lit a candle 9 Sept 2026too young to remember him on the radio but my dad listened every spring. RIP
Their story
Mike Detillier was the voice Louisiana football fans trusted when they needed more than a hot take. For more than forty years he explained the New Orleans Saints, LSU, and especially the NFL Draft with the patience of an engineer and the warmth of a neighbor from the bayou. He…
Mike Detillier was the voice Louisiana football fans trusted when they needed more than a hot take. For more than forty years he explained the New Orleans Saints, LSU, and especially the NFL Draft with the patience of an engineer and the warmth of a neighbor from the bayou. He died on 6 September 2026 at age 65, only days after learning he had metastatic Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and two days before what would have been his 66th birthday.
He was raised in Lafourche Parish and graduated from Central Lafourche High School in Raceland in 1979, where he played fullback and linebacker. Childhood friends from the same stretch of Louisiana included future LSU coach Ed Orgeron and future Saints quarterback and WWL partner Bobby Hebert. Detillier studied aquatic engineering at Louisiana Tech and Sacramento State, then spent about 29 years as an engineer for the state of Louisiana. He retired from engineering in July 2015. Colleagues later said that engineer's mind never left his scouting: every prospect was a system to reverse-engineer.
Sports media began almost by accident. In the early 1980s, a high-school friend dating the daughter of legendary WWL sportscaster Hap Glaudi insisted Glaudi put Detillier on the air. After a short phone call, Glaudi invited him onto SportsTalk the next day. Inside Radio places those first SportsTalk appearances with Glaudi in 1983. Glaudi and Nicholls State athletics figure Don Landry urged him to publish a draft guide. The first Mike Detillier NFL Draft Report appeared around 1985, about 60 pages. He later recalled selling maybe 40 or 45 copies. The book grew into a roughly 200-page annual rating hundreds of prospects, sold as far as Japan and Australia, and became a spring ritual for Saints and LSU fans. Trade and local outlets variously call it the Mike Detillier NFL Draft Report or the M&D Draft Report. The consistent point is that he built an independent draft franchise long before draft Twitter existed.
Through the 1990s he became a regular with Buddy Diliberto on WWL. In 1999, former Saints salary-cap aide and TV executive Terry O'Neal opened a national door by putting him on ESPN Radio's The V Show with Bob Valvano. By the mid-2010s he was doing dozens of radio hits a week from his Raceland home, often from bed after breakfast, then sinking into film study. Listeners knew the Cajun accent and the nickname The Football Guy. He wrote for south Louisiana outlets and USA Today Louisiana, worked Fourth Down on Four and other WWL sports shows, and became a fixture of Saints and LSU pregame and postgame culture, including Monday's Second Guess Show with Hebert for more than two decades.
A 2016 Gambit Weekly profile by Andrew Alexander caught him in that Raceland routine. He kept a home room of memorabilia, Sports Illustrated issues, jerseys, and autographs. He recalled a 1968 Jean-Claude Killy cover as his first Sports Illustrated. On the draft book itself he said that if he put out what he wrote he would have a 900-page book, and that he had to condense that to around 200 pages. In the same conversation his mother joked that he could have been grading prospects at age 10 or 11. That is a published family line. Specific spouse and children's names were not published in the obituaries and tributes surveyed here, and they are not invented.
In July 2021 WWL made him a full-time co-host of SportsTalk with Bobby Hebert and Steve Geller, weekdays 4 to 8 p.m., calling him an iconic talent joining an iconic show. Guests and partners over the years included Deuce McAllister, Mike Hoss, and a long list of coaches, scouts, and players who treated his prep as serious. The Saints organization said gamedays at the Caesars Superdome, training camps, and press conferences would not be the same without him. He rarely turned down interview requests. Small-school and late-round prospects got the same seriousness as stars. Hebert later said you needed to pack a lunch to debate football with him. McAllister said there was no replacing him, and that when Mike spoke, he learned.
In late August or early September 2026 he was hospitalized for stomach pain. Imaging and tests showed metastatic pancreatic cancer, Stage 4, described as incurable. He prepared a statement thanking listeners and the WWL and Audacy teams, and planned to tell the audience on Tuesday 8 September, his birthday. He died on Sunday 6 September before that on-air goodbye. WWL, the Saints, coach Kellen Moore, Archie Manning, Hebert, McAllister, Hoss, and others devoted airtime and statements to a man they described as prepared, kind, and irreplaceable in Louisiana's football soundtrack. Funeral arrangements and a resting place were not detailed in the early public reports used here.
This page is Mike Detillier of Raceland, Lafourche Parish, the WWL SportsTalk co-host and independent NFL Draft analyst. It is not Michael W. Detillion of Ohio, a different spelling and a different life, who died in 2020. No English Wikipedia article for this Mike Detillier was found at the time of this profile.
Biography adapted from NOLA.com; FOX 8 WVUE; RadioInsight; Awful Announcing; Saints.com; Tiger Rag; Gambit Weekly; Inside Radio..
In their own words
“Last week, I was rushed to the hospital for stomach pain. After several CAT scans and tests, doctors broke the unbelievable news: I have metastatic pancreatic cancer. Stage 4. Incurable.”
Statement prepared for listeners after the diagnosis, published by WWL and Audacy and carried by FOX 8, RadioInsight, and Awful Announcing. He died before he could deliver it on air.
“While it's an incredibly emotional time, I want to thank everyone - the listeners, the whole team at WWL radio and Audacy, New Orleans, and all those who put up with me over the years - from the bottom of my heart for the opportunity to let me live my passion: The game of football. Hosting SportsTalk with Bobby J, Deuce, Hoss, Steve, and the whole crew - working for WWL has been the honor of a lifetime.”
Same farewell statement. Source: WWL via RadioInsight and Awful Announcing.
“You had to pack a lunch if you were going to start talking football with Mike. The man did his homework.”
Bobby Hebert tribute. Source: Awful Announcing.
“We've been doing that show together for over two decades. Since before Katrina, he was like a brother. This hurts. It really hurts.”
Bobby Hebert on the Second Guess Show partnership. Source: Awful Announcing.
“There's no replacing him. You won't find a sharper football mind out there. I played 9 seasons as a pro, but when Mike spoke, I learned.”
Deuce McAllister tribute. Source: Awful Announcing.
“He was an engineer by trade. But his passion was football.”
Mike Hoss tribute. Source: Awful Announcing, with WWLTV credit line.
“If I put out what I write, I'd have a 900-page book. I have to condense that to around 200 pages.”
On editing the annual Draft Report. Source: Gambit Weekly, Andrew Alexander, 2016.
“A proud son of Louisiana, Mike was widely respected as a gifted football analyst, a trusted guide through the NFL Draft, and an exceptional family man.”
New Orleans Saints organization statement, 6 September 2026. Source: NewOrleansSaints.com.
Photos
3Mike Detillier speaking at the Chamber Fan-Up luncheon, Harbor Center, Slidell, 30 August 2023. NOLA.com caption names him as guest speaker. Not Michael W. Detillion.
Aug 2023 · by People Forever
Mike Detillier at a WWL remote, NFL Draft backdrop, older white-haired analyst at the broadcast table. This is the Raceland WWL host, not Michael W. Detillion of Ohio. FOX 8 obituary image, alt text Mike Detillier.
by People Forever
FOX 8 / WVUE news photo credited to Mike Hoss, published on the Detillier obituary with alt text Mike Detillier. Group scene on a Saints parade float, not a single-face studio portrait, so it is not used as the round portrait. Not a photo of Michael W. Detillion of Ohio.
by People Forever
Exactly. He was part of the fabric.