Great, and I mean great, article on the Saints from ESPN.com..

[hullabaloodog]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?page=hotread14/Saints

 

[lawdawg02]

... such as an NOPD cop telling me the 911 calls almost stop when the Saints play and there's been only one murder during a game this year.</p>

 

[RobbieRandolph]

nt

 

[jakldawg]

and I don't mean columnist turned celeb like Albom or Lupica, or hipper-than-thou blogger like Simmons, or whatever the heck Rick Riley is anymore, I mean actual writing.
Here's another recent example.

 

[wbc40]

Makes me wish I was in the Big Easy. Thanks for linking it.

 

[BigMotherTucker]

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.</p>

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.</p>

The people in New Orleans would never forget who gave them that gift.</p>

/Its dusty in here

 

[FlabLoser]

When I drive into Dallas, I see a place sprawling and bland, loops and rings of interstate and, somewhere over the horizon, a stadium representing a just-gone era of bloat and decay … scoreboard so big it interferes with the game … $60 pizzas. It looks new but is dead inside. In contrast, there is the drive out of New Orleans, through a city still battered, past the exits for the Vieux Carre and Uptown, past the Huey Long, which runs narrow and high out to the leaning oyster and chicken shack. All told, this is a city with the opposite calculus of Dallas: It is decayed on the outside, but inside there is life. Here is a citizenry that believes in the power of the underdog. New Orleanians fell first and see something the rest of America is blind to right now: a way back into the light.

I have lived in Dallas and he is right on. What he points out is similar to when the Stars and Mavs moved out of Reunion Arena and into the American Airlines Center. That big flashy new building has no character or excitement in it. It is more about the building and less about the teams.

 

[graddawg]

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.</p>

The game began and, less than two minutes in, the Saints blocked a punt and recovered for a touchdown. <span style="font-weight: bold;">One of my best friends, a chef who grew up in the city, sat on his couch in Mississippi and wept.</span> 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.</p>

The people in New Orleans would never forget who gave them that gift.</p>

/Its dusty in here

John Currence?

 

[saltybulldog]

Republican strategist Mary Matalin and Democratic strategist James Carville have an Uptown New Orleans home and love the Saints.

Maybe it is common knowledge, but I sure didnt know he was with a republican. What I wouldnt give to be an occasional scotch sipper with that group...sure makes my crowd dull.

 

[JohnDawg]

nm

 

[ninja dawg]

Great find...i thought i was going to have to excuse myself from the office for a second. It felt like something in my eye.</p>

 

[OMlawdog]

As someone who had an Uncle, Grandparents, Parents, and Aunt all lose homes either in the 9th ward, or on the MS Gulf Coast, when Katrina hit, that article was amazing. One of the best articles I have ever read, and he seems to get it.

The love people have for the Saints that lived through katrina who lost everything, and almost lost the saints really is amazing. The Saints were followed before Katrina, but the affection that Saint fans have for their team is matches or even potentially exceeds LSU fans love for LSU. Before Katrina, the average LSU/Saint fan would have traded 5 winless season for one National Title. Now, I think LSU/Saints fans would trade a Super Bowl win, for a winless LSU season, at least the New Orleans LSU fans would.

Just an amazing article.

 

[hullabaloodog]

Sad, but incredible story...