NEW ORLEANS — Over the last 43 years, probably no team has provided more A-list material to NFL Films’ “Football Follies” than the Saints. Now that they have reached the promised land, the Bad News Saints deserve a 43-highlight trip down memory lane:

1. On Nov. 1, 1966 — All Saints Day — NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle announced that New Orleans would receive an expansion franchise. Entrepreneur Dave Dixon, who had lobbied the NFL for a team, asked Archbishop Philip Hannan if he thought the name “Saints” would be considered sacrilegious. Hannan replied: “Not at all. I think they’re going to need all the prayers they can get. You’ve got to remember, most of the saints were martyrs.” How prophetic. Amazingly, Hannan, 96, will attend Super Bowl XLIV and sit with owner Tom Benson.

2. The Saints’ first owner was 27-year-old John Mecom Jr., son of a Texas oilman. One of Mecom’s first moves was to sign aging Green Bay fullback Jimmy Taylor, whose days running the vaunted Packer sweep were a dusty memory. The Saints surrendered their No. 1 pick in 1968 for a 31-year-old warhorse with bad wheels who was four years older than the owner.

3. In the 1967 expansion draft, the Saints plucked Paul Hornung from the Packers’ unprotected list, though the Golden Boy had gained only 200 yards in 1966 because of a pinched nerve and a shoulder injury. Hornung never played a down for the Saints.

4. The Saints had the first-overall pick in 1967 — which could have been used to take Michigan State defensive end Bubba Smith — but traded it to Baltimore for quarterback Gary Cuozzo, a four-year backup to Johnny Unitas. After a 3-11 season, the Saints traded Cuozzo to the Vikings. Smith is in the College Football Hall of Fame.

5. With their first pick in 1967, the Saints took Alabama fullback Les Kelley, who had scored four touchdowns in three years for Bear Bryant. After Kelly spent a year on the taxi squad, the team tried to convert him to linebacker. He tackled like he ran.

6. On the first play in Saints regular-season history, John Gilliam returned the opening kickoff against the L.A. Rams 94 yards for a touchdown at Tulane Stadium. The Rams won 27-13, Gilliam was gone after two seasons and went on to play in two Super Bowls for the Vikings.

7. In the final seconds of a 1967 game against the Giants in Yankee Stadium, linebacker Steve Stonebreaker took exception to an elbow thrown on the sidelines by Giants center Greg Larson. Stonebreaker stormed across the field and pointed at Larson, “After the game, you belong to me.” True to his word, Stonebreaker started a melee that police had to break up. “I popped him,” Stonebreaker said, “and I’d do it again.”

8. Of the 17 players taken by the Saints in the 1968 draft, one was on the team in 1970 — cornerback Gene Howard.

9. Before a 1968 preseason game, Coach Tom Fears wrote Jimmy Taylor’s name on the locker room blackboard to play special teams. Taylor, who had gained 32 yards in the preseason, took off his uniform and never played again.

10. Mecom fired Fears after a 1-5-1 start in 1970 and brought in J.D. Roberts, who was coaching the 1-7 Richmond Roadrunners of the Atlantic Coast Football League. In his first game, Roberts was carried off the field after Tom Dempsey booted an NFL-record 63-yard field goal to give the Saints a 19-17 victory over the Lions.

11. The Dempsey kick set the Saints back a generation because it gave Roberts, a former Marine, job security. Assistant coach Jack Faulkner’s biggest memory of Roberts was that he fell asleep a lot in meetings.

12. In 1970, one of the most forgettable sports films of all time — “Number One” — premiered with Charlton Heston cast as faded quarterback legend Cat Catlin. Ironically, Heston got throwing lessons from knuckleballer Billy Kilmer. Years later, Jessica Walter, the lead actress in “Number One,” came to New Orleans for a TV interview. “I’ll answer anything you want,” she said, “but please don’t ask me about that [bleeping] movie.”

13. All-time great names in Saints’ history: running back Joe Don Looney (1969); wide receiver Jubilee Dunbar (1973); cornerback D’artagnan Martin (1971-72); kicker Happy Feller (1972-73) and punt returner Jitter Fields (1984).

14. Two days before the Saints took Archie Manning with the second-overall pick in 1971, they traded Kilmer to the Redskins for fourth- and eighth-round picks and linebacker Tommy Roussel. Kilmer went on to lead George Allen’s “Over the Hill Gang” to the Super Bowl. Allen later called it “the best trade I ever made.”

