New Orleans Saints Always Give their Fans Hope!!

The 2008 season is almost here, I thought it would be only fitting to talk about a common trait found in all Saints fans, hope; and  to share a moment that makes me proud to wear the black and gold.

It was the 2006 NFC championship game, Saints vs. Bears, and I was like a kid on the first day of school. The night before I laid out my Reggie Bush No. 25 jersey and placed my Saints cap next to it, then drifted to sleep, with visions of Drew Brees connecting with Colston for the game winning touchdown that would send them to the Super Bowl for the first time in team history.

I had accepted an invitation to watch the game at a friend’s house, but this  was not going to be your normal setting. I was going into the lions den. I would be the only one with Black and Gold on.

You see, my friend was a die hard Bears fan, and so would be the other five guys watching the game. Was I scared, you ask? In no way shape or form. I walked in with the same strut and swagger, of a father carrying his new born baby.

After a week of friendly trash talking, the time had come. Nothing was going to keep the Saints from going to the Super Bowl. It was destiny. After all the years we die hard Saints fans had been througt, it was finally our time.

Each play seemed to have the same feeling as a game winning touchdown, even if it was only for a three yard gain. When the Bears scored first, I did not hesitate to inform my friends that their lead would be short lived.

Then without warning, the left side swing pass to Bush, and it was off to the races. I jumped up, did my own touchdown dance, and commenced with the “I told you so.”  It had begun; the Saints were going to march through a snowy Soldier Field, en route to sunny Miami for the Super Bowl. 

Then disaster hit—The Saints found themselves with their backs to their own end zone, we needed a play if we wanted to at least give Weatherford some room to punt. Brees dropped back, he looked left then right, no one was open and the pocket was closing in. He scrambled to the right, and it was then I knew what he wanted to do.

I screamed, “Don’t throw it away”, but alas he did not hear me. “Safety” was the call, with Urlacher in the face of the referee, hands together atop his head.

The Saints could not recover; and the dream was slowly slipping away, and then in an instant, the light that was burning so bright, was no more. The Saints miracle season was over.

I left with my head up high, proud of my Saints, for they had did what no other had done in team history. I slept good that night, with the thought of the 2007 season.

We all know how 2007 turned out; we were early favorites to make it to the Super Bowl.  2007 would be the year the Saints would win it all. Then came the four straight losses, and it seemed that the curse had once again returned.

Everyone has jumped off the bandwagon, and so it is only us, the die hard fans, and the ones that year after year greet each new season with one thing in mind, HOPE….

This article was first posted on July 23rd, 2008

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