Every autumn for more than forty years, Mike Detillier boiled down close to 900 pages of his own scouting notes into a roughly 200-page NFL Draft guide, one that fans mailed away for from as far as Japan and Australia. Detillier, the longtime WWL Radio football analyst who became one of Louisiana's most trusted voices on the New Orleans Saints, LSU and the NFL Draft, died on September 6, 2026. He was 65.

He was a son of Raceland, in Lafourche Parish, where he played fullback and linebacker at Central Lafourche High School, according to TigerRag.com, before studying aquatic engineering at Louisiana Tech and Sacramento State, according to WWL Radio. His friendships with former Saints quarterback Bobby Hebert and former LSU head coach Ed Orgeron dated back to that same childhood in Lafourche Parish. He spent 29 years working in engineering for the State of Louisiana, a discipline that shaped how he watched the game. Former Saints running back Deuce McAllister said Detillier had an engineer's mind: "an absurd ability, really, when you stop to think about it, not only to take all the angles of a game in at once and process that information, but to bring in all the information of players dating back to their early days, before college even." "I played 9 seasons as a pro," McAllister said, "but when Mike spoke, I learned."

Detillier began publishing what grew into the M&D NFL Draft Report in 1983, producing it every year for more than four decades and building a following far beyond Louisiana, according to TigerRag.com. He also wrote for USA Today Louisiana and was a regular guest on Tiger Rag Radio, extending his reach into LSU coverage beyond his home station. His depth and his fact-loaded, unglamorous approach to scouting earned him an unusual national distinction: in 2006, Sports Illustrated named him the Best Unknown Sports Voice in America, according to Fox 8.

His radio partnership with former Saints quarterback Bobby Hebert began almost by accident, when Hebert was flown into New Orleans to help cover the NFL Draft after Buddy Diliberto, the WWL institution known as Buddy D, asked for the help. "That's how Mike and I came together, doing draft shows and Second Guess," Hebert said. The two spent more than two decades on WWL's Second Guess Show together, and Detillier eventually became a full-time co-host of Sports Talk on the station after years as its longtime guest analyst, according to Fox 8.

On the air, the pairing became appointment listening. "You had to pack a lunch if you were going to start talking football with Mike," Hebert said, describing preparation so thorough that, in his words, "there's not going to be any dead air." WWL brand manager Diane Newman said Detillier "captured the heart of our community with his honesty, buoyant personality, and his rich and deep fact-loaded analysis," adding that he "became a reflection of this region's pure passion for football better than just about anybody," according to WWL Radio.

Beyond the booth, Detillier was a fixture at the Manning Passing Academy in Thibodaux, missing only two sessions across parts of three decades, according to WWL Radio. Mike Hoss, the current Voice of the Saints, ranked him alongside the station's other legendary analysts, Buddy D, Hokie Gajan, Jim Henderson, Hap Glaudi, Stan Brock and Hebert himself: "The name Mike Detillier is right up there."

Detillier died days before what would have been his 66th birthday. The New Orleans Saints organization called him "a proud son of Louisiana" who was "widely respected as a gifted football analyst, a trusted guide through the NFL Draft, and an exceptional family man," adding that "Saints gamedays at the Caesars Superdome, training camp practices, and press conferences simply will not be the same without his presence," according to the team's statement. At home in Lafourche Parish, he spent time away from the booth hunting and fishing on the bayous, according to WWL Radio. He is survived by his wife, Linda, his daughters Stephanie and Kimberly, and his granddaughters Norah and Mia.

What Detillier leaves in Louisiana is bound up in the routines he built: the Draft Report that fans still pull off the shelf every spring, the Second Guess Show hours he filled twice a week with Hebert for more than twenty years, and the Manning Passing Academy sessions where he spent parts of three decades of summers around Thibodaux teaching high schoolers to see the game the way he did. He turned an engineer's habit of measuring every angle into a public service for a state that never had enough football information, and the players, broadcasters and readers he outworked for four decades are the clearest record of what that habit was worth.