Saints Victory More Than Just a Win

Heading into Sunday’s game, 100 million plus sat in awe as Super Bowl XLIV came to a close.  The New Orleans Saints, favored to lose, pulled away from Peyton Manning and a very strong Colts team looking to win a championship just one year after losing head coach Tony Dungy.

But something about this Super Bowl was simply spectacular.  The New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts; two great teams, and a formula for one incredible game.  The Saints proved to be more than a typical NFL team on a breezy Sunday night in south Florida, though.  They were a dream come true.

For some reason, I felt ecstatic when Saints quarterback Drew Brees took that final knee.  It was odd, while I dislike the Colts as much as any other guy, the Saints seemed to represent something much more than a team.

Sure, they’re a great group of athletes and they had won the Superbowl, but that’s not why I felt so good about the 2010 champs.

Sunday night, the Saints represented a city that was at one point twenty feet under water.  They represented the people who lost everything, and those who are still rebuilding from the ground up.  They represented those who were housed in their football stadium,  starving and desperate.  They represented the devastated and the renewed.  The past and the future.

That’s why far after the confetti stopped falling and the fans went home Sunday night, something else was announced, the city of New Orleans was back.