For those who don't understand

I've liked the Saints since I was a kid even though I'm loathe most of the time to actually watch a game, but one of my best-est friends, a.k.a. my evil twin Sarah, sums up pretty well the feelings all New Orleanians (that term includes natives plus those of us who lived through the Big K and thus adopted in as natives) have for our Saints.


As most of you know, I'm not a huge sports fan in general. I did go to a basketball game once when a friend gave me a ticket, but confess, I was more impressed by the t-shirt canon than the game. I have never had a ticket to a football game. It took me a long time to even be able to find the football on the tv screen! That said, you can't live in southern Louisiana, Mississippi, or east Texas and not get infected by Saints football.

Legend has it the Archbishop was asked permission to name the team and his comment was- go ahead, they'll probably need all the help they can get. Americans are always suckers for the underdog. We love a feel-good story where the little kid who has been kicked and spit on finally gets a work-out montage and his revenge. For over 40 years the Saints have been that kid. In fact, they made losing an art form. Even games where the other team was so bad and the Saints score was so high, would end in a creative defeat. Fans would go to the game, they would lose, everyone would put the paper bag they had brought for the anticipated event over their heads, go home, and say, "Maybe next year". For some reason that football team is the outward expression of New Orleans' soul. The soul that was laid bare in Katrina and was exposed to the entire world- the good and the bad.

I've lived in Louisiana since 2000 and have watched a fair share of the games. After going through the storm, for some reason they seemed just a little more important- if only a venue for family, friends, and volunteers to come together for a few hours and not think about hauling debris and sheetrocking. I still have never gone to a game, but I have watched a lot more since Katrina. Greg & I took our friend Dawn to the newly renovated Superdome for the first game after Katrina when the Saints played the Falcons and won a soul-satisfying victory. We went to the Superdome and just reveled in the feeling that the city was still alive and that people would come back after all.

We watched the NFC championship game last week at a friend's house with about 14 other people- new friends and old, people from work, from school, from my camera club, and friends they brought. It was a nail-biting tennis match. When we watch a game we aren't just saying, "Gee, I hope they win." We are saying, "This will mean so much to the city- good publicity, good tourism, good money, good everything! So much more rides on this game than just a sports team winning- the whole city needs this. Please give us a break just this once!"

I have never been so nervous in my life. As the score when toe-to-toe with the Vikings, my stomach was in knots, my fingernails were chewed off. When we went into overtime and I couldn't sit still. We won the coin toss. I thought this is it, this is our one moment to make this happen- but I still couldn't believe it when the Field Goal kick was straight as an arrow. Everyone in our group was jumping up and down, crying, hugging, laughing. Most of us are a bunch of nerdy scientist-types so it was pretty surreal! We heard yelling outside- a group of folks were parading through the street with huge banners and hanging flags on the bridge near the house. Fireworks were going off all over the city. It. Was. Amazing.

I don't think anyone in the city was able to sleep without a liberal dose of alcohol. I had to take half a unisom just to calm down at 1:30am and finally try to go to sleep. I had to teach an 8am lab the next morning. My first comment was, "I'm not going to ask how many of you are still hungover, I just want to know how many of you are still drunk!" There was a whole classroom of exhausted smiles.

Today, banners fly throughout the city and cars are painted with the slogan- "It IS next year." The most common thing I hear people say is- I wish my dad (or mom, or cousin, or brother, or priest) had lived to see this day. So Pigs are Flying, Hell has frozen over, and the Saints are in the Superbowl. Whether they win or lose, they will have the biggest parade New Orleans can throw them (and you know we know how to throw a parade!).

So, even if you're not a sports fan, even if you've never watched a football game, even if you've never been to New Orleans, next week when the Saints play the Colts in Miami whisper a "Who Dat!" for America's team.

Geaux Saints!

-Sarah Brock-Strickland (29 January 2010)