Morning blog: Saints, it's N-k-e-m-d-i-c-h-e

Posted on: September 22,2015

The morning blog:

Cleveland

• Folks in Louisiana, including media, already talk and write about the possibility of the Saints drafting Leonard Fournette. Just my opinion: Robert Nkemdiche would cure more ills. So would Laremy Tunsil for that matter. I love Leonard Fournette, but the Saints already have $17 million in guaranteed money tied up in running backs Mark Ingram and C.J. Spiller. Khyri Robinson, for my money, is at least as good as both those guys and the Saints are getting him for a song. The Saints desperately need somebody who can rush the passer and protect their own passer more than they need another running back, even one as gifted as Leonard Fournette.
• Your Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame has added to its Dizzy Dean collection on the south end of the second floor of the museum. You can now push a button and hear his recording of Wabash Cannonball or you can push another button and hear Ol’ Diz and Pee Wee Reese do the only recorded inning (we can find) of those two icons broadcasting the Game of the Week. It’s from old Crosley Field in Cincinnati and it’s a gem. I highly recommend.
• I knew something was wrong with Drew Brees when he started throwing dying ducks this past Sunday against Tampa Bay. Turns out, he suffered a dinged shoulder. If he misses significant time, as expected, the Saints creall can plan on whom they might want to take with the No. 1 pick in the draft. They are an average team with a healthy Brees and something else entirely without him. My brother Bobby says they are nuts if they don’t learn how to spell Nkemdiche between now and then. I tend to agree.
• Jason Day is playing the best golf I have ever seen, including when Tiger was at his best. Seems like a great guy as well.
• Just a reminder: A statue of the incomparable Boo Ferriss will be unveiled Oct. 3 at Delta State University. It’s a fitting tribute to a great Mississippian. Can’t wait…wouldn’t miss it.
• For those of you, who, as I, have stopped watching the lowly Atlanta Braves this season, they actually swept a series this weekend, winning three straight 2-1 decisions over Philadelphia. I am sure the Elias Sports Bureau could tell us the last time that happened. I cannot. I do know the Braves followed that sweep with a 4-0 loss to the New York Mets on Monday night to drop 31 games below .500 and 28 games out of first place. No, I did not watch.
• For the record, Shelby Miller, a quality pitcher, has lost 14 straight decisions for the woeful Braves despite a quite respectable 3.68 earned run average. Do you know how hard it is to lose 14 straight decisions with a 3.68 ERA? Miller has not won a decision in 23 consecutive starts, which is unbelievable and something he could never have imagined as a St. Louis Cardinal.
• Remember Super Bowl hero Malcolm Butler of Vicksburg? Yeah, great story, and now he’s starting for the Patriots this season and intercepted a pass Sunday against the Bills.