Members of the Who Dat Nation can get their long-awaited license tags commemorating the New Orleans Saints Super Bowl win starting Wednesday, 10 months after the victory.

Michelle Rayburn, a spokeswoman for the state Office of Motor Vehicles, said that 4,400 special license tags have been stamped out by Prison Enterprises, the arm of the corrections system that produces the plate.

More will be made as work schedules allow, she said. Rayburn said the state is also cranking out other speciality plates and is printing thousands of new tags that must be available Jan. 3 marking Louisiana’s statehood. That plate will be the standard tag for two years.

Rayburn said the supply of Saints plates was sent to motor vehicle offices Monday and “they will be ready to be put on sale tomorrow.”

But not all offices will have the Saints tags, she said.

“They will be available throughout the state in the larger motor vehicle offices in the larger metropolitan areas,” Rayburn said.

Agency officials will not disclose which offices will have the plates and which ones will not, she said. Rayburn urged those who want to buy the new tags to call the office’s Baton Rouge number to check on which offices will have them.

That phone number is 225.925.6146.

She said the tags will be issued only to Lousiana resident drivers who have vehicles registered in the state and not to out-of-state Who Dats who want them as souvenirs.

The plates will cost at least $61.50 for two years — $25 a year plus an initial $8 handling fee and a $3.50 initial administrative fee. The fee for the new tag does not include the standard plate cost which is based on the value of the vehicle.

Rayburbn said that drivers who want the new Saints Super Bowl plate must also have proof of insurance and the vehicle registration form.

More information on the tags can be obtained fron the agency’s website, www.expresslane.org.

(TP)

Courtney Roby’s voice was soft, not one expected to come from a highly paid professional football player.

And his answer was as pure and honest as someone shaken up such as Roby was hours after visiting a member of the “chain gang” he ran over on the sideline in the third quarter, sending the official to a local hospital.

“I never want to see anything like that happen,” Roby said Monday. “It was a scary incident. It kind of hit home because my mother, she has had seizures and things to that nature before so to see a head trauma like that, I never want to see anything like that happen.”

Al Nastasi Jr. was taken to Ochsner Regional Medical Center on Sunday after Roby ran him over during punt coverage. As of Sunday night, Nastasi was listed in stable condition in the neuro intensive care unit.

The Nastasi family was unavailable for comment Monday afternoon.

Less than 24 hours after the incident, Roby had a hard time recalling the play.

“Everything happened so fast,” he said. “It’s kind of hard to sit here and pinpoint exactly what happened.”

Roby said he was upset for the rest of the game.

“I can’t sit up here and say that I wasn’t thinking about it because I was,” Roby said. “Football is a sport but life is precious. You never want to see anybody get injured. To see something like that happen, it definitely hurts.”

Roby visited Nastasi in the hospital and as much as anything, that helped him as much as it did impressing the official’s family.

“That was one of the first things I did after the game, I called up there to the hospital,” Roby said. “I spoke to Mr. Al, his wife and his son.  I actually went up there to visit him as well after the game. It was good to see he is alert and we talked for awhile, not only about the incident, but about life in general. It was a good visit.”

Saints Head Coach Sean Payton said he wouldn’t be surprised if the league changes how officials and sideline workers maintain their presence during games.

“I know just in our conference calls, in the near future, you’re going to see the officials and the other people working the game in helmets,” Payton said.

(WWL TV)

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees goes to his Twitter feed Tuesday afternoon to announce:

Baby boy #2 is here. Brittany and new baby are great, although Brit has yet to give in to the name i want. Will keep you posted ….

Last week, Times-Picayune columnist Jeff Duncan reported that Brees was overwhelmed by responses to his request for help deciding on a name for their second son.

Watch the video of Brees talking about that.
(TP)

The New Orleans Saints have cut ties with veteran Saints kicker John Carney a week after he missed a short field goal, apparently handing the job back to embattled kicker Garrett Hartley.

The Saints also waived running back DeShawn Wynn and signed free agent safety Matt Giordano and running back Julius Jones.

Carney, 46, was signed after Hartley had a rough start to the season, but he missed a 29-yard field goal at Arizona last week.

Giordano, 27, has played in 60 games in his career with 70 tackles and 3 interceptions. The Indianapolis Colts took the 5-11, 207-pound safety with the fourth-round pick in the 2005 NFL Draft. He earned a Super Bowl ring in 2007 with the Colts.

Jones was recently cut from the Seattle Seahawks after the team traded for Bills running back Marshawn Lynch. Jones, 29, has just 30 yards on 12 attempts this season, but in the past he’s proven to be a capable runner, such as the period from 2004 to 2007, when he rushed for 2896 yards.

On the practice squad, the club re-signed cornerback Reggie Jones and released linebacker Harry Coleman from the practice roster.

(WWL TV)

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees took to his Twitter account today to ask the Who Dat Nation for some help with baby names for Brees Boy No. 2.

