Saints Turnaround a Spirited Victory
Win or Lose, the Team Has Captured Heart of America
By JIM ARMSTRONG
AOL
Sports Commentary
They were one of the saddest sights in history, NFL or otherwise. A dislodged, disheveled team without a prayer, a purpose or a place to call home.
As the water rose to deadly heights, many of Hurricane Katrina?s victims couldn?t have cared less if the Saints ever played another down in New Orleans . Couldn?t have cared less if they stayed in San Antonio. Couldn?t have cared less if they played in La. or L.A.
One year later, the Performers Formerly Known as Ain?ts are on the cover of magazines and the cusp of history. No NFL team has ever finished 3-13 one season and gone to the Super Bowl the next.
But then, the Saints? story isn?t about winning games. And no, it?s not about saving a city, either. It?s about jump-starting a long and painful process.
If you?ve seen what?s left of New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina, you know there?s no quick-fix, no two-minute offense that will get the city back on its feet. Those people need help, not tickets at will call.
No football team can rebuild New Orleans, but lo and behold, the Saints, forever and a day the NFL?s most forlorn franchise, have renewed its faith and rekindled its hope. And by God, there?s something to be said for that.
The struggle will be long and hard, but the Saints have given the people of New Orleans something to hold on to other than a rooftop above the torrent. It?s the comforting power of sports. The game lasts for three hours on a Sunday afternoon, but when your team is winning, the feeling can carry you through the rest of the week.
It?s a no-lose situation for the Saints. Even if they can?t beat the Chicago Bears Sunday, they?ve already won our hearts. Or maybe you don?t know what they endured last season. No, I mean other than the most destructive hurricane that ever was.
Some of the Saints? players and front-office types lost their homes, too. They didn?t have a city, a stadium, or a clue as to what was going to happen after seeking shelter in San Antonio.
And where did they assemble once they escaped the flood and arrived in Texas? An abandoned water plant, among other places. They lived in a hotel and worked out where they could. Beneath a tent in a high school park. At the hotel. Five facilities in all.
That?s the team that will face the Bears Sunday. And if they win? All you would have if the Saints played in their first-ever Super Bowl is the feel-good story of the 21st century.
The history of sports is filled with rags-to-riches stories, with Miracle Mets and Whiz Kids and Shots Heard ?Round the World. But the cities that gave us those unlikely stories never came out on the wrong end of the hurricane of the century. They never needed their teams like New Orleans needs the Saints.
Truth is, many sports fans, former and current, feel disconnected from today?s multi-millionaire, self-absorbed athletes. Not in New Orleans. Several Saints players have gone out of their way to get involved in the community, to lend a hand and show they care.
Case in point: tailback Deuce McAllister . He recently took ESPN.com reporter Gene Wojciechowski on a tour of the city, from the white-pillared mansions to the French Quarter to the flood-ravaged Ninth Ward. And no, he didn?t have to be convinced to do it.
Wojciechowski is a friend of mine and he tells me McAllister wanted everyone in America to see how ugly the devastation was, how many homes were destroyed and lives lost. He did it because he didn?t want the rest of the country to forget.
So much for the notion that the Saints aren?t carrying the banner for their city. Fact is, they?ve become the closest thing we have to a real America?s Team.
If you don?t live in Chicago, you?re pulling for the Saints this weekend. For that matter, even if you do live there, your emotions have to be mixed. This is New Orleans we?re talking about, the city we saw torn apart on all those newscasts. Part of you has to love the Saints, has to feel their pain, has to know what it would mean to their city if they won.
And what happens if the Saints pull it off the once-unthinkable, if they go on to win the Super Bowl, the game their city has hosted so many times, but never had a rooting interest in?
Then New Orleans, a party town from its earliest days, would really let loose. Mardi Gras would be downgraded to a tea party. Bourbon Street would be up for grabs. A city would celebrate like never before.
And a nation would celebrate with it.
:clap_1: ...and that's where I stand on this issue! And as a Dallas resident, I gladly hand over the title of America's team to the NO Saints!!!!
