Saints

NEWTON - Dan Kennedy will graduate from Boston College on Monday, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and the recipient of the school's most prestigious prize, the Edward H. Finnegan Award. Winners of the Finnegan, given to the student who best exemplifies the BC motto, "ever to excel," tend to go big - top grad schools, Wall Street, overseas fellowships. Kennedy is planning to give away his computer, recycle his Blackberry, and move to a modest communal house in St. Paul, Minn.

With no sign of a contract breakthrough for Drew Brees on the eve of the Saints' first offseason practice, safety Roman Harper tried to look on the bright side. "I'm actually going to really enjoy it," a grinning Harper said of practicing against backup quarterback Chase Daniel. "We're learning a new defense and we really don't know left from right in a lot of this stuff, so you don't want to get taken advantage of with Drew," Harper continued. "You know he's going to pick us apart anyway, so why not get out here and learn what we can and can't do against Chase.

FOXBOROUGH — Football, albeit the exhibition variety, was back last night, as the Patriots and Saints wrapped up their three training camp days together with a preseason tilt. The Patriots came away with a 27-24 victory, the winning points coming with less than a minute to play on a 28-yard Stephen Gostkowski field goal, set up by a 52-yard catch-and-run from receiver Darnell Jenkins. Undrafted rookie Sergio Brown ended any chance of a New Orleans comeback when he drilled receiver Montez Billings in the back as he went up for a high pass.

Suspended Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma filed a defamation lawsuit Thursday against commissioner Roger Goodell , claiming the league's top executive made false statements that tarnished Vilma's reputation and hindered his ability to earn a living playing football. The suit in US District Court in New Orleans claims Goodell, "relied on, at best, hearsay, circumstantial evidence, and lies" in making comments about Vilma while discussing the NFL's bounty investigation of the Saints.

NEW ORLEANS - Sean Payton was the toast of New Orleans even before the Saints’ storybook run to the NFC Championship game in his first season as coach. Fans were happy to have their team back and eager to embrace a coach who wanted to be a part of the rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina left entire neighborhoods in a state of lifeless, sagging, water-logged ruin. Four years later, evidence of the widespread devastation is dwindling. Shattered windows and ripped up roofs have been replaced.

NEW ORLEANS - A new start with the Saints has put “the shake’’ back in 33-year-old Darren Sharper. The NFL’s active leader in career interceptions added two more against rookie Mark Sanchez, returning one a club-record 99 yards for a touchdown to help unbeaten New Orleans hand the New York Jets their first loss of the season, 24-10, yesterday. Sharper’s trademark shoulder-shaking celebrations are becoming a symbol of a defense that can now take credit for leading New Orleans to victory after taking the blame for the Saints’ failure to make the playoffs the...

NEW ORLEANS - Vince Young got the best of Reggie Bush again, and the NFL's feel-good team from last season is off to a dismal start. Young threw a pair of touchdown passes and the Tennessee Titans kept New Orleans winless on the year, beating the Saints, 31-14, last night before a Superdome crowd that showered boos on the same players who provided such a pick-me-up to the devastated city a year ago. The Saints (0-3) rallied from a 10-0 deficit, going ahead, 14-10, midway through the third quarter on Bush's second touchdown run. But Young, just as he did when leading...

By Greg A. Bedard, Globe Staff The NFL has announced that the suspensions of Saints coach Sean Payton, general manager Mickey Loomis and assistant coach Joe Vitt for their roles in the bounty scandal have been upheld after reviewing their appeal to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Payton is suspended for the entire 2012 season, starting April 16. Loomis (eight games) and Vitt (six) will start their suspensions at the conclusion of the preseason. Goodell said he would review the financial and draft pick penalties if everyone cooperates with the...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Tom Benson crowded around a tiny television, the fate of his football team resting on the outcome of a game being played halfway across the country. As the St. Louis Rams won in overtime to eliminate New Orleans from playoff contention, the Saints' owner shuffled off in disappointment as a heavy silence fell over the locker room. It was hardly the victory celebration the Saints had hoped for. New Orleans finally won a game that mattered, beating the Carolina Panthers, 21-18, yesterday to stay in the playoff hunt.

