Super Bowl Surprise: Saints Cap Storybook Ending with 31-17 Victory Over Colts

After giving this year’s Super Bowl well over 48 hours to sink in, I’m still in shock after the New Orleans Saints completely stole the show in a 31-17 surprise victory over the seemingly unbeatable Indianapolis Colts.

But I love it.

With quarterback Drew Brees being born and raised in the Lone Star State, it’s only fitting that he landed in the South and helped revitalize a franchise in dire need of a championship season.

This year’s Saints gave the city of New Orleans a new dose of hope and then some, as the city kicked off Mardi Gras a couple weeks early after head coach Sean Payton and his gutsy Who Dat team shocked the nation in Super Bowl XLIV.

“My only wish is that everybody from New Orleans was here with us right now,” Brees’ wife, Brittany, told Sports Illustrated writer Lee Jenkins.

The Brees family, all full of smiles with Drew happily holding their young son Baylen, are ecstatic about the Saints’ Super Bowl win.

“I don’t know that people in New Orleans are going to go to work for a month,” Drew Brees told Jenkins. “Not that I condone that.”

The Pick Heard Round the World

How about Tracy Porter’s nail-in-the-coffin interception, returning the Colts’ I-can-hit-a-needle-in-a-haystack Peyton Manning’s pass 74 yards and to the Saints’ house for a pre-celebration party and bars gone wild in Louisiana.

“I just trusted my eyes and jumped the route,” Porter told Sports Illustrated writer Jim Trotter.

The Little Kicker That Could

Let’s not forget or overlook the clutch kicks by New Orleans’ Garrett Hartley, drilling three field goals from 40-plus yards with strength, accuracy, and ease.

“I guess the confidence from a couple of weeks ago was still there,” Hartley told NYDailyNews.com writer Ralph Vacchiano. “The ball was coming off my foot pretty well all week. It was a dream come true.”

Denton Ramsey may be reached via email at [e-mail]