NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Saints returned to their lockers to find hats and T-shirts commemorating the franchise's first playoff berth since 2000.
Players hastily stuffed them in bags as they dressed and left the stadium looking frustrated.
"I won't be celebrating at all tonight if that's what you're wondering," quarterback Drew Brees said after the Saints clinched the NFC South by default Sunday while losing, 16-10, to the underdog Washington Redskins. "I have the shirt. I have the hat. They're in my bag. I'll go home and I'll put them in my closet."
New Orleans (9-5) still holds the No. 2 seeding in the NFC, having beaten Dallas (9-5) last week. Clinching a first-round bye just got a little harder, however.
"Our standards are higher than maybe what you would think," Brees said. "We won the division. That's great, but it came in a loss. We still have more things now that we want to accomplish."
