Super Bowl bid brings healing to New Orleans

by Reginald Rogers
Paraglide

It has taken more than four years for the U.S. government, the state of Louisiana and citizens of New Orleans to rebuild a city that was nearly destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It took the New Orleans Saints football team all of 66 minutes and 21 seconds to let the world know that the city had been rebuilt.

Garrett Hartley’s 40-yard field goal nearly five minutes into the extra period sent a signal to the rest of the country that said: New Orleans is now open for business.

It has been a long journey for the Saints and the people of New Orleans as the Saints entered the league as an expansion team in 1967. Initially, the team played its home games at Tulane Stadium, until relocating to the Louisiana Superdome in 1975.

It took the Saints more than 10 years before they were able to claim a .500 season and another 10 before claiming a winning season. Sunday’s victory catapulted the team into its first ever Super Bowl, which came more than 42 years after the team was formed.

The Saints, or the “Aints,” as they were often called in the late 70s and early 80s, posted winning records from 1987 through 1992, as they earned playoff berths in each of those years. But each year, they found themselves on the sidelines as the playoffs continued to the second-round and the Saints’ journey ended with a first round knockout. It wasn’t until 2000 that the “Aints” topped the then defending Super Bowl champion St. Louis Rams for their first playoff victory.

Many have often attributed the team’s dismal seasons to a supernatural power, seeing as how part of the Superdome complex is built over a former above-ground cemetery. The Girod Street Cemetery was once the final resting place for many of the city’s prominent citizens until 1957, a mere 10 years before the team was founded. Many have even attributed the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the city’s history of hosting wild parties (hence, Mardi Gras) and practicing voodoo, which is a religion with which many of the city’s Creole citizens were associated.
For a city that has always maintained a reputation for being a tourist favorite, New Orleans is an unlikely hot spot.

First off, the city’s location identifies it as a disaster waiting to happen – again. New Orleans sits at the mouth of the Mississippi River. It also borders Lake Pontchartrain, which is the country’s second largest saltwater lake and Louisiana’s largest. The lake features 630 square miles of water and has an average depth of 12 to 14 feet. To make matters worse, New Orleans also borders the Gulf of Mexico. It was these three bodies of water that collided and caused the destructive flood waters that blanketed the city, in the midst of Hurricane Katrina. To further compound the city’s probability for disaster, the majority of its parishes sit below sea level.
As late as 10 p.m., buses departed the Superdome, on Aug. 31, 2005, carrying New Orleans evacuees to Houston’s Astrodome and in a sense, dividing the city. Ironically, it was within the same hour that Hartley kicked the game-winning field goal that brought the city back together.
New Orleans has a population of 1,167, 294 and at any given time, its popular Bourbon Street is packed with bar-hoppers, tourists and shoppers. On Sunday, that was not the case, as several video shots concluded that New Orleans looked like a ghost town. Literally. There were only a handful of patrons on Bourbon Street and the 72,968 seats at the Superdome were filled to capacity. You see, barring the Raider Nation, the New Orleans Saints have what are quite possibly, the most die-hard fans in the National Football League. They are devoted to their Saints, win or lose. That’s one thing that I love about New Orleans. Unlike the Philadelphia Eagles fans, who are somewhat turncoats when it comes to their “beloved” Eagles. You’d never see Saints fans throwing snowballs at their own team, if it were at all possible in Louisiana. In case of a close defeat, Saints fans would prefer to channel their energy elsewhere and, instead, throw a party.

After the dome was nearly destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, less than a year later, the team opened the 2006 season there and treated its fans to a 23-3 victory over its archrival Atlanta Falcons.

I can only describe this NFL postseason with one word — fitting.

I was glad to see the Saints make it to the Super Bowl. Their victory over the Minnesota Vikings was the only fitting culmination to a great season. The boys from the bottom ran and passed through almost every team in the league, before their loss to the Dallas Cowboys during the Cowboys’ final push for the playoffs. The Saints still finished as the National Football Conference Champions with a 13-3 record.

Therefore, it’s only fitting that the Saints should face the Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl. The Colts declared themselves best in the American Football Conference by finishing 14-2. Also, while Drew Brees established himself as one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL this season, Colts hurler and current league MVP Peyton Manning is still, in my opinion, the best in the business. No one can dissect a defense like Mr. Manning, who is probably the only quarterback in the league who calls his own offensive plays.

It’s also only fitting that Manning would face his father’s former team, the Saints, in the Super Bowl. After years of comparisons, Peyton finally has a chance to put separation between himself, his brother Eli, who’s the New York Giants’ starting quarterback and their hall of fame dad, Archie, who was a perennial pro bowler in his heyday. While Eli can boast of winning a Super Bowl ring a year before his famous brother. Peyton has an opportunity to win his second in four years. Archie Manning never got close to a Super Bowl with the dismal Saints.

So, if you ask me who’s going to win the Super Bowl XLIV and why, I’ll have to say the Peyton and the Colts will fight off a second quarter attack and take home their second title in four years. Trust me, it’s going to happen.
It’s only fitting.