15. In the 1971 preseason, the Saints played at Buffalo and Roberts told Manning, suiting up for the first time, to stand next to him on the sidelines. “I don’t know who that No. 32 is,” Roberts told Manning, “but he sure can run.” It was O.J. Simpson.

16. In 1972, Mecom hired astronaut Dick Gordon, who had circled the moon, as his new GM. Mecom explained he didn’t think football experience was necessary for the position because “the image of pro football is changing.”

17. Wide receiver Danny Abramowicz reacted to Gordon’s hiring: “Well, if we ever have a preseason game on the moon, we’ll know how to get there.”

18. After a 2-12 season in 1972, the Saints had the second-overall pick in a talent-rich draft. They traded the pick to Baltimore for defensive end Billy Newsome and a fourth-round pick, linebacker Jim Merlo. The first few picks that year? No. 1, defensive end John Matuszak; No. 2, quarterback Bert Jones; No. 3, tackle Jerry Sisemore;

No. 4, guard John Hannah; No. 5, defensive tackle Dave Butz; No. 12, running back Chuck Foreman; No. 23, punter Ray Guy.

19. On opening day in 1973 under new coach John North, Manning threw five interceptions in a 62-7 home loss to the Falcons. The Saints committed 10 turnovers.

20. Manning recalls a story about a forgettable return specialist the Saints picked up on waivers who arrived the day of the game and walked into the locker room with a “big red, green and blue parrot” on his shoulder. “He put the parrot above his locker in a little cubicle and shut the door. The kid went out and bobbled his first punt and then flat-out fumbled the second one. You had to figure that was going to be the extent of his Saints career. We came in after the game, and that parrot was keeled over, dead as a doornail.” Al Qaeda was not around to accept responsibility.

21. In 1974, the Saints passed up Ohio State linebacker Randy Gradishar and took his athletically challenged teammate, outside linebacker Rick Middleton. Defensive coordinator Jack Faulkner shook his head: “I knew he was a mistake when I saw him at the training table and he had a hard time lifting his fork.”

22. During a 1974 home game against the Eagles, Saints fans upset over an interference call held up the game for 22 minutes by booing.

23. The Saints christened the $163 million Superdome on Aug. 9, 1975, with a preseason game against the Oilers. Houston coach Bum Phillips removed his 10-gallon hat: “My momma always told me never to wear a hat indoors.” (Phillips was true to that directive even in home games at the Astrodome).

24. Another forgettable roster pick-up during the 1975 preseason was supposed to arrive in time for a game at the Superdome but didn’t show until the next day. “Where the hell were you?” head coach John North screamed. The player replied: “I drove all around and I just couldn’t find that Superdome.” North shot back: “Well, see if your butt can find the airport.”

25. In 1975, cornerback Bivian Lee had a logical explanation after he dropped an interception in the first regular-season game played in the window-less Superdome. “It’s a lot brighter in here during the day compared to our preseason games,” Lee said.

26. On Jan. 20, 1976, Mecom hired Hank Stram as the franchise savior, saying, “He’ll have the Saints in the Super Bowl long before his five-year [$1 million] contract expires.” Stram coached two seasons, going 4-10 and 3-11.

27. In Super Bowl IV when he was coaching the Chiefs against the Vikings, Stram was positively gleeful after running back Mike Garrett broke clean for a touchdown on a play called “65 Toss Power Trap.” “It’s like stealing,” Stram said. Revenge was sweet for Bud Grant six years later when the Vikings came into the Superdome and routed Stram’s Saints 40-9. Grant opened his post-game press conference by deadpanning: “It was like stealing.”

28. With Manning nursing a surgically repaired shoulder in 1976, Stram took a flier on troubled quarterback Joe Gilliam, who had been waived by the Steelers after several brushes with drugs. Gilliam disappeared for four days during training camp. “All I know is he borrowed Rocky Thompson’s car to go into town to buy some sundries, and he must have picked up some vanishing cream,” Stram said.

29. Stram drafted multi-talented but troubled tailback Chuck Muncie, who missed several team flights, always with the same excuse that he had to attend his grandmother’s funeral. “He must have a lot of grandmothers,” Stram said.

30. Stram had no problem spending the “coin of the realm,” and he authorized a $30,000 investment in practice uniforms for the coaching staff, changing the scheme each day. He had 400 practice shirts, wearing each one only once.

