(Editor's note: The Saints beat the defending champion St. Louis Rams 31-28 on Saturday for the first playoff game victory in franchise history.)

The revamped New Orleans Saints have made a complete turnaround under new head coach Jim Haslett. After going 3-13 last season and finishing at the bottom of the NFC West, when the smoke had cleared on Battlefield 2000, the 10-6 Saints trumped the Super-Rams to emerge as division champs. This perennially sad team is going to the playoffs for the first time in eight years, even after losing their best players to injury. In his first head coaching assignment, Jim Haslett took a sorry bunch of losers and made them believe they could win. The team's hard work and determination have paid off, but perhaps astrology can shed some further light on why Haslett has succeeded where so many others have failed.

The Saints have historically been one of the most karma-challenged (i.e. bad!) teams in the NFL. They don’t just lose a lot of games—they drive their coaches mad. Remember the Ditka years, the ones he would so like to forget? Last season the Saints drove this legend back into retirement. Even gentleman Jim Mora, the only coach to ever have any success with the team, eventually broke down in a cursing, screaming fit, and fled to greener pastures in Indiana.

Jim Haslett Enters the Fray

Into this mess comes Jim Haslett (born December 9, 1957 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), a fiery, red-haired Sagittarius, eager for the task. Haslett had formerly served as the Saints’ linebackers’ coach and defensive coordinator under Jim Mora, and spent the last two seasons as defensive coordinator in Pittsburgh. Haslett has proved to be an inspired choice for the job, because he fits the team chart well.

The New Orleans Saints played (and lost) their first game on September 17, 1967, in New Orleans. (The scheduled kickoff was at 1:30 pm CDT.) Coach Haslett’s natal Sagittarius Sun and Saturn are conjunct the team’s Sagittarius Ascendant. This serves to unite the team under his strong solar leadership because his management style instinctively appeals to the players' sense of pride and purpose.

The Ascendant is the starting point of the chart, the sense of self, image and personality. The team is quick to identify with Haslett and his philosophies, and to find itself in his ideas. Sagittarius is a philosophical sign, one that strives for faith, meaning and inspiration. Sagittarius wants to believe, and wants its faith to manifest. Haslett at the helm has inspired so much Sagittarian confidence and optimism that the same players who went 3-13 last year now expect to win every time they step on the field.

New Orleans Voodoo

But what is it about these Saints that seems so unholy? It was a bit of New Orleans voodoo that put the Saints on the NFL map in the first place. Back in 1966, many cities were competing for the highly coveted NFL franchises. Some had fine stadiums and profitable ownership deals in place. The leagues encouraged competition for their franchises, listening to proposals and presentations at regular owners’ meetings and then voting, much as they do today. 

However, in 1966, the competition between the NFL and the upstart AFL had gotten so out of hand that a secret merger between the two leagues began to take shape. As the proposed merger became public, the leagues found themselves facing congressional antitrust action in Washington. But what does this have to do with the Saints? A lot, because the team owes it existence to certain crucial votes delivered by Louisiana politicians that brought the antitrust case to a standstill.

On October 21, 1966, Congress approved the NFL-AFL merger, voting to exempt the league from further antitrust action. After a hasty Halloween telephone poll, the NFL owners suddenly granted their newest franchise to the city of New Orleans, a town with no stadium and no ownership, but in full possession of cutthroat political instincts. On November 1, 1966, All Saints Day, the NFL unveiled their newest team in the Crescent City. So the Saints were conceived in political sin, and born on the day traditionally belonging to the dead, from a swampy mire of underhanded Scorpio intrigue, most of which everyone denies. It’s Scorpio after all—it’s supposed to be a big secret. 

The tale gets even stranger from there. Lacking a stadium, work began on the splendid new Superdome. Unfortunately, the land chosen for the site included an old cemetery, so now the Saints' home field is hopelessly haunted. This begins to put the team's record in perspective.

The “Curse” of the Saints

The Saints' luck struck again this season, when after a promising start, their star running back, Ricky Williams (born May 21, 1977 in San Diego), suffered a broken ankle. The team curse was in full force the following week when quarterback Jeff Blake (born December 4, 1970 in Daytona Beach, Florida), also broke his ankle. And just like that, their two most productive offensive players were gone.

With every reason to fold, the Saints went marching into Saint Louis that week and made true believers out of the Rams instead. Backup quarterback Aaron Brooks, in his very first NFL start, proved to be the biggest surprise of the season in the stunning 31–24 upset victory. A star was born! Brooks (born March 24, 1976 in Newport News, Virginia) was born on the same day as Colts’ quarterback Peyton Manning, and the two share the same Aries fearlessness and lightning reflexes.

More pertinent to the Saints' purposes, Brooks locks into their team chart in much the same way that Haslett does. Brook's natal Aries Sun is on another important angle of the team's chart, the IC. The Imum Coeli, or the bottom of the sky, marks a point of origins and roots, a home base or fortress. Brooks obviously feels right at home in the offense, and his fiery Aries energy raised the team’s spirit, immediately lifting them up from the lowest point of the season and sparking them onto victory.

As the Saints wrap up their season, there is a lot to learn from these guys. For instance, no matter how many times you get knocked down, you’re not out unless you quit. This team has never quit. And whoever you are, if you believe in yourself, you can rise above fate to become the master of your own destiny. And further, everything is a lot easier when you have the right personnel in place. Astrology can help any organization to choose the right people to lead them to success. The Saints would still need a miracle to get to the Super Bowl, but Jim Haslett may eventually prove to be a miracle worker in the making.