SportsPants

Stop the presses. There will be a New Orleans Saint player in the Hall of Fame. And it happened in the same season when the Saints are in the Super Bowl for the first time. It's a good time to break out the fleur-de-lis and "who dat" gear.

Some might see the Rickey Jackson enshrinement as an omen for the big game tomorrow (especially all you crazy New Orleans folks with your voodoo and such), but I just see this weekend as a welcome party for the Saints as a legit NFL franchise. I, for one, am happy to see the black and gold around.

Sure there are players in the Hall of Fame that have played for the Saints ... at the end of their career. Guys like Earl Campbell, Jim Taylor and Doug Atkins were all shutting it down with New Orleans. Rickey Jackson was a Saint from the get-go.

At first I was skeptical of the Jackson Hall of Fame selection. There were guys out there like Charles Haley and Roger Craig who had won multiple Super Bowls and suddenly this is the year Jackson gets the nod? Sounds like people are riding the Saints season of good will in that Hall of Fame selection committee.

Then I took a look at Jackson's numbers.

He racked up 128 sacks, forced 40 fumbles and recovered 29 others. Plus, he had nearly 1200 tackles. For perspective, Lawrence Taylor, the Hall of Fame outside linebacker against whom all other are judged, had 132.5 sacks and recovered only 11 fumbles.

Jackson belongs in the Hall of Fame and his fellow Saints linebackers (Sam Mills, Pat Swilling and Vaughn Johnson) formed one of the nastiest sets of linebackers in NFL history. It seems odd having a Saint in the Hall of Fame as well as having New Orleans in the Super Bowl. It's supposed to be a time of change and the Saints are changing for the better.

Read more of Brad Seal at the original "SportsPants" blog.