31. In 1979, the Saints drafted Texas punter-placekicker Russell Erxleben, who developed shooting pains in his back during training camp and then complained to a reporter in Austin that he had a better snapper and holder in college. When the story hit the AP wire and exploded nationwide, Erxleben said: “I didn’t talk to any reporters in New Orleans.” OK, so this was before the Internet, but Erxleben was clueless. In 1999, he was convicted of securities fraud in 1999 and was released from federal prison in 2005. He was ordered to pay $28 million in restitution.

32. As the Saints lost their first 14 games in 1980, sportscaster Buddy Diliberto got the idea from the Unknown Comic to do his Saints’ reports wearing a bag over his head until the Saints won. The craze caught on with fans, and the “Ain’ts” were born. The Saints banned Diliberto “for life” from the team plane. Still, Diliberto got his film back for the 10 p.m. news by having reporters smuggle it back in their luggage. “Mecom never figured it out,” Diliberto said.

33. When the Saints beat the Jets at Shea Stadium in Week 15 in 1980 to avoid a winless season, it started snowing as they marched down the field for their game-winning TD. For Saints fans who thought hell would freeze over before they would win a game — well, it did.

34. Manning later found out what forces had led to the Saints’ collapse. In training camp at Dodgertown in 1980, Manning said he thought two teammates were using an electric hot plate in their rooms to “cook soul food.” Turns out they were converting solids into gasses.

35. Bum Phillips replaced Dick Nolan as coach in 1981 and after one season traded Manning to the Oilers for tackle Leon Gray. “I didn’t trade him because he couldn’t play quarterback,” Bum said of Manning. “I traded him because he couldn’t play left tackle.” Neither could Gray. He was gone a year later.

36. Bum passed on Lawrence Taylor with the first pick in 1981 and instead went for South Carolina running back George Rogers, hoping to duplicate the success he had with Earl Campbell. LT is in the Hall of Fame; Rogers is another black-and-gold flesh wound.

37. In the early 1980s, Buddy Diliberto said the Saints were so bad he used to go to church early on Sunday mornings and leave two tickets on the windshield of his car for anyone to take. When he got back to his car, the two tickets had multiplied to four. The loaves and the fishes.

38. In 1984, Bum pushed to acquire Campbell, who had two flat tires, for a No. 1 draft pick. (See Jimmy Taylor, 1967.) Campbell retired in 1985.

39. The Saints never had a winning season until GM Jim Finks hired Jim Mora as head coach. In 1987, as the Saints clawed their way to respectability, they lost a close October game to the 49ers. “The Saints aren’t good enough,” Mora said, his jugular veins bulging. “It’s that simple. We’re close, and close don’t mean [bleep], and you can put that on your television reports. I’m tired of coming close. I’m sick of coulda, woulda, shoulda.”

40. Someone once said Mike Ditka, enamored of his own celebrity as a Bears icon, coached the Saints “as though he was double-parked.” Here’s why. In 1999, the disinterested coach, more eager to hit the golf course than to watch his draft board, traded eight picks (including all six of the team’s selections that year and No. 1 and No. 3 picks in 2000) to the Redskins to move up to No. 5 overall and take running back Ricky Williams. In August, Williams posed in a wedding dress with Ditka at his side for the cover of ESPN The Magazine. They were husband and wife, joined at the hip. Ditka went 15-33 in three seasons before the shotgun wedding blew up. Someone mentioned to Ditka after last week’s NFC Championship game that he had, indeed, coached the Saints once. “There’s a rumor to that effect,” Ditka said. Amnesia, anyone?

41. Buddy Diliberto, the sportscasting icon, could fracture the English language. During a radio telethon for Children’s Hospital in New Orleans, Diliberto explained to his audience how emotional he got while walking down the hallway and seeing “all those kids hooked up to their RVs.” Tailgating, for sure.

42. The Saints fortunes turned in 2006 with the signings of Drew Brees and coach Sean Payton and their emotional return to the Superdome following Hurricane Katrina. Ironically, Benson had ideas of moving the team to San Antonio, but was “persuaded” to stay by NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue.

43. Buddy Diliberto, who died in 2005, vowed to wear a dress if the Saints ever made it to the Super Bowl. Former Saints quarterback Bobby Hebert, now a radio analyst, has picked up Diliberto’s pledge. “I’m secure in my manhood,” Hebert says. “I just need to get a pair of red pumps that fit because I can’t dance in tight shoes.”