Saints

So many parents and alumni of St. Denis Catholic School in Havertown supported merging with friendly CYO rival Annunciation B.V.M., the marriage should have gone off without a hitch. Instead, parishioners hoping to embrace the past and future in a name were told the regional school would honor the late Cardinal John Foley. The decision was, in their pastor's words, "nonnegotiable. " Children voted on a mascot, only to have their choices (Cardinals, Falcons, or Phoenixes)

Today at 1 p.m. At the Superdome, New Orleans TV: Fox29 Radio: WYSP-FM (94.1) Line: Saints by 3 How They Match Up Eagles offense vs. Saints defense As well as the Eagles played in beating the Dallas Cowboys, they still managed just 10 points, and even if you give them that Brian Westbrook touchdown, the total would have been 17. Until the Eagles figure out how to score inside the 20-yard line, they're going to be condemned to...

For the first time since he took over as head coach at Archbishop Kennedy in 1985, Jim Schaffer must contemplate life without Chris Kaufmann. Kaufmann, a 6-foot-2 guard who scored more than 1,700 points in his four seasons as a starter, graduated in June and is now a freshman at Shippensburg University. Schaffer must find some way to replace the two-time Bicentennial League Most Valuable Player and the 27 points and 11 rebounds per game he averaged as a senior. "There's no question we're going to miss him," Schaffer said.

WELL, I WAS spot-on last week, predicting that Carolina victory over the Birds. Hard to see how I can improve on that breathtaking feat of prescience. Maybe by thinking the Eagles are going to win a game they probably should lose. I don't think Donovan McNabb is playing, whether his ribs are sticky or nonsticky. In fact, if I thought a severely limited McNabb was going to hobble out there, I'd probably pick the Saints. Two reasons for picking the Eagles - I think it's very possible Kevin Kolb isn't a bad quarterback, in Year 3, and I think the Saints don't travel well.

Theirs has been a miserable, rotten-luck season of the sort that was the norm in New Orleans for the first 20 years of their NFL existence. Indeed, 1989 has been that bad for the Saints (7-7), who will go marching in against the Eagles (10-4) Monday night in the Superdome, hoping to prove they are a playoff-quality club, even if they are no longer a playoff contender. If that doesn't make the Saints worth worrying about, perhaps the mere law of averages should. In a season that has been devoid of good fortune, the Saints certainly are due for some.

Archbishop Kennedy jumped out to an early lead against host Upper Merion Saturday night, but the Saints fell victim to scoring inconsistency and lost the nonleague game, 54-44. "We've played seven games and have yet to play four good quarters," said Kennedy coach Jim Shaffer. The Saints (1-6) received two field goals apiece from junior forward Sean Flanagan and senior forward Tom Blomstrom to take a 12-8 first-quarter lead. But the offense fell apart in the second quarter, and the Vikings (5-5)

Friends and families of SS. Cosmas and Damian Church on Fifth Avenue and Maple Street in Conshohocken celebrated its 76th annual festival honoring its two namesake saints Sunday. After a 12:15 p.m. Mass was offered, a procession of saints was held, including the statue of St. Clementine, borne by (from left) Josette Gourdain, Retala S. Jour, Marily St. Ellen and Annesly Orbuthnott, all of Brooklyn. People came from as far away as Canada and the Caribbean to take part in the festivities.

It should have been easy, but the Archbishop Kennedy basketball team made it extremely difficult. The Saints, up by as many as 11 points in the second half, had to sweat out a 48-42 victory over Upper Merion in the consolation game of the Wayne Rotary tourney Monday night. "We were terrible from the foul line in the fourth quarter," said head coach Jim Shaffer. "We missed 11 free throws in the fourth quarter to let them back in the game. " The Saints (3-4) were ahead 20-15 at halftime but stretched that lead to 11 points in the opening minutes of the third quarter.

NEW ORLEANS head coach Sean Payton, general manager Mickey Loomis and assistant head coach Joe Vitt are set to have their NFL appeals heard Thursday regarding the punishment they've received for their roles in the Saints' bounty system. League spokesman Greg Aiello confirmed the hearing schedule in an email to the Associated Press on Tuesday afternoon. Aiello also said former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, who has since taken a job as defensive coordinator with the St. Louis Rams, did not appeal his indefinite suspension.