Almost a week after the NFL pointed to them for failing to stop a bounty program involving some two dozen Saints players, coach Sean Payton and general manager Mickey Loomis apologized and took the blame for violations that "happened under our watch. " "These are serious violations and we understand the negative impact it has had on our game," Payton and Loomis said in a joint statement Tuesday. "Both of us have made it clear within our organization that this will never happen again, and make that same promise to the NFL and most importantly to all of our fans.

Drew Brees said in a radio interview Wednesday night that he is frustrated by what he views as a lack of communication with the New Orleans Saints in his ongoing contract negotiations, adding the club should have shown more urgency to get a long-term deal done. "It's been extremely frustrating for me. I don't think the negotiations should have been this difficult," Brees said on WWL radio in New Orleans. "What's been a little frustrating on my end, or disappointing, is the lack of communication.

Suspended Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma filed a defamation lawsuit Thursday against NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, claiming the league's top executive made false statements that tarnished Vilma's reputation and hindered his ability to earn a living playing football. The suit in U.S. District Court in New Orleans claims Goodell, "relied on, at best, hearsay, circumstantial evidence and lies" in making comments about Vilma while discussing the NFL's bounty investigation of the New Orleans Saints.

Mexican prosecutors have formally charged eight people in the grisly cult slayings of two 10-year-old boys and a 55-year-old woman. The suspects are mainly members of an extended family whose purported leader has said they killed the victims as an offering to "Santa Muerte," or Saint Death, between 2009 and 2012. The idol is usually depicted as a robed skeleton, and her followers include criminals and drug traffickers. Sonora state prosecutors' spokesman Jose Larrinaga says the eight will face charges of first-degree homicide, robbery, conspiracy,...

An email from an imprisoned friend of the Saints coaching staff with a postscript saying, "put me down for $5,000" on Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers has become another sore point between players being punished for New Orleans' bounty system and the NFL. The email, obtained by The Associated Press, was written from prison by marketing agent Mike Ornstein shortly before the Saints' 2011 season opener against the Packers. Ornstein once represented Reggie Bush and later got to know members of the Saints' coaching staff.

Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma and three other players suspended in the NFL's investigation of New Orleans's cash-for-hits bounty system challenged their punishments Monday. Vilma, named by the NFL as a ringleader of the operation, appealed his season-long suspension while the NFL Players Association notified the league it was reserving the appeal rights of Saints defensive end Will Smith and those of ex-Saints Anthony Hargrove and Scott Fujita . All four players and the union argue that no appeal should be heard before NFLPA...

Roger Goodell better have the goods. Somewhere in the 50,000 pages of documents related to the Saints bounty program better be some compelling evidence that it was much more organized and way more vicious than anything the NFL had ever seen. Otherwise, the punishment he's doled out already has exceeded the crime, and the commissioner's credibility on two of the signature issues of his tenure — player safety and the integrity of the games — will suffer a hit he can barely afford.

NEW ORLEANS - Reggie Bush danced around defenders who fell over each other trying to tackle him. Drew Brees was back to passing with pinpoint accuracy, picking apart a beleaguered and depleted Arizona secondary. A little rest was all the Saints needed to shift their league-leading offense back into overdrive. That, and a visit from Arizona’s porous defense. Brees threw three touchdown passes and Bush scored on an 83-yard punt return and a spectacular 46-yard run as New Orleans overwhelmed the defending NFC champions, 45-14, in their second-round playoff game yesterday.

NEW ORLEANS - The Saints are still undefeated at home and have lost just three times all season. So, it might be a bit of nitpicking to say the road could be a potential downfall. "You win 13, 14 games now, and you're trying to find something," coach Sean Payton said yesterday. "When you start playing well on the road and home, you're probably a better team and we've been able to do that. This will be a good challenge for us. Not just playing on the road, but traveling west. " After beating Detroit, 45-28, in the Superdome in the NFC wild-card round, the...

BAMAKO, Mali - A new member of an Islamist group in northern Mali attacked and burned a saint's tomb classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site in Timbuktu, the spokesman for the group said Sunday. The act threatens to raise tensions that have been building between residents and the Islamists who occupied the city in April, and raises worries that instability could lead to the destruction of historic sites in the fabled town known as an ancient seat of Islamic learning. "A new member of the Ansar Dine group came to Timbuktu and went to the tomb of Sidi Mahmoud Ben Amar on Friday to tell...