It has finally happened. The New Orleans Saints have finally gotten to the Super Bowl. It has been a crazy season for them, not to mention a crazy history for them period. In 40+ years of being an NFL franchise, they now have the opportunity to play for a championship. Watching the post game tonight, listening to the reactions of the Saint players, there was a sense of relief. This is a team who's fanned pioneered the game day fashion statement of wearing bags over their heads. And now here they are, two weeks from playing in the biggest sporting event there is.
This is a day that has to have felt as though it would never come. After all the years of losing, of not even being close, this must be a feeling of relief. It was big the fist time they made the playoffs; bigger when they finally won a playoff game; bigger still when four years ago they reached their first ever NFC Championship game; even bigger to have the chance to HOST an NFC Championship game (the first ever in New Orleans), and now to have won that game and be headed to the Super Bowl.
One of the things that makes this even sweeter for the fans of the Saints is that it comes after so much loss and devastation due to Hurricane Katrina four years ago. Sean Payton touched on it tonight when he accepted the trophy, that four years ago the Super Dome had holes in the roof, water on the field, and people being housed there. But it was the way the players stepped up in this time of need, the way that the people of New Orleans embraced this team even through the 3-13 season that immediately followed the devastation, that must make this such a very sweet moment for not only the players but the city as a whole as well.
Yes it is a football game, but it is so much bigger than that. This is relief, this is history this is the turn around that the city not only wanted but needed, this was redemption. They are the Ain'ts no more after today. Peace and Love y'all.
