More Than a Team: The 2006 New Orleans Saints

After calling most of my friends to tell them to tune into our local sports radio station, I paced my backyard waiting for the DJ to put me on the air. 

The line finally clicked over and a voice spoke, revealing the reason that I called in that evening. 

"Patrick from Metairie," spoke the faceless voice. "Who should the Saints target at QB, following Aaron Brooks' forgettable 2005 campaign?" 

Now, in Brooks' defense, not a single person that called New Orleans home in 2005 had much to cheer about. Hurricane Katrina made sure that not even the Saints were spared in the rebuilding effort that was to come. 

"Drew Brees," I responded to the personality on the other end of the phone, knowing that even in the unlikely event that we signed him, it would surely not be enough to overhaul a team that now had so much in common with the city it represented. 

I honestly liked Jim Haslett during his time in New Orleans. But when Katrina hit, whether we all knew it or not, letting him and most of his players and staff walk was necessary.

Nobody wanted to be reminded of Katrina in any capacity, and at the time the Saints were nothing but that. 

The good thing about being at your lowest, though, is that you have no choice but to look up.

I'm not saying that my suggestion on that January evening led directly to Brees becoming a Saint. No, we can thank the San Diego Chargers for that. 

What I'm saying is that as terrible as the Saints were at that point, they couldn't be any worse off than any of their fans.

The Saints, their faithful followers...all we could do was look up.   

Hand in hand, the city that love forgot and the team they loved so dearly began to pick up the pieces. After signing Brees, it didn't seem to matter who else would be donning black and gold in 2006. 

Every step was one in the right direction: new QB, new first-round pick, new head coach, new defense. We weren't very familiar with many of them but we didn't care. 

We were going to root for these guys no matter what because they were literally all that we had to cling to. 

With nothing else to lose, it seemed, our new-look Saints won their first two games on the road to set up an unforgettable rebirth in the return to the Superdome on Monday Night Football. 

I cannot begin to piece together the words to describe the feeling that came over the crowd the moment that first punt was blocked for a score. 

Put it this way: I was dating a girl for a few months and I took her to this game. It was her first Saints game. We have been together ever since. 

On the Saints trudged en route to a division title, the first for them since Jim Haslett and Aaron Brooks stole our hearts in 2000. 

But this love was a new one. It was pure and it was real.

That complete strangers like Brees, Sean Payton, Reggie Bush, Scott Fujita, and Marques Colston were rescuing a community out of the deep end spoke volumes about what they meant to us, and us to them. 

Our Saints weren't just playing football anymore. They were giving us a reason to hope and smile. 

And there was absolutely no doubt that they were ours. Ours and no one else's.

The Saints took us further that year than we have ever been before, within one game of a Super Bowl berth. But the season was hardly a failure.

The 2006 Saints connected with its fans that year in a way that perhaps no other sports team has in recent history. 

Fleur-de-lis are common in New Orleans, but if we could have all gotten them tattooed on our hearts we certainly would have.

That's why the 2006 New Orleans Saints are and always will be my favorite team of all time.