Well, it's that great time of year again. The NFL playoffs have finally arrived to the delight of fans around the world. The magical, yellow brick road leading to the land of Oz (the Super Bowl) ends up this season in New Orleans.

Sadly, our Saints (7-9) will be spectators watching the magical mystery tour culminate on their own turf on Feb. 3. Glad to have Coach Sean Payton back for next season.

In the early days of the ABC's "Monday Night Football" telecast hosted by Howard Cosell, Don Meredith, and Frank Gifford, it would be Meredith, the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback, who would break into a rendition of "Turn Out the Lights, the Party is Over," when the losing team was in the fourth quarter with time running out and no chance of a comeback. Well, it's about time to turn out the lights on this, unique, sometimes chaotic, but never uneventful New Orleans Saints 2012 season, because the party is definitely over.

What was going to be a continuation of previous successes which Saints fans have come to enjoy under the Mickey Loomis/Sean Payton era, quickly turned into a horrific example of a collapse of a former champion by the self-destruction within the organization, starting with Bountygate -- that awe-inspiring example of damage control at its best and worst.

Practice makes perfect is phrase that brings back memories for me of the sixth grade, when I had to continue to recite the math tables to make them become indelibly ingrained in my brain forever. In sports, I have heard it said more often than not "perfect practice makes for a perfect outcome."

And a Navy Seal friend of mine says he lives by the concept of "train like you fight and fight like you train, and train and train" - one of my favorites.

Last Sunday, The New York Times ran a story in its sports section, "In the N.F.L., Practice Can Make Perfect, but Then So Can the Lack of It," to discuss the theories on just what level of practice is required "to become a true expert at something."

After the debacle we all witnessed last Sunday in New York when the New Orleans Saints were dismantled by the Giants, interim head coach Joe Vitt said, "that was an embarrassment...This was a pounding." As such, the Saints need to take a lesson from three players, (one of whom is a Saint), who sustained career-threatening injuries and just how they achieve a "comeback" after incredible physical and emotional setbacks. Maybe then the Saints might learn how to handle adversity more effectively than what they have demonstrated to their fans so far this season.

While the game cannot go on without players, there are enough players around such that when one goes down due to an injury, somebody always will take his place on the playing field during the commercial break.