"So much for no team ever reaching the Super Bowl after losing its final three regular-season games.
No, that dig doesn't come courtesy of Sean Payton.
It's mine, but, in fairness to the Saints' coach, there are those (guilty as charged) who prominently mentioned that fact when New Orleans tumbled against Dallas, Tampa Bay and Carolina to end the regular season. And that opened the door for Payton to rebut the historical data with a new truth: The Saints lost their last three regular-season games but are the George S. Halas Memorial Trophy holders and NFC champions and will be playing against the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV on Feb. 7 in Miami.
In fact, none of the Saints publicly have taken the opportunity to gloat over that little piece of history, but, indeed, they have broken a mold.
Of course, Payton dismissed the fact that it previously hadn't been done as hogwash as soon as the chance presented itself. Sure, some of the dismissal probably was born of necessity -- he didn't want or need his team believing it would fall in line behind the previous teams that similarly had skidded into and out of the playoffs.
But, too, he believed his team was different than the others, that the losing streak was an aberration, that New Orleans was a heck of a lot closer to being the team that won its first 13 games than it was to being the one that couldn't block against the Cowboys, couldn't put away the Buccaneers and couldn't really be bothered with the Panthers because it was too busy trying to avoid injuries.
New Orleans didn't completely avoid injury -- defensive end Charles Grant tore his triceps in the meaningless regular-season finale and had to be placed on injured reserve, but it did avoid being another team on the dreaded list.
Now, if the Saints manage to follow their three-game losing streak with a three-game winning streak, they'll own the Lombardi Trophy, which is awarded for winning the Super Bowl. And, obviously, such a thought is a lot less farfetched than it was a month ago."