Once known for nothing more than their fans wearing bags on top of their heads, the Saints are now champions of the football universe

SCOTT JACOBS

If you could capture a moment in Super Bowl XLIV and frame it, a mere definition of the Saints cinderella rise from have nots to Super Bowl champions, Tracy Porter’s unforgettable run to the races has to be it.  The little known– at least to the casual sports fan– Saints cornerback, was an afterthought before kickoff, just another guy on a team run by offensive superstars.  But it was Porter, who intercepted Peyton Manning as the Colts were driving towards a game tying score, and got to make the mad dash of a lifetime– not only into Super Bowl lore, but into New Orleans infamy.

As Porter raced down the sidelines, his Saints teamates racing on the endlines along with him– what could possibly have been going through his mind?  “I just won the Super Bowl?”  “Take that Hurricane Katrina?”  “Who dat gonna beat those Saints?” “I’m going to DisneyWorld?”  “O my God, O my God, O my God?”

Porter’s stunning interception tilted a very even game in favor of the sentimental favorite Saints, and bursted Indianapolis’ bid for a second Super Bowl in four years– a shocking culmination to a game dominated by clock control and up until then, no turnovers.

It wasn’t just Porter.  He just happened to be the one who got to light the torch.  It was the Saints.  From the ground up all the way to the top, the Saints marched from mediocrity into the history books and into the hearts of their battered but never broken city.  From the day Drew Brees signed, to the goose-bump inducing re-opening of the Superdome, even to the NFC Championship game, where Brett Favre panicked and threw a horrible interception keeping their super season alive, the Saints have done this as a collective group.

O what a run that must have been.  I’ve been to New Orleans, and it is a wild city.  I can’t even begin to imagine how Bourbon Street reacted as he picked Manning’s pass off en route to the greatest daylight he had ever seen.  I can’t imagine what all those Saints fans, who for years watched their team fail and fail miserably, felt.  In 43 seasons the closest New Orleans came to a Super Bowl was hosting one.  Before this year they had never won the NFC, never even hosted an NFC Championship game.  This is the same team whose head coach Jim More said in 1996, “We suck!”  The same team that went 1-15 in

1980.  The same team that had never had a single player inducted into the Hall of Fame until this past Saturday.

This is the same franchise that traded away their entire draft for Ricky Williams.  New Orleans played their first home game in 2005 at the Meadowlands because of Hurricane Katrina.  Then they played in San Antonio and Baton Rouge.  Who dat was more like where Dey at now?  Rumors swirled that owner Tom Benson was looking for a way to get out of his Superdome lease so the Saints could bolt for a city that could support them.  People demanded that he sell the team and that a real New Orleans fan save them from moving.

And now they’re Super Bowl Champions.

Who dat could have seen that coming?

I can’t even begin to imagine how Bourbon Street reacted as Porter  picked Manning’s pass off en route to the greatest daylight he had ever seen.  I can’t imagine what all those Saints fans, who for years watched their team fail and fail miserably, felt.

How fitting is it that their franchise quarterback, left for dead by his first choice the Dolphins, instead went to the Saints and won the Super Bowl in Miami?  How fitting is it that a team that could not stop anyone for years and was nothing more than an offensive freakshow with no defensive substance would clinch their berth as champions of the NFL stratosphere with two incredible defensive stands.  How unbelievable is it that their rookie kicker made three fields goals of 40 yards or more, while the steely veteran on the other end couldn’t even make one?

The Saints are more than just a name.  They’re an identity in New Orleans.  The fleur-de-lis is everywhere in the Crescent City, and I’m not just talking about the football team.  It is a fabric of that city and I can say that because I have been there.

The Saints are not your average football team.  Their namesake, Saints,came about because New Orleans was granted an NFL team on the Roman Catholic Holiday All Saints Day.

But the Saints never fit the bill of being conventional.  Their dome, maybe the ugliest on earth, is also the loudest.  Today, coming out of halftime trailing 10-6 the Saints made the unbelievably gutsy call of onside kicking the ball to open the second half.  It completely caught the Colts off guard.  From there New Orleans rolled.

Spotting the Colts 10-0 after one, the Saints outscored Indianapolis 31-7 the rest of the night.  It wasn’t dominant, it was methodical: but for Saints fans it was perfect.  Drew Brees was dead on sharp after an inconsistent first quarter, earning Super Bowl MVP honors after finishing the game a calm, cool, collective 32-39 for 288 yards and two scores.  But it was the fantastic contributions from guys like Pierre Thomas who was effective on the ground and catching the ball and the ballsy bounce back effort of superstar in waiting Marquis Colston that really put the Saints over the top.  Thomas had just 30 yards rushing, but also had 55 yards receiving and one touchdown.  His efforts should not be overlooked.  And Colston, who had an awful drop early on, battled back to make great catch after catch, finishing with 83 yards.

“I knew it was going to come,” said once annointed franchise savior Reggie Bush (who had a mediocre game), about his team winning their first ever Super Bowl.  How many others foresaw it though?

I remember watching news coverage of Hurricane Katrina back in 2005 and wondering not how the Saints would bounce back, but if the city would ever come back.  The Big Easy is not perfect, even after this unbelievable win, but it feels a heck of a lot better for those who latched onto the Saints for comfort.

The team that was once nicknamed the ‘Aints, the same team that stumbled into this post-season having lost three straight and being written off despite the fact that they won their first 13, came into the Big Game as the Big Question mark.  Many, including myself doubted them aloud, and whether they truly even belonged here. I guess we were wrong.  Very wrong.

But New Orleans is used to many, many wrong things happening to their city: a city that was nearly written off a few years ago after the worst natural disaster this country had ever seen.

So it feels o so right that the Saints are now Super Bowl Champions.  The ‘Aints.  The team that made paper bags a fashion statement. Who could have seen dat coming?

Photo: Reuters

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