1980 New Orleans Saints season

The 1980 New Orleans Saints season was the team's 14th as a member of the National Football League. They were unable to improve on their previous season's output of 8-8, winning only one game.^[1] The team failed to qualify for the playoffs for the fourteenth consecutive season and had the dubious distinction not only of winning only a single game, but winning it by a single point. Disgruntled fans called their team "the Aints", going so far as to show up to games wearing brown paper bags over their heads. In embarrassment they called themselves the Unknown Fan (a spinoff from The Unknown Comic) in a practice that would become the trademark of disgruntled fans across various sports in the United States. The 1980 Saints continue to hold the worst regular-season record by a team whose stadium hosted the Super Bowl that season (the Oakland Raiders went on to become the first wild card team to win the Super Bowl).

A most notable loss came in Week 14. Playing the San Francisco 49ers in Candlestick Park, the Saints charged out to a 35-7 lead at halftime, led by 3 Touchdown passes from Archie Manning and a pair of 1-yard Touchdown runs from Jack Holmes. However, the 49ers would rally behind Quarterback Joe Montana, who would rush for a Touchdown and pass for two more. The 49ers would tie the game 35-35 on a 4th Quarter Touchdown run by Lenvil Elliot and go on to win in overtime, 38-35, on a Ray Wersching Field Goal. The 28-point comeback by the 49ers was, at the time, the greatest comeback in NFL history, and currently remains the greatest comeback in NFL Regular Season history (the 1992 AFC Wildcard game between the Buffalo Bills and Houston Oilers is currently #1, with the Bills overcoming a 32-point deficit to win).

Schedule

Standings

^[2]

References