The Saints would have rather gone marching in

There was no big celebration in the New Orleans locker room last Sunday when the Saints clinched the NFC South, even though it was only their third division title in 40 years. Even though they lost to Washington, the Saints claimed the crown by virtue of Carolina’s loss to Pittsburgh.

So there weren’t many Saints wearing the championship caps and T-shirts left at their lockers.

“Yeah, we’re the champs, but we’re not in a championship mood right now,” defensive end Will Smith told reporters.

Said quarterback Drew Brees: “I won’t be celebrating at all tonight, in case you’re wondering. I have the shirt, and I have the hat in my bag. And I’ll go put them in my closet. ... It’s exciting to know that we won. But obviously the way that we won, I think we’re all disappointed. Our standards are higher than maybe what you would think. We still have more that we want to accomplish.”

Simms is bouncing back

Tampa Bay quarterback Chris Simms has made significant strides since undergoing an emergency splenectomy in early September. After losing 10 pounds in the aftermath of surgery, he’s back up to his playing weight and says he feels healthy enough to get back on the field, even though his season is over.

“I’m doing everything,” he told reporters. “I’ve been throwing the ball, running, lifting. I feel really good. It’s really been exactly what the doctors said. They said if I were to come back, I could maybe play this week and definitely the last game of the season. If you were to ask me that two or three weeks ago, I would have said, ‘There’s no way.’ ”

The shirt off his back

After San Francisco center Eric Heitmann suffered a broken leg in a recent road game against the Seahawks, 49ers medical personnel had him admitted to a Seattle hospital. There, he shared a room with a 12-year-old boy who had been struck by a car outside Qwest Field.

The boy suffered a concussion and cannot remember meeting Heitmann. But the lineman left him a keepsake: his 49ers jersey, which was cut off him when he got to the hospital. The jersey wound up fitting the kid like a dress.

It’s big, even bigger than T.O.

The stakes are plenty high in the Christmas Day matchup between Philadelphia and Dallas, considering the NFC East hangs in the balance.

Last time, when Terrell Owens returned to Philadelphia in October and the Cowboys walked away with a 38-24 victory, the focus was a little different.

“The last time it was all about T.O.,” Dallas cornerback Aaron Glenn told reporters last week. “This time it’s about the division. It’s a lot bigger than T.O. It’s us trying to win the division. It’s a big one. This is why you play the game, for situations like this.”

Players on both sides are happy to bid farewell to the circus atmosphere.

“It was crazy the last time,” Dallas linebacker Bradie James told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “I was so happy that the game was over so we can play another game, because it was so many story lines that didn’t have anything to do with the game.

“Now the biggest thing is playing for our division.”

Leinart ready for a break

Although he’s had some successes this season, Arizona quarterback Matt Leinart told reporters last week that he’s ready for the year to be over.

It started with USC’s loss to Texas in the national championship game, after which Leinart slid to 10th in the draft.

There were highlights too, such as getting to start when Kurt Warner fizzled, and the birth of his first child with his ex-girlfriend.

Leinart feels as if he’s proved the skeptics wrong this season, especially the ones who thought he was too Hollywood to focus on football.

“They see me, he’s the quarterback, he’s arrogant, he’s cocky, blah, blah, blah,” he said. “Then you throw in the ‘Hollywood is all he cares about.’ I think I’m proving all the doubters wrong, the NFL guys, and they know who they are.”

-- Sam Farmer