I'm Rooting for Saints and Their City, and So Should You

MIAMI -- There's a sense they've already won, that the notion of the New Orleans Saints reaching the Super Bowl is preposterously fulfilling enough to render the result anti-climactic. Oh, how wrong could that be? You don't spend quality time in the city, as I have before and after the hurricane, without understanding the importance of New Orleans not losing again. Yes, it's a football game, not a natural disaster leading to death and destruction. Yet here's the chance to leave behind heartache and finally rejoice as one in ways no outsider can grasp.

Losing the Super Bowl would be a continuation of the sadness and dejection. But win the Super Bowl? "Mass pandemonium for weeks upon weeks,'' said Saints part-owner and executive vice president Rita Benson LeBlanc, the 33-year-granddaughter of owner Tom Benson. "I don't know if it will cut off at Lent with Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday. Generally, everything stops after Mardi Gras, but I don't know now. I guarantee you that from Super Bowl to Mardi Gras, it is going to be the biggest time in New Orleans that anyone has ever seen."

Hell, I may join them. Three years ago, I spent a day in the hospital there, victimized by a combination of chest pains and the sick feeling of watching Notre Dame slop up the Sugar Bowl. The rooms still were filled with Katrina-related patients, but the doctors and nurses couldn't have been kinder and more efficient. I have a soft spot in my heart, literally, for the city. So today, I'll privately root for the Saints because I'm rooting for New Orleans.

As it is, Super Bowl XLIV promises to be both XL and require an IV. It will continue the recent trend of highly entertaining action, after too many bow-wows, and will feature enough touchdown-trading to funnel into a wild ending and, perhaps, more cardiac issues throughout the land. No one should be surprised if a field goal decides matters in the final seconds. Pathetically, the game even could spill into sudden-death overtime, which means one of two spectacular quarterbacks capable of memorable performances -- Peyton Manning or Drew Brees -- could be left on the sideline without a chance to retaliate. Foolishly, the NFL will stick to sudden death instead of adopting, say, a 10-minute extra period that allows both teams to have the ball at least once, if not more.

"`We haven't been able to find a better solution," Commisssioner Roger Goodell said Friday. ``We actually think the rule is designed to win games in regulation. The players and coaches all support the system."

But what about the fans? "We'll discuss it,'' he said, ``but I wouldn't hold your breath.''

A writer in Chicago, a fairly insignificant guy, actually suggested the other day that the Katrina angle has been overdone. Obviously, he hasn't spent much time in New Orleans after the fifth deadliest storm in U.S. history, a tragedy that killed 1,836 people and left 705 others missing. Nor has he tapped into the magnitude of the Saints and how they've helped the city heal spiritually, if not physically. No one has been a bigger hero than Brees, who has thrust himself into the community nightmare like no other athlete in my memory. A Texas native who played college football in the Midwest and started his NFL career in San Diego, he knew little about the Big Easy when he arrived. Now?

"The fleur-de-lis symbol dates back to the French monarchy,'' he fired back when asked about it during a media session. "So much of New Orleans' culture comes from the time when we were under French rule. That's just a big part of the culture. It's a big part of what New Orleans is all about. So when you look at that symbol, it is the symbol of the city. It's just like when you look at the American flag when you sing the National Anthem and you stare at it, it makes you well up with pride a little bit. When we see the fleur-de-lis, it makes us well up with pride."

For the Saints to win, Brees will have to be better than Manning, who is trying to further his legacy among history's greatest quarterbacks. A glimmer of hope: In his three games this season against Tom Brady, Kurt Warner and Eli Manning -- Super Bowl MVPs, all -- Brees went 3-0 with 12 touchdowns, zero interceptions, a 75.3 completion percentage, an average of 329 passing yards and a passer rating of 152.8. He's not lacking confidence before the biggest game of his life, one that could catapult him toward the Hall of Fame and Sportsman of the Year territory.

"You can call it nerves or butterflies. I definitely have all those things throughout the course of a game week and into the game,'' he said. "The nerves and those butterflies, slowly as the week goes along, they continue to diminish and what replaces it is confidence. The more you know that you are prepared and ready, and you visualized it and are ready to take on the moment, that's when the confidence comes in. A little bit of nervousness and butterflies is what gives you that edge to be able to go out and play fast and react. A little bit of that is very necessary. If you don't have any of that it may be time to get out."

If Brees combines a Super Bowl victory with his New Orleans savior role, you're looking at one of the great sportsmen ever. "This story is important not only for the people in New Orleans, but I think the people around the country because you do understand how much it means to that community and what they've been through,'' he said. "Our success as a team over the last four years, but especially this year, has been tremendous just in regards to giving so many of the members of that community hope and lifting their spirits. There is still a lot of work to be done there in regards to the rebuilding and the recovery post-Katrina. There are still a lot of people in some pretty dire straits. For us to be able to have the success we're having, it just does so much for that community as far as bringing everyone together.

"I just feel like it's a big responsibility for me. I feel like I've been given a platform to really make a difference in a lot of people's lives, especially those who are less fortunate and those who might not have the opportunities otherwise. I've embraced the community of New Orleans just because it is a special place, and they've embraced me and my wife in a way that I can't even describe. There is nothing more that I want for them than a championship."

The bad news: Of the nine teams in American sports that have played their very first championship games since 2005, eight lost. The only one that won, the Miami Heat, was playing another newcomer, the Dallas Mavericks. The good news: The Saints are a miracle team from a city trying to create a miracle.

South Florida has manufactured wonderful Super Bowl memories. One will not be Warren Sapp, who followed in the tawdry tradition of Stanley Wilson and Eugene Robinson by allegedly getting in trouble the night before the big game in Miami. The NFL Network removed Sapp from the air after he was charged with domestic battery, an incident said to happen early Saturday morning at the Shore Club hotel. At least Sapp isn't playing in the game, but then, many hours remained for another player to find trouble in Miami.

Such episodes aren't worthy of the bigger story here. America's Team is trying to win a Super Bowl, and sorry, we're not talking about the Dallas Cowboys. If I could figure out how to pronounce fleur-de-lis, I might actually wear one.