Here’s what he put out on his @drewbrees Twitter:

“My wife is due any day now with baby boy #2. We have a few names picked out but haven’t decided yet. Looking for “b” names. Suggestions? #fb”

“We are looking for boy names starting with a “b” that are uncommon. Not in most baby name books. Thanks to all for any ideas #fb”

Some of you who follow our @NOLAnews Twitter have come up with a few names already, such as Boudreaux, Bradord, Bentley and Barron.

What do y’all think, Who Dats? Put your suggestions below and we’ll forward the comments to his Twitter account.

(NOLA.com)

The New Orleans Saints have a kicking problem.

There’s no way to sugarcoat it.

Garrett Hartley’s job is officially on the line.

Miss a couple of kicks in a win against the Minnesota Vikings and you get a pat on the back and words of encouragement from teammates and coaches.

Miss a 29-yard game-winner in overtime against your division rivals at home, and well, you’re not being patted on the shoulder, you’re looking over it.

Seven months ago, Hartley was a hero, carried out of the Superdome on the shoulders of teammates after kicking the Saints to their first Super Bowl.

Today, he wears the horns after his inexplicable miss sank the Saints in their numbing 27-24 loss to Atlanta.

If this were an isolated incident the Saints could live with it. But this is now Hartley’s third miss in three games.

Saints Coach Sean Payton stood behind his young kicker three weeks ago after those misses against the Vikings.

He was less supportive Sunday.

“We’re not going to talk about personnel right now,” Payton said curtly afterward. “I think it’s a fair question. But, listen, last week he played well. He pulled this kick, and certainly he’s got to play better than that. There’s a lot of us that have to do a better job, myself included.”

A few hours later, though, the Saints were on the phone with veteran kicker John Carney. He’ll be in for a workout this week.

He, of course, was the relief kicker when Hartley was suspended last season. He’s both a mentor and a friend to Hartley. His signing would be less intimidating for Hartley and allow him to work out his issues with confidence while trying to get his groove back.

And Hartley, more than anyone, knows he needs to find it and quick.

To his credit, Hartley was a stand-up guy afterward. He planted himself in front of his locker, looked every reporter in the eye and answered every last question from the hovering media horde.

You had to strain to hear his hushed answers but he didn’t duck a one.

That’s more than I can say for some veteran kickers I’ve known over the years.

“It was all me,” Hartley said. “Everything else was great, perfect. That’s my job. When we get the ball down to the 11-yard line, we need to walk out of here with the ‘W,’ and tonight I did not fulfill that role as part of this team.”

Hartley’s funk has created a difficult decision for Payton and General Manager Mickey Loomis.

Hartley clearly has talent. He’s proven he can battle back from adversity.

He missed a potential game-winner from an almost identical position against Tampa Bay last season, then recovered to go 5-for-5 in the postseason. He won the NFC title game with a 40-yarder and set a Super Bowl record by drilling three 40-plus-yarders against the Colts.

Moreover, he’s only 24 years old. Who’s to say he’s not the next Morten Andersen or Jason Elam?

Then again, he could be the next Shaun Suisham.

The troubling thing about Hartley’s misses is they have occurred in the exact same fashion. Pulls to the left.

And his game-winner a week ago at San Francisco looked to be headed in the same direction before being steered true by the pinkie on San Francisco’s Ray McDonald’s left hand.

“It’s something I have to strive to get back to being able to do on a regular basis and not this up-and-down roller coaster that I’ve started off this first three weeks with, ” Hartley said. “They expect me to go out there and do my job, and tonight, on the second kick, I didn’t. Bottom line. And that can’t happen.”

Hartley’s teammates said all the right things in the somber post-game locker room.

Fullback Heath Evans told Hartley to remember last season and how he bounced back from the miss against the Bucs to become a postseason hero.

“I don’t expect anything different from him, ” Evans said.

Quarterback Drew Brees echoed Evans’ sentiments.

“He’s made a lot of big kicks for us, ” Brees said. “And unfortunately he misses the one today that he would make 99 out of 100 times, and this is the one out of a hundred. ” I’m confident that he’ll bounce back because he has in the past. That’s what I’m hoping.”

The Saints have to do more than hope, though.

They have to act. And it appears they wisely aren’t going to wait to see if Hartley can correct matters on his own.

Fortunately, they enter the user-friendly portion of their schedule. Their next four games are against the lowly Panthers, Cardinals, Buccaneers and Browns.

They likely won’t need Hartley or any other kicker’s last-minute heroics to cream those puffs.

But that doesn’t mean Sunday’s setback won’t sting for awhile.

This was a big loss. The Saints were a chip shot away from putting the Falcons in an early two-game hole in the NFC South race.

Now they find themselves locked in a three-way tie with the Falcons and Bucs with a Monday night trip to Atlanta looming in late December.

You get the feeling this loss is going to come back to haunt the Saints when playoff seeds are determined in January.

That’s why Hartley’s hook was so devastating.

As he left the locker room Sunday afternoon, Hartley stopped in his tracks and retrieved a baseball cap from his locker. He pulled it tightly down over his spiked blonde locks as he made his way past his teammates.

The hat was black.

(TP)