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Miss Critter

Beach Fanatic
Mar 8, 2008
3,416
2,116
My perfect beach
For Saints fans, New Orleanians or those who love her. It's long, but definitely worth the read. I lamented to a friend just the other day that I was sometimes homesick for a city that I wasn't sure existed anymore. Evidently, it does.


These are strange and beautiful days in New Orleans, and they must be seen to be believed. I've visited the city dozens of times since I was a boy, lived and worked there for a spell and last week, when I went down to experience the mania over the Saints' undefeated season firsthand, I found myself not sure whether every street was a dream. Some moments made me laugh, and others were so full of a desperate love that I had tears in my eyes.

Yes, there is something happening in New Orleans, a strange and beautiful story not so much about a town that still needs distraction from a hurricane but about a professional sports team changing the nature of the relationship between franchise and fan. "It's the entire city," LeBlanc says as we drive. "Everybody feels it. It's not because we're selling it. Faith or fate, whatever you believe in, you cannot watch this football team and not have faith."

Running back Mike Bell was out of football. So was cornerback Mike McKenzie, who watched the games from the stands with a mouthful of food before getting the call a few weeks ago. Darren Sharper arrived unwanted and has resurrected his career. Running back Pierre Thomas wasn't drafted. Star wide receiver Marques Colston wasn't drafted until the seventh round of the 2006 draft, and his college football program, Hofstra, just folded.
It goes on and on. This is a team of underdogs. "It's a bunch of guys that feel like they have something to prove," McKenzie says. "We have a lot of late draft picks and free agents that are now starting. It is a team full of guys who are probably viewed as overachievers."


The soul of the city is in a football game three seasons ago, the return to the Superdome, on a Monday night when those of us who love New Orleans first realized the city would be back. It was Sept. 25, 2006 -- Payton's and Brees' first home game.
The Friday night before, Payton gathered his team in the empty stadium. People had died there, just 13 months before. The bodies were stored in a catering freezer. The building seemed unfixable, and now the Saints stood at midfield. On the video board, Payton played a movie about the hurricane. It showed it all, the dark, dark water, the archipelago of rooftops, the fear on the faces of an abandoned city, the slow pan of the Humanity Street sign barely visible above the current. It showed the Superdome with its roof almost torn off. It showed a city that looked as though it would never return. Then the video ended. The players, standing at the center of a rebuilt stadium, all shiny and new, talked about what they had seen and how important they were to the people who would fill these seats the next night.
They understood.
The fans came early. Green Day and U2 performed before the game, performed an old Scottish punk song "The Saints Are Coming," then segued into "Beautiful Day." Bono changed the first verse, calling out neighborhoods, from Lakeview to the Lower 9th, singing "coming home to New Orleans." With each familiar reference, the crowd reaction intensified, going from simmer to full, rolling boil.
The game began and, less than two minutes in, the Saints blocked a punt and recovered for a touchdown. One of my best friends, a chef who grew up in the city, sat on his couch in Mississippi and wept. So did thousands of people in the Dome. For 37 seconds, an eternity on television, the announcers stayed quiet, the only noise coming from the screaming of the crowd. Thirty-seven seconds, while a city went completely and totally insane with joy.
The people in New Orleans would never forget who gave them that gift.


NFL: New Orleans Saints are the soul of America's City - ESPN
 

Rudyjohn

SoWal Insider
Feb 10, 2005
7,744
233
Chicago Area

Scooter

Beach Fanatic
Mar 3, 2005
692
31
Atlanta, GA; New Orleans, LA
That's my home!!! I am so proud to call New Orleans home. There is no other place like it in the world! I am so proud of my Saints. Can't wait to spend New Year's with all the excited Saints fans!!!! Who Dat?
 

lerxst

Beach Fanatic
Jul 24, 2008
288
101
thank you for sharing that. New Orleans is my hometown, and all I can say is, it's about time!
 

Daugette_Matt

Beach Lover
Jan 12, 2009
60
27
GEAUX SAINTS!!!!!! WHO DAT!

That city loves their saints for sure. So do me and my lady. See ya'll on gameday..........
 
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