It's the "Official Newspaper of the New Orleans Saints." You wouldn't know it from the sports section in today's Acadiana edition.
We respect The Advocate. It is, pound for pound - as evidenced by its haul of plaques in the annual Louisiana Press Association awards - the finest print journalism in Louisiana. Real good stuff, dat.
It's also, as of early September in a brilliant move orchestrated by its new owner, New Orleans millionaire businessman John Georges, the "Official Newspaper of the New Orleans Saints." The Who Dat partnership was another attempt to siphon some New Orleans market share and prestige away from The Times-Picayune, which last year ceased daily distribution in the Crescent City, creating an opening for The Advocate in the Big Easy.
So our eyebrows went askance this morning at The IND when we went to the sports section of the Acadiana edition (see below) of The Advocate to read with relish about the Saints' record-setting demolishing of America's Team, AKA the Dallas Cowboys. We like to do that the day after a huge win by the Saints - read about it and feel good about our team.
What we got was a (mostly) below-the-fold photo of quarterback Drew Brees, pregame, autographing a helmet for a veteran. That's it. Oh, there was a caption explaining that Brees signed an autograph for a veteran and that the game, which ended some time south of 10:30 p.m., went too late to get the story into the paper. And there was a riveting legend above the photo: Cowboys at Saints.
The photo of Brees was really large, which is cool. He's such a good guy. He's nice to veterans and today is Veterans Day after all. But really, Advocate? You couldn't hold the press for the thousands of Saints fans in Acadiana?
This is why we can't have nice things: