rassler,' " Favre said. "As I was sitting here, I was thinking, `That's the Big Cat.' My dad had us watching rasslin' every week."

I interviewed Ladd about a number of topics over the years. But my favorite conversation took place two years ago.

That day, we talked strictly his second career. An all-time great at Grambling and in pro football, Ladd was proud of his wrestling fame.

“In terms of the wrestling industry, Mid-South was the premier wresting organization as far as I was concerned,” Ladd told me. “I thought they worked hard at bringing the best talent they could to Mid-South. The guys really gave the fans their money’s worth.

“You couldn’t put just any type of garbage in the ring for Mid-South,” Ladd added. “You better be an athlete and you better be hustling – every way you know how to give a performance of athletics.”

The wrestler’s of Ladd’s era were both famous and accessible. You could see them locally at the Monroe Civic Center, and in similar venues across the South.

“Stars were created in Mid-South,” said Ladd, a five-time Mid-South North American champion. “Mid-South gave you an opportunity to be a star if you had talent.”

I asked Ladd to tell me about the late Junkyard Dog, who died in a car crash years ago.

“I’ll never forget when Junkyard Dog first came to wrestle at Mid-South – Sylvester Ritter,” Ladd said. “They fired him and told him to go off and get experience. Boy, he was mad, mad, mad with Mid-South for a long time. When he came back, they gave him that record – ‘Another One Bites the Dust – and he came back with that big black strong body. The rest is history.”

Ladd said that Mid-South’s marketing strategy was unique at the time.

“They brought young, good looking talent in like Paul Orndorff, Don Diamond or Magnum T.A.,” Ladd said. “A lot of the old organizations kept old guys around forever and ever. The old hard-looking guys, nobody wanted to go to the arena to flirt with them.”

Ladd was never one of the pretty boys.

“You had your brutes,” Ladd said. “Like Ernie Ladd and Leroy Brown, guys like that. They wanted to see them get in there and compete against the good-looking guys.”

The self-proclaimed “King of Wrestling” feuded with the likes of Andre the Giant, Orndorff, Ray Candy and JYD during his long career. I asked Ladd what it was like to play the role of the big, bad villain

“You must have been looking at the black and white television,” Ladd roared with a laugh. “Guys like Junkyard Dog were the bad guys.”

The man was 6-9 and weighed more than 300 pounds, so I didn't object.

They say wrestling is an act, and I know the heel thing was for Ladd.

He was one of the good guys.

Saints running back Pierre Thomas

Don't doubt Pierre Thomas.

The Saints have kicked the tires on their PT cruiser, but now appear willing to take him on a longer trip. New Orleans cut Deuce McAllister this offseason and didn't select a running back in the recent NFL draft. Although a flurry of free-agent pickups are in the backfield mix for 2009 -- along with Reggie Bush, Thomas is confident that a breakout campaign as a featured runner is on the road ahead.

"What was going through my head through the whole draft and seeing that they didn't pick a running back was, they believe in me," Thomas said during a post-draft stop in Monroe, La. "They have a lot of faith in me. Hopefully, they give me that time to show it this year. I believe that's going to happen. It's going to be my time to show them what I can do."

Thomas, who appears to be sturdier than his listed 215 pounds, ran for 625 yards, scored nine rushing touchdowns and averaged 4.8 yards on his 129 carries. He caught 31 balls for 284 yards and three more scores.

"I tried showing them last year," Thomas said. "They put me in the game a lot more. But it's really my time to show them what I can do this season."

Short-yardage misfires plagued the Saints' offense and frustrated fans in 2008. Again, Thomas said he's willing and able to claim the tough yards.

"They say the want a big back," Thomas said, "but I can be that big back for them. I can also be that agility guy too. I can catch the ball out of the backfield and do some of the same things that Reggie does. He's a little quicker than me, but I can do the same things that he does. I'm a different kind of back. I'm agile, but I have the power also."

Thomas learned plenty from the classy McAllister the past two years.

"He was my mentor," Thomas said. "He helped me out from the beginning. Just watching film on him, that's how I got my game a lot better. His films from '04, '05, '06 -- watching his vision and how he attacks holes -- and how he has patience also at the line -- when he sees the hole he hits it. That's what I love about Deuce. He's a great person and a teacher. I look up to him."

Despite his rising profile, the former Illinois back knows that he can't take anything for granted. He earned his NFL roster spot as an undrafted free agent, and knows there are always newcomers lurking to take his job. The Saints tried to trade up to draft Ohio State's Beanie Wells and brought in rookie free agent signees like Wisconsin's P.J. Hill and Herb Donaldson of Western Illinois.

"I'll wouldn't trade it for anything," Thomas said of his path to this point in a budding NFL career. "I'll take this road any day."