Ditka to Haslett- Franchise Legend
- Fan Favorite & Franchise Great
- Saints Hall of Fame
Joe Horn
- Position
- WRWide Receiver
- Number
- #87
- Saints years
- 2000–2006
- NFL career
- 1996–2007
- Era
- Ditka to Haslett
- Franchise
- New Orleans Saints
Honors
- New Orleans Saints Hall of Fame
- 4x Pro Bowl
Also played for Kansas City Chiefs (1996–1999), Atlanta Falcons (2007–2007).
Why he’s a legend
The legacy
Joe Horn arrived in New Orleans in 2000 having caught 35 passes in four seasons in Kansas City, and immediately caught 94. He made four Pro Bowls in seven seasons, put up four 1,000-yard years for teams whose quarterback situation was frequently unsettled, and gave the franchise its most quoted piece of theatre when he retrieved a mobile phone from under the goalpost padding in 2003.
Why he matters
- Four Pro Bowl selections in seven Saints seasons — a total only a handful of players in franchise history match.
- Four 1,000-yard receiving seasons, including a career-best 1,399 yards in 2004.
- He was the first receiver in franchise history to be the best player on the offense for a sustained run of years.
- He caught the passes that got the 2000 team to the franchise’s first playoff win.
- The cell-phone celebration against the Giants in 2003 is the most replayed non-scoring moment in Saints history.
Defining moment
The cell phone
2003 season
After a touchdown against the Giants in December 2003, Horn pulled a mobile phone from underneath the goalpost padding and made a call on it. He was fined $30,000 and the moment entered the permanent record of the franchise — one of the few New Orleans highlights of that decade that a national audience remembers.
Career statistics
Current through the 2007 season
With the Saints
- Seasons
- 7
- 1,000-Yard Seasons
- 4
- Career High
- 1,399 yards (2004)
- Pro Bowls
- 4
Honors & accolades
Championships & enshrinement
- New Orleans Saints Hall of Fame
Selections & records
- 4x Pro Bowl2000–2002, 2004
Career timeline
12 seasons in the NFL, 7 of them in New Orleans.
- 1996Kansas City Chiefs
- 1997Kansas City Chiefs
- 1998Kansas City Chiefs
- 1999Kansas City Chiefs
- 2000New Orleans SaintsSigns as a free agent; 94 receptions and a first Pro BowlFirst playoff win in franchise history
- 2001New Orleans Saints
- 2002New Orleans Saints
- 2003New Orleans SaintsThe cell-phone celebration against the Giants
- 2004New Orleans SaintsCareer-high 1,399 yards; fourth Pro Bowl
- 2005New Orleans Saints
- 2006New Orleans SaintsFinal Saints season, in the year the Superdome reopened
- 2007Atlanta Falcons
Era context
What the league looked like while Joe Horn played it. Raw totals across eras are not like-for-like.
Ditka to Haslett
1997–2005
The first playoff win, a franchise-altering trade, and then the storm.
- Sixteen-game seasons throughout; the 2004 emphasis on illegal contact re-opened the passing game league-wide.
- The 2005 Saints played no home games in New Orleans, splitting a nomadic season between San Antonio and Baton Rouge.
- Free agency and the cap were fully mature, shortening the typical tenure of a star player with one team.
The Brees & Payton Era
2006–2020
A quarterback nobody else wanted, a coach nobody had hired, and a Super Bowl.
- The most pass-friendly rules environment in NFL history to that point; raw passing totals from these years dwarf every earlier era.
- Sixteen-game seasons throughout, with a 12-team playoff field from 2020.
- The franchise won seven division titles in this span, including four consecutive from 2017 to 2020.
Data & sources
Statistics on this profile are current through the 2007 season.
- A verified season-by-season receiving line is not compiled in this profile, so no season table is shown. Pro Bowl years and the 2004 career high are league-published facts.
