If Emmanuel Sanders has a wildly successful year with the New Orleans Saints, everyone should point to his grandmother to the reason.
Sanders had opportunities to go to the Texans or Cowboys, but his grandmother was adamant: New Orleans was the place he should be.
“One of the first people I called was my grandma, because she called me, her and my aunt were on the phone when free agency started, and she said, ‘We’re praying you go to New Orleans!’ The Texans, they had an opportunity and needed a receiver, the Cowboys needed one, but my grandma was talking about New Orleans because she loves that team,” Sanders said on a conference call Sunday afternoon. “She loves Drew Brees, she loves Sean Payton, she loves the offense and she wanted to watch me play. When I called her and told her she was so excited about it …
“Not only that, she’s excited because literally they can drive to the game if they wanted. My family, I don’t know how far of a distance it is, but I know last year when (the 49ers played the Saints in New Orleans) I had like 15 family members drive up, so it can’t be that long of a drive. So that’s pretty cool to be back down south and be close to my family as well.”
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But as much as Sanders loves his grandmother, she was just a small part of what ultimately led him to agree to a two-year deal on Friday night. The other was the chance to make it to a fourth Super Bowl.
“Ultimately, the goal is to try to bring a Super Bowl to New Orleans, and that’s the reason I signed that deal. I know I’ve got a great chance of winning another Super Bowl with the New Orleans Saints,” he said.
Sanders, 33, has been to the Super Bowl with the Steelers, Broncos and Niners, winning with the Broncos in Super Bowl 50 during the 2015 season. When he looked at the Saints roster, he felt that their chances of making it to that point were very real, especially if he came on board.
“They’ve got a Super Bowl-winning coach, they’ve got a Super Bowl-winning quarterback. I think winning a Super Bowl is hard to do from the jump,” he said. “But what’s special about it, to attain that, it takes a special group of guys with the right DNA to be able to do it. I think the Saints definitely have it because they’ve got proven players that already did it. It’s all about coming together even more.”
Sanders could be the complement to Michael Thomas the Saints have been seeking, and it’s clear Brees thinks so as well. Even though Sanders was still on the phone with the Saints late Friday night, Brees texted him immediately once he found out they would be teammates.
“Drew texted me, just telling me how excited he was to play with me. I told him how excited I was to play with him as well, and that was it,” Sanders said. “We told each other we’d see each other soon. I’m ready to get to work, I’m ready to get the chemistry down with Drew, I’m ready to learn the offense, I’m ready to go. These are exciting times for me and my family, they are exciting times for the New Orleans Saints. You can’t take these times for granted to have a team like this, and we’ve got to take advantage of it.”
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Where does Sanders fit exactly? He said they can put him wherever he’s needed on the field, whether that’s in the slot or outside, and he’ll run any route on the route tree. The nitty-gritty details haven’t been discussed, but Sanders didn’t seem to care.
“For me, it’s really about what Sean Payton wants me to do,” he said. “At the end of the day, I’m here to do whatever I’ve got to do. I’m a player that if you tell me to go block, I’ll go block. If you tell me to run this route, I’m going to run it and I feel like I’ll have success in doing it because I put a lot of work in, and I’ll stand on my work ethic alone. If I don’t know how to do it, I’m going to work at it and work at it until I get it. …
“I don’t know how they’re going to use me, I haven’t even gotten into the details of Xs and Os with Sean Payton or Drew Brees. I’m looking forward to knowing how they’re going to use me and seeing how it fits. I think, regardless, I’ll be a good fit.'”
(Photo: Michael Zagaris / Getty Images)