How do you trash talk a Saint?

This Sunday, the football team we Minnesooootans like to claim as our own, even though I don't think there's a player on the team who claims Minnesota as his home state, gets a shot at the pinnacle of pigskin perfection -- the Super Bowl.

Unfortunately for us Vikings fans, the one obstacle in our way for punching our tickets to Miami for the 44th annual Super Bowl is a team called, of all things, the Saints.

How in the world can you get fired up to play a team called the Saints. Only thing worse would be the Fighting Pontifs, but the Vatican City's bid for an NFL expansion team is still under consideration, so that's a few years off at best.

Nonetheless, we are faced with the task of trying to trash talk a team that claims a fleur-de-lis as its logo. And why the heck does anything called a fleur-de-lis have any association with football? Perhaps it might fit in with...say... a Canadian hockey team.

Toss in the fact the Big Easy is still stinging from the devastation from Hurricane Katrina, and it's hard to get amped up to stomp the living daylights out of a team whose city had its spirit dealt such a serious blow, and is still on the long road to recovery. You want to give folks down there an encouraging pat on the back, not a verbal slap in the forehead.

It would be much easier if say we were playing those dreaded, turpentine slurping Cheeseheads, or perhaps those ego-maniacal Cowboys or even the Arizona Cardinals (whose home state keeps stealing our elderly for 5 to 6 months a year!) as opposed to the Saints with their classy, but funny-looking logo.

Throw in another fact like they play in a building (the Superdome) which sounds more like a haven for those with the ability to leap tall buildings with a single bound, and what's not to like?

Also, Coach Chilly likes to tout our kick ass offensive scheme, while N'awlins likes to tout its kick ass party scene (Mardi Gras!)

Oh well, I guess there's always that Drew Brees fella who used to shred the favored collegiate team of many a Viking fans, our beloved Golden Gophers. However, so many other college QBs over the years have done the same thing and we Minnesotans don't like to be mad at too many folks.

Maybe Reggie Bush could be a target since he's dating one of those annoying Kardashians and we have to feel somewhat sorry for him since he had to take a pay cut going from USC to play football professionally. Nah, Gov. T-Paw would more than likely veto any ill will toward anyone with the last name of Bush, so there goes that.

How 'bout their coach, yeah that Sean Payton guy! Walter Payton used to drive Viking fans nuts, and even though they obviously aren't related, it could give us something to at least get our blood above room temperature. Of course, Walter's brother Eddie used to be one of us, so scratch that off the list.

You search the Saints' history and there's really nothing there to get the blood a boilin'.

Iconic QB - Archie Manning?...we loved the guy because he was one of us for a couple years taking multiple beatings on our behalf from the then-powerful Chicago Bears defense.

Iconic kicker - Tom Dempsey?...he didn't let a disability get in the way of him setting an NFL record! What's not to love about that guy.

I know, I know... there was one ex-Saints coach, the late Hank Stram, who just might be a rallying cry with all those memories of that smug little son of a gun cackling up and down the sidelines as his Chiefs ran roughshod over the Purple People Eaters during the fourth annual Super Bowl gathering. But, I doubt many of the new generation(s) of Vikings fans would even recognize his picture, so that shoots that all to heck.

That safety of their's, that Darren Sharper fella has been getting kind of lippy lately, but we all remember how good he looked in Purple (look at me now! look at me now!).

I guess I'm just going to have to keep racking my brain for some good ol' trash-talkin' fodder. In the meantime let me offer that another former Saints' kicking legend, Morten Andersen, was the one who booted our beloved 1998 squad out of the playoffs in that heart-wrenching OT loss to the Dirty Birds. I know he wasn't with the Saints at the time, but it's the best rallying cry I can think of at this point.

Kind of weak, I know, but the week is still young.