For people who didn’t suffer through the first 21 years of the New Orleans Saints football team or endure Hurricane Katrina, it is almost impossible to imagine the distress caused by seeing head coach Sean Payton retire.

Although coach Jim Mora made the Saints an occasional winner beginning back in 1987, and although the Saints finally won a playoff game (after 34 years) in 2000 under coach Jim Haslett, Saints fans still felt habitually woebegone until Payton arrived on the scene in Katrina’s wake.