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Straight talk: whether the topic is the Saints' most recent collapse or his upbringing in the projects, the wideout tells it like it is - Interview: Joe Horn

Football Digest, June, 2003 by Brian Allee-Walsh

THE 2002 SEASON PRODUCED YET another embarrassing meltdown for the New Orleans Saints. Still, the folks in the Big Easy have at least one reason to smile and hope for better day: Wide receiver Joe Horn has two years remaining on his contract.

Horn exploded last season for 88 catches, 1,312 receiving yards, and seven touchdowns and was named to the Pro Bowl. Not bad for a player whom the Kansas City Chiefs discarded like an old suit in 2000.

"I was labeled as having a learning disorder by some coaches in Kansas City--you know, that I was slow, couldn't learn the system," Horn says. "You know, a great athlete, great athletic ability, could have played any position on the field, but couldn't quite grasp the system. That was the word in Kansas City. Different coaches told me that. That was then."

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And this is now. Now Horn, 31, ranks among the most productive "good hands" people in the NFL. He talks a pretty good name, too.

"In my mind, I'm in the top three or four wide receivers," Horn says. "Statwise, I'm up there with Marvin Harrison, Hines Ward, and TO [Terrell Owens]. I don't even want to talk about Keyshawn [Johnson]. Maybe Eric Moulds and Peerless Price, too. But that's in my mind. On paper, I should be up there with those guys.

"But I'm not saying they're better than me. I feel I'm the best receiver in the NFL In my mind, I could catch 150 balls like Marvin if I'm given the opportunity. But our offense ain't set up like the Colts' offense."

Horn sat down with FOOTBALL DIGEST and discussed a number of topics, ranging from the Saints' late-season collapse in '02 to his fear of airplanes, which runs so deep that he aborted a trip to the 2001 Pro Bowl.

FOOTBALL DIGEST: Joe, the story goes that you were headed to Hawaii for the Pro Bowl a year ago, and you got off the plane in Houston because of inclement weather and rented a van to transport your family and friends back to New Orleans. Have you always had a fear of flying?

JOE HORN: Ever since day one.

FD: How do you deal with it in your business?

JH: It's easy when you have friends and teammates sitting around you on the plane. We're talking, playing cards, so it's pretty easy. But when you're by yourself, or with your wife, it's different.

FD: The Pro Bowl--the game itself--doesn't mean that much to you, does it?

JH: No, because you can't go 100% all-out and show what kind of athlete you really are. Basically, players just go for a vacation and a fun time. The fourth quarter is when the guys are really trying to win the money or whatever.

FD: Was the 2002 Pro Bowl bittersweet for you, knowing your team blew another opportunity to get into the postseason?

JH: I cried in front of my kids after we lost to Carolina in that last game [to miss the playoffs]. I try not to cry in front of them, especially my boys. Crying is all right when they cry, but they've never seen their daddy cry. After the game, after I did my last interview and all the reporters had left the locker room, I cried like a baby. I couldn't stop. I walked through the crowd with tears running down my face, and my wife was wiping them away. My kids looked up at me, all teary-eyed, and asked me what was wrong. They'd never seen me cry before. It hurt me, man. I didn't care about the Pro Bowl. It hurt me that we didn't go to the playoffs.

FD: Why didn't you cry in 2001 after the team lost four straight to end the season after being in playoff contention at 7-5?

JH: Because anybody could [have won] the Super Bowl this year. It was wide open for any team. We were right in the thick of it, and we screwed it up. I don't know how, I don't know why--things just happened and it didn't work out. And I was pissed off. The whole 16-game season rushed through me at that moment.

FD: What is the biggest difference between the 0-3 finish in 2002 and the 0-4 finish in 2001?

JH: There's no linkage, [In 2001] you could tell guys packed it up two, three weeks before the season was over. Guys were talking about doing this during the offseason, going here and going there. I thought, "What the [bleep]?" We were still playing the season. Different guys had their own agendas. That divided the team.

This year, guys weren't like that. Guys really cared about each other. We had a good team this year. That's why it's so disappointing. Maybe guys weren't at Point A when they should have been at Point A, but we had a good team.

FD: After starting out 6-1 in 2002, the Saints were mentioned as Super Bowl contenders. Ultimately, they were nothing more than pretenders. Would you agree?

JH: We had the opportunity this year, not last year, not 2000. The 2000 season was a joke to everybody, anyway. But we were the cream of the NFL [early in 2002] and had a chance to rise to the top. We whipped all those teams that had great records [the eventual Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers twice, the Green Bay Packers, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the San Francisco 49ers]. We had people's eyes opened--players, general managers, coaches, everybody.

Straight talk: whether the topic is the Saints' most recent collapse or his upbringing in the projects, the wideout tells it like it is - Interview: Joe Horn

Football Digest, June, 2003 by Brian Allee-Walsh

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