The New Orleans Saints were a bad franchise for a very long time. It took the organization until its 21st season to boast a winning record and its 34th season to win a playoff game. Times were pretty tough for the Saints, especially early on but the front office tried to improve things.
In 1976, the Saints swung for the fences and brought in Hank Stram, who had incredible success during his time with the Kansas City Chiefs (and the Dallas Texans, which was what the Chiefs were before they relocated to KC). Stram was a decorated coach during his time with the Texans and Chiefs, winning two AFL Championships and a Super Bowl.
While his luck eventually ran out in Kansas City and he was fired after a 5-9 season in 1974, the Saints believed that Stram still had plenty left in the tank and could turn them into winners. That did not end up being the case at all.
Why Hank Stram could easily be considered worst Saints head coach
In Stram's first year, the Saints went a lackluster 4-10. Sometimes it's common for a team to be bad during a head coach's first year as he's trying to get all of his building blocks into place but things did not improve in 1977, which was Stram's second and final season in the Big Easy.
The Saints were somehow worse in Year 2 of the Stram experiment, going 3-11 and somehow losing to a Buccaneers team that had lost 26 consecutive games. That's when you know things aren't going to pan out.
Stram did have a lot of stuff to deal with during his time at the helm in New Orleans, including an injury to Archie Manning and Chuck Muncie's flare for dramatics. It wasn't an easy situation to step into but Stram proved he didn't have anything left in the tank and he was fired at the end of the 1977 season and never coached in the NFL again.
The Saints were a dumpster fire for a very long time but it says a lot that they were still unable to win even with a Hall of Fame coach trying to come in and rescue them from the pits of irrelevancy. Stram was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2003 and people tend to forget that he ever patrolled the sidelines in New Orleans but Saints fans unfortunately remember it all too well.