If you’ve spent any time on NFL Twitter—or X, or whatever we’re calling it this week—you know that being a Saints fan is basically an exercise in high-functioning emotional trauma. It’s a wild ride. One minute you’re celebrating a deep ball to Rashid Shaheed, and the next, you’re staring at a yellow flag that just cost you a trip to the Super Bowl. This specific brand of suffering has birthed a massive ecosystem of New Orleans Saints memes that are honestly some of the funniest, most self-deprecating pieces of content in the entire sports world.
It isn't just about the wins. Actually, it's mostly about the weird stuff. The missed calls. The 7-9 era. The post-Brees existential dread.
The thing about Saints fans is that they don't just "post." They crusade. Whether it’s the "Who Dat" chant being blasted into the mentions of a rival Falcons fan or the endless loop of Jameis Winston eating a "W," the digital footprint of this fanbase is massive. You can’t talk about the modern NFL experience without acknowledging how New Orleans has mastered the art of the internet joke to cope with reality.
The No-Call That Changed Everything
Look, we have to talk about it. The 2018 NFC Championship game against the Los Angeles Rams is the "Big Bang" of modern New Orleans Saints memes. When Nickell Robey-Coleman leveled Tommylee Lewis and the refs just... watched? That moment didn't just break the hearts of everyone in the 504 area code. It broke the internet.
For months, the memes were everywhere. People photoshopped glasses and walking sticks onto the referees. Someone even put up billboards in Atlanta just to remind the world how robbed the Saints were. It was petty. It was beautiful. Honestly, that single moment of officiating incompetence created a template for sports grievances that teams still use today. You'll still see that grainy screenshot of the hit pop up every time a ref misses a holding call in a random Week 4 game. It’s the gold standard of "The League is Rigged" content.
What’s interesting is how the humor shifted. At first, it was pure anger. Then, it turned into this weird, shared nihilism. Fans started making memes about how they expected the worst. If the Saints are up by ten with two minutes left, the memes start flowing about how the universe is going to find a way to intervene. It’s a defensive mechanism, really.
The Jameis Winston Era: A Fever Dream
When Drew Brees retired, a lot of people expected the memes to die down. Brees was great, but he wasn't exactly "memeable" in a chaotic way. He was the professional, the technician. Then came Jameis.
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Jameis Winston is a human meme generator. There is no other way to put it. From the "Eating a W" pre-game speech—which actually happened while he was with Tampa but became a staple of Saints lore—to his incredible post-game interviews about "preparation meeting opportunity," he gave the fanbase a treasure trove of material.
Remember the "Winston 1:1" memes? Fans would treat his scrambles like religious experiences. There was this one specific clip of him doing a bizarre pre-game warm-up dance that looked like he was fighting off invisible bees. It went viral instantly. Saints fans didn't care if it was "weird." They leaned into it. That's the secret sauce of this fanbase: they don't get defensive when people laugh at their team; they just laugh louder.
- The squinting Jameis memes (before he got LASIK).
- The "Famous Jameis" bakery jokes.
- The absolute chaos of a 30-touchdown, 30-interception vibe, even if his stats in NOLA were actually more controlled.
It kept the community alive during a period of massive transition. When you lose a Hall of Fame quarterback, you can either cry or you can make jokes about your new QB’s pre-game snacks. New Orleans chose the snacks.
Why the Falcons Rivalry Fuels the Best Content
You can’t mention New Orleans Saints memes without bringing up the Atlanta Falcons. This isn't just a football rivalry; it’s a cultural war fought with JPEG files.
28-3.
Those four characters are the ultimate weapon in the Saints' meme arsenal. It’s been years since the Falcons blew that lead to the Patriots in the Super Bowl, but if you go to any Saints-related post on Instagram, you will see a 28-3 reference within the first five comments. It is the gift that keeps on giving. Saints fans have put the score on wedding cakes, license plates, and even planes flying over Atlanta's stadium.
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But the Falcons fans hit back, too. They love to bring up the "Minneapolis Miracle" or the "No-Call." It’s a constant back-and-forth of "who can make the other person feel worse about a historic collapse." This rivalry drives a huge amount of engagement for Saints content creators because the stakes are always high, even when both teams are struggling. It's about pride. And it’s about making sure your neighbor in Georgia has a slightly worse Monday morning.
The Taysom Hill Paradox
Then there's Taysom Hill. Is he a quarterback? A tight end? A personal protector on punts? A guy who just really likes running into people?
The memes surrounding Taysom usually revolve around Sean Payton’s obsessed-like love for him. For a while, the joke was that Sean Payton loved Taysom Hill more than his own family. You’d see memes of Taysom lined up at every single position on the field simultaneously. Even now, with Payton gone to Denver, the Taysom memes persist because he remains the most "Saints" player on the roster—an anomaly that shouldn't work but somehow does.
The "Who Dat" Logic and Internet Culture
What most people get wrong about these memes is thinking they’re just about football. They’re actually about New Orleans culture. This is a city that throws a parade when things go wrong. When the Saints were terrible in the 1980s, fans wore paper bags over their heads and called themselves the "Aints." That was a meme before memes existed.
The digital version is just an evolution of that "bag-head" energy.
When Derek Carr arrived, the meme machine shifted gears again. Suddenly, it was all about the eyeliner (or lack thereof) and the frustrated red-zone faces. The fans are quick. If a player makes a face on the sidelines for 0.5 seconds, it’s a sticker on WhatsApp by the end of the first quarter. This speed is what keeps the New Orleans Saints memes relevant on Google Discover—they are timely, reactionary, and incredibly specific.
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How to Find the Good Stuff
If you're looking for the actual source of these gems, you have to go beyond the mainstream accounts. Sure, ESPN will post a "funny" caption once in a while, but the real soul of the Saints internet is in the trenches.
- Saints Twitter (X): This is where the war is fought. Use hashtags like #Saints or #WhoDat, but honestly, just follow the people who have "Brees" in their handle and a profile picture of a player from 2009.
- Reddit (r/Saints): A bit more organized. This is where you find the high-effort photoshops and the long-running inside jokes.
- Local New Orleans Instagram creators: There are people who do nothing but make memes about the Saints and the state of the potholes on Canal Street. That crossover is where the gold is.
Real-World Impact of Digital Jokes
Believe it or not, this stuff matters to the players. Former players like Cam Jordan or Alvin Kamara have been known to interact with fans and even share memes about themselves. When the players are "in on the joke," it creates a bond that most franchises don't have. It makes the team feel more human.
When Alvin Kamara wore those giant red boots that were trending a while back? Meme bait. He knew it. We knew it. The internet exploded. That kind of self-awareness is why the Saints stay relevant in the national conversation even when they aren't at the top of the NFC South.
Next Steps for the Who Dat Nation
If you want to keep your meme game sharp, start by following local beat writers who capture the weird sideline moments that the national cameras miss. Save the "28-3" templates—they are evergreen. Most importantly, keep an eye on the post-game press conferences. In the modern NFL, the quote is often more valuable than the touchdown when it comes to winning the internet.
Don't be afraid to use the "Aints" nostalgia when things look grim. The history of the franchise is built on a mix of incredible success and baffling failure, and the best memes live right in that middle ground. Keep your folders organized, because as every Saints fan knows, a officiating disaster or a legendary Jameis quote is always just one play away.