New Orleans coach Jim Mora doesn't need films to recall what happened the last time his team played the Eagles. The image of Herschel Walker breaking through the Saints' line and shaking off tacklers like so many droplets of water still is fresh, very fresh, in Mora's mind. "They just ripped us running the football," Mora said yesterday as the 12-4 Saints began preparing for Sunday's NFC wild-card date with the 11-5 Eagles at the Louisiana Superdome. "It's as bad as we've been ripped around here in some time (with an opponent)

WITH A SMILE, Josh Ockimey admitted there's one part of his skills set that still needs work. Thank goodness it doesn't involve a bat. Tuesday, moments after starring for Ss. Neumann-Goretti High in an 8-4 victory over visiting Archbishop Wood in a Catholic League quarterfinal, Ockimey walked the long way around the backstop and headed to first base, the position he plays. In his hands was a rake. Scheduled for smoothing was the dirt area between the bag and the plate.

  Suspended New Orleans Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma filed a defamation lawsuit on Thursday against NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, claiming the league's top executive made false statements that tarnished Vilma's reputation and hindered his ability to earn a living playing football. The suit in U.S. District Court in New Orleans claims Goodell, "relied on, at best, hearsay, circumstantial evidence and lies" in making comments about Vilma while discussing the NFL's bounty investigation of the New Orleans Saints.

An e-mail from an imprisoned friend of the Saints' coaching staff with a postscript saying, "put me down for $5,000" on Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers has become another sore point between players being punished for New Orleans' bounty system and the NFL. The e-mail, obtained by the Associated Press, was written from prison by marketing agent Mike Ornstein shortly before the Saints' 2011 season opener against the Packers....

New Orleans Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma, and three other players suspended in the NFL's investigation of the team's cash-for-hits bounty system, challenged their punishments Monday. Vilma, named by the NFL as a ringleader of the operation, appealed his season-long suspension while the Players Association notified the league it was reserving the appeal rights of Saints defensive end Will Smith and those of ex-Saints Anthony Hargrove and Scott Fujita. All four players and the union argue that no appeal should be heard before NFLPA grievances are resolved questioning NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's authority to discipline the players and to hear their appeals.

Hoping to close the book on bounties, the NFL suspended New Orleans Saints defensive captain Jonathan Vilma without pay for all of next season Wednesday and gave shorter bans to three other players for their leading roles in the team's cash-for-hits system that knocked key opponents out of games from 2009-11. Defensive lineman Anthony Hargrove, now with the Green Bay Packers, was suspended for the first half of the 16-game season; Saints defensive end Will Smith was barred for the opening four games; and linebacker Scott Fujita, now with the Cleveland Browns, will miss the first three games of 2012.

State police and the FBI started a wiretapping probe into allegations the New Orleans Saints and general manager Mickey Loomis had his Superdome booth wired so he could listen to opposing coaches. "It's absolutely ludicrous. It's impossible," said interim coach Joe Vitt. "I've never heard of it before. That's something from Star Wars. The statute of limitations - six years under state wiretapping laws and five years under federal law - has passed. ESPN reported that the system was in use from 2002 to 2004, but dismantled after Hurricane Katrina damaged the Superdome on the eve of the 2005 season.

WHILE STATE POLICE and the FBI started a wiretapping probe into the New Orleans Saints and general manager Mickey Loomis, assistant head coach Joe Vitt called allegations that Loomis had his Superdome booth wired so he could listen to opposing coaches "ludicrous. " "It's absolutely ludicrous. It's impossible," Vitt said Tuesday. "When I first heard something about it being a wiretap, I thought they were talking about Sammy 'The Bull' Gravano or something. I didn't even know what they were talking about . . . And then to associate Mickey with that?

HAVE THE SAINTS been involved in more devilish behavior? First the bounty scandal, now this: ESPN's "Outside the Lines," citing sources, reported that New Orleans general manager Mickey Loomis had an electronic device in his Superdome box that gave him the ability to use an earpiece to eavesdrop on opposing coaches from 2002-04. The report made it clear, however, that "Outside the Lines" could not verify that Loomis ever used the device. According to the report, the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of Louisiana was told about the device on Friday.

The embattled New Orleans Saints vehemently denied an ESPN report alleging that general manager Mickey Loomis' booth was wired so he could listen to opposing coaches' communications during games in the Superdome. A report from an anonymous source on Monday's Outside the Lines said Loomis would have been able to eavesdrop on opponents from 2002 to 2004. The report said the system was disabled in 2005, when the Superdome was damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Saints spokesman Greg Bensel called the report "1,000 percent false.

THE NEW ORLEANS Saints have named Joe Vitt as interim coach, despite the top assistant's six-game suspension for his role in the club's bounty system. The Saints had to find a one-season replacement for head coach Sean Payton, whose seasonlong suspension in connection with the bounty scandal begins Monday and runs through next February's Super Bowl. New Orleans GM Mickey Loomis said Vitt will take over on Monday. "It is important that we keep Sean Payton's philosophy front and center during this season," Loomis said Thursday.