The New Orleans Saints and Jim Henderson are like red beans and rice

There is no way to try and describe my love for the New Orleans Saints. Equally important, no one will ever be able to replicate Jim Henderson’s voice on the radio.

Being born in New Orleans makes anyone a Saints fan for life. Regardless of the pain and suffering felt from the late 70’s and most of the 1980’s. There were PLENTY of times where the Black and Gold simply made my heart stop. On the other hand, the build up on Sunday afternoons got me jumping out of bed in the morning. There was church around 11 a.m. and then the rush home to see the kickoff. To put it another way, the Saints were a big part of my childhood.

When it wasn’t Sunday, I spent hours and hours studying my full set of football cards with stats or playing some type of computer game. Furthermore, when no one was around, I would reenact Chuck Muncie or George Rogers by stacking up all the pillows on the sofa and diving over them on my parent’s sofa. Yeah, you could say their was a bit of an obsession there.

Sometime in 1986, my friends in Kenner invited me over to watch the Saints game. Everything seemed to be normal until they turned off the volume on the TV and put the radio on. Being about 16 years old, this totally confused me. They told me that some guy named Jim Henderson was so incredibly talented, that this is the way they listened to the game for now on.

Finally, the voice echoed through the room like no other. The voice was from now legendary sportscaster Jim Henderson. Strangely enough, listening to Jim Henderson made you feel like you were there. He had the unique ability to paint beautiful pictures with words and excitement. Consequently, Jim Henderson brought me there. Every single play came out like magic. The poetic dialogue that Jim brought each week was addicting.

Ironically, the Saints started to win too. Henderson took you to a place with his voice. It’s really hard to describe, but the voice from Henderson sounded like a well conducted NFL symphony. The quick witted sportscaster instantly became a fixture in New Orleans.

Former UNO coach Tim Floyd put it best:

"“He was always extremely professional and to this day has a mastery of the Queen’s English beyond his peers in his business. He’s a guy that I could talk to and I knew what I said wasn’t going beyond our relationship. Our relationship was and is built on trust.”"

Jim Henderson will go into the Louisiana Hall of Fame, and his career speaks for itself. And all those memories of great calls are gonna be cherished forever. Henderson is simply an artist. The moments wouldn’t be the same without the vocal cords of Jim Henderson. The Saints and him are just like the best plate of RED BEANS AND RICE. Just a perfect match…