It’s getting chilly in hell, and we have the New Orleans Saints to thank for the cold front.
With their win this past weekend, the Saints have secured a place in the NFC Championship for the first time in their 41-year existence. And if they can get past the Chicago Bears on Sunday, the Saints will be headed to the big dance – Super Bowl XLI.
The team’s success this season is exceptionally remarkable considering last season they divided their home games between Tiger Stadium and the Alamodome in San Antonio after Hurricane Katrina severely damaged the Louisiana Superdome. Though they played admirably and carried the hopes of Louisiana on their shoulders, the team finished with an embarrassing 3-13 record.
But with a new head coach and a new quarterback on the roster this year, the Saints’ players have undergone a complete turnaround, giving New Orleans a team of which the city can be proud.
Though Tiger football on this campus will always reign supreme, the students of this University should come together behind the Saints, who represent the struggles thousands have had to withstand in Louisiana. The Saints have given us all something to dream about and hope for, and it’s nice to root for a team that has been the underdog for so long.
Even if the Saints do not go to the Super Bowl, this season will be remembered for decades, and millions of fair-weather fans will claim they were with the Saints all along. But for the true believers, this season will mean a little more. For them, it seems to be a life-long fantasy come true.
People like Illinois Sen. Barak Obama want to squash the “fairy tale” season the Saints have experienced, but our response to the presidential hopeful should be a confident yet probing question that will force him to rethink his allegiance to the Bears. A question familiar to all those who have grown up watching the New Orleans Saints – Who ‘dat say they gonna beat ‘dem Saints?!
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