In Saints We Trust

How about that Super Bowl on Sunday, huh? I found this article about what the Saints' win means for the city of New Orleans and thought I'd repost it here. Enjoy!

IN SAINTS WE TRUST

NEW ORLEANS - It seems Mardi Gras has come early this year. Shouts of "Who dat?" echoed through the streets of New Orleans' French Quarter Sunday night as throngs of euphoric fans celebrated the Saints' win over the Indianapolis Colts in the former's first Super Bowl appearance ever. The triumph was remarkable for the underdog Saints, but even more so for the city they call home.

"It's a miracle!" shouted Ray White, a lifetime resident of the Big Easy's Bucktown neighborhood. "Put this one down in the record books. No, forget the record books. Put this one into Scripture!"

White's opinion of the historic win was shared by many revelers on Bourbon Street.

"This wasn't just a football game," explained Allison Higgins between sips from a three-foot beer flute. "This was the rebirth of a city." Higgins, who moved from New Orleans after the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and was in town to watch the game with relatives, says the Saints winning the Super Bowl will solve every one of the Crescent City's problems, which many had considered insurmountable until about the middle of the 2009-2010 NFL season.

"I heard the entire city just up and elevated itself. Literally. Nothing - and I'm talking not even Lake Pontchartrain - is lower than fifteen feet above sea level now." After high-fiving a nearby homeless man, she added, "The Saints have done it! Who dat?!"

The win also seems to have relieved racial tension in the Big Easy, a city long plagued by prejudice. "I used to dislike me some black people for no reason other than the fact that they different than me," admits 78 year-old Carl LeFranc, a self-described 'cau-Cajun'. "But when I saw them white folk playing the football with them black folk, it set me to thinking. If they all can work together to win them a sports competition, then it necessarily follows that the City of Nawlins has been cleansed of all her myriad afflictions."

Falling in step with the rest of the city, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans announced plans to ask the Pope to canonize Saints quarterback Drew Brees and coach Sean Payton. "Archbishop Aymond has written to his Holiness urging him to expedite the canonization process," reported the Rt. Rev. Paul Kafkin, the Archdiocese's public relations chair.

"Normally you have to wait until a candidate has been dead for five years, but I can't imagine the Holy See wouldn't overrule that," Kafkin mused as he finished spray-painting over the words 'Louis' and 'Cathedral' on the sign in front of historic Saint Louis Cathedral, then adding an 's' to the remaining 'Saint'. "I mean, c'mon. It already says 'Saints' on their uniforms. It feels like we're halfway there."

Even residents of the Ninth Ward, a section of New Orleans all but leveled by 2005's flooding, expressed unbridled optimism. Leroy Johnson, 53, who lost his house, dog, tractor, wife, and ice cream truck in the floods, says he thinks the Super Bowl win will magically cause his neighborhood to be rebuilt. "I heard 'Touchdown Saints!' when I was listening to the game on my transistor radio, which incidentally was the only one of my possessions or relatives to survive Katrina," recounts Johnson. "And right then and there I knew: I'm getting my life back."

The enthusiasm wasn't limited to the Mississippi Delta; it spread at least as far as Washington. President Obama issued a statement minutes after time expired on the Super Bowl game clock. "I offer my congratulations to the people of New Orleans and the entire Gulf Region on this thrilling night," the statement read. "The way this football team took a struggling city, elevated it onto its shoulders, and made it the greatest urban confluence in modern memory is inspiring to cities worldwide. My fervent hope is that next year the Nationals will rise up and win the Pennant for the District of Columbia. That'll finally sort out this health care mess."