When a Game is more than a Game
It is widely known that sports plays a huge role in society, and fans can and will be overly critical or overly optimistic, sometimes during same game of their favorite team. It is the life of a sports fan, always pulling for their team and often unable to be realistic due to their dreams of witnessing their team win it all!
But then there are those cases when a sports team transcends the sport itself and becomes an integral part of and fabric of a city, region, culture. Literally, when couples plan having their children in the off season, or taking vacations and putting off elective surgeries not to miss one moment of their teams season. Suffice to say these are fanatical fans, in a good way.
Add to this that the team in question had been a perennial loser for over 25 years, yet fan support remained - with chants every year, that this was going to be our year!
Then just when the team and city could least afford it, disaster strikes in the form of a cataclysmic storm. The city is uninhabitable for weeks, and just when the football season is scheduled to start. The team ends up playing all its games on the road, and its an awful season...and can you even imagine the stress on the players, their families and the throngs of fans who have been disbursed all over the country and who want to come home but cant. If only the team could come home, the fans and in fact the region could build around that one positive.
That was 20 years ago, and in the ensuing off season between 2005 and 2006 there were moments when it was very possible the team would not return but relocate to another city which had been trying to get a team. That would have devastated the city of New Orleans, in fact I remember news stories circulating that if the Saints moved (to San Antonio) New Orleans may never recover...and I believe there was a good chance that would be the case. Today we know there was a lot of politicking going on behind the scenes and in the end Tom Benson made the decision to stay in New Orleans. With a lot of state and NFL concessions to go along with it.
But now the team had to be rebuilt just like NOLA, starting with a new GM, new head coach and coaching staff and more than half the players had to be replaced. It was almost expansion team level. Going into the 2006 season the city was crawling back to life, slowly and not all together going well. A year after the storm and driving through parts of the city was still like the storm just happened. The Superdome had been repaired to the point it was at least football ready, but I remember just how old the dome looked as none of the outside skin had been replaced yet, only the roof had been replaced.
The stadium was ready to host the first two games, so those were played on the road, then came game three, September 25, 2006 against the arch rival Atlanta Falcons. The Saints had gotten off to a very surprising start beating the Browns in week 1 then upsetting the Packers in week 2. So as you might imagine, the fan base was euphoric since the previous four seasons were all losing seasons.
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I remember that Monday, our stores were slammed busy...it truly was like customers shopping for a Super Bowl. Store associates were allowed to wear their Saints gear and the mood was incredibly exciting. And customers were buying anything not nailed down! We could not know then what was in store for Saints fans later that evening.
The pregame went on for hours outside the dome, with the Monday Night Football crew in town, concerts taking place and inside the dome U2 and Greenday performed the pregame entertainment. And when Bono sang the "Saints are Coming"! tying elements of the devastation of Katrina in the lyrics, tears flowed all over the stadium and those watching on TV. It really felt like we were going to be alright after all, it had been a long year.
Then it was finally time to play the game, the noise in the stadium was deafening and the excitement almost uncontrollable. Atlanta accepted the opening kickoff, but the Saints rebuilt defense were not ready to give up a first down...and then the magic happened, maybe as some say it was predestined to happened. When Steve Gleason bust through the offense to block the punt which Curtis DeLoach recovered for a touchdown. At that moment, it was more than a block punt and Saints touchdown, it truly was a sign we were back...as a team, a city, a people and we were not letting go.
It is hard to describe what that single moment meant to Saints fans and a city...but it is widely believed that without the Saints football team there is no NOLA. That is how important that moment was and still is some 19 years later. As the team surged so did the city. Truly investment came and recovery improved greatly because of the success of a football team.
The amazing season of 2006 would end in an appearance in the 2006 NFC Championship against the Bears, which the Saints would lose. But the mission was set, and over the next 17 years Sean Payton and Drew Brees led us all on a wild ride of highs and some lows from SuperBowl champion to Bounty Gate. And along the way, the most successful span of Saints teams in the history of the organization.
So when Saints fans talk about how passionate they are, even though there have been many lean years, its more than wins and loses, its a cultural and generational connection with the team. We ride with the team no matter what.