New Orleans Saints' Win Proves American Sports Are More Than Just a Game

As the final seconds ticked off the clock in the Saints' 31-17 victory in their first-ever Super Bowl appearance, cameras on every sports television network in America focused their lenses on Bourbon Street.

Bourbon Street, which is located in downtown New Orleans—home of the Saints.

Thus, the unofficial world record for the quickest and largest "impulse" party ensued down on the streets of New Orleans. We were all ready for it. Saints fans already had their dress rehearsal two weekends ago.

They knew what to do.

How quickly we forgot that the actual Super Bowl game was played in north Miami. As the party ensued down in the "Big Easy" and the rest of the Gulf Coast region, Miami became a much lesser venue.

This Super Bowl was different than the rest. Never before has an NFL Championship meant more to a city.

What last night's game proved more than anything was that sports have the potential to be a much more powerful tool than we credit them to be.

The strangely correlated relation between the state of the city of New Orleans and New Orleans Saints' football has become an inspiring story that has captivated our entire country.

The New Orleans Saints organization took 21 years just to have a winning season. Their fans would pay to show up for games and then wear bags over their heads. Their "franchise" was a big pile of trash for years.

New Orleans, the city, took on a similar route. Hurricane Katrina completely dismantled the region, an event which was traumatic enough to have the jaws of every single American drop.

People say when something big happens, you will remember where you were, who you were with and what you said for the rest of your life.

Well, it's only been five years so far, but I still remember exactly all of those things from when I figured out an entire American city was completely underwater.

I was 15-years-old at the time. I was spending the day home, sick, and sleeping on the couch in my living room.

Here in Atlanta, we had been dealing with terrible weather all week thanks to the band of tropical storms that came through; however, I was completely ignorant to what happened in the Gulf Coast.

Then I turned on the TV.

The news station was showing a family of four, all sitting on a roof top. Water was splashing up onto that roof top. A basket was being lowered to help the people up.

It took me a good five minutes to comprehend what was going on. Maybe a small part of New Orleans was under water? How did New Orleans go under water? (I wasn't so geographically inclined at the age of 15, not realizing how vulnerable that area was to a mass flood.)

I'll never forget that image, because the kid that was getting helped up by the rescuer was sporting a New Orleans Saints T-shirt.

The next image shown on the screen was the Louisiana Superdome, the home of my hated rival New Orleans Saints, with half a roof.

Those two symbols—the Saints logo and the Superdome—showed to me, a sports fan, just how real this situation actually was.

This wasn't some far away disaster. This was hitting home, happening to people just like me.

I sat and watched TV reports of the hurricane from 1 p.m., when I turned the TV on, until midnight.

The devastation had me glued and upset, but I remember thinking, "The Saints are never going to play again. They will never play in that Dome ever again."

According to me and my diagnosis, a professional sports franchise had been destroyed.

New Orleans would slowly begin rebuilding; however, the once-bubbling city had become the American wasteland. A living hell. The last place in this country anyone wanted to be.

The Saints organization, tied heart-for-heart with the city, displayed that same condition. They began playing home games on the road, in Baton Rouge and San Antonio with absolutely no fan turnout.

They were losing, and you felt there was absolutely no way this team would ever get back on its feet. The city of Los Angeles and their NFL compatible stadium plans were waiting.

But the Saints never gave in, and practicing on muddy high school fields, the Saints pushed on.

Is it not amazing how the state of this sports team has so accurately depicted the state of the town they play in?

For me, this is an amazing event. Maybe it's because I'm an Atlantan. Many of the people who live here are transplants from other cities: Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New York.

New Orleans.

Atlanta would never rally around a hometown team like New Orleans would.

But last night, five years after the hurricane, New Orleans proved to the world that they are back.

And their beloved Saints have channeled their success in front of the entire world.

As I said, Atlanta could never muster enough fans to invest so much of their energy in a sports team. We couldn't take care of it on our own.

Yet the Saints were able to capture not just their entire city, but the entire country.

Just about every single American soul outside of Indiana cheered for the Saints last night. I definitely did, but I've never found myself cheering so genuinely for a team I could otherwise care less about.

I'm a Falcons fan, and a die hard one at that. I'm supposed to hate the Saints.

But last night, when Tracy Porter stepped in front of Peyton Manning's pass and ran it back to 35,000 screaming Black and Gold fans, I jumped out of my seat and threw my arms up screaming, "Run, buddy! Run, buddy!"

And when he finally scored, I could feel my heart beating rapidly; that heartbeat you get when your team wins a big game.

Every sports fan knows what I am getting at here. You have a connection with your team; one that breaks your heart with losses and fills you with joy as wins come around.

I was genuinely excited for the Saints. I felt like my team had won something huge.

This was a phenomenon I had never experienced before, but for some reason, even though the Saints are my No. 1 rival, I welcomed it.

By night's end, I kind of forgot that I was (am) not a Saints fan and never will be.

People say sports aren't real life. My dad makes fun of me all of the time for favoring sports over "real world" things like CNN or C-SPAN or books.

But what is "real life" really all about? Knowledge? Filling yourself with intellect?

Or is it about joy? Love, perhaps?

Life is about the things that stick with you—the things that stick to your soul. It's about the people you meet and activities you do that make your heart race.

Last night, as Tracy Porter ran back that interception, he wasn't running back a football.

He was running back the heart of New Orleans and the rest of America.

And dad gummit, God forbid, my heart was flat-out racing.

Are people going to honestly tell me that Saints fans' hearts weren't racing 100 times faster than mine was? Because I assure you they must have been way more excited than me.

The Saints victory was more than a professional franchise's victory. The Saints victory was for the city of New Orleans, the state of Louisiana and every sports fan and genuine American around the country.

It was a life-changing victory for those people. That sports team has been a display of the hope, courage and redemption that lies within every American sports fan, and every American citizen.

The Louisiana Superdome, once without a roof, symbolized the devastation of New Orleans.

Now the Louisiana Superdome symbolizes the Super Bowl Champions, as well as the power of love and American spirit that exists with sports.

Out of all things, sports are not some unaffected element that hinders the dignity of ones who obsess over it.

Sports are a part of life. They are a part of our culture. They represent every mood, condition and trait of our entire society.

You saw Bourbon Street last night. Don't tell me you weren't happy for what you saw: the massive party. People were smiling, giving strangers high fives and kisses.

All of a sudden, everyone in that town became best of friends. Every single one of those people—the same people who represent the hope and redemption of New Orleans—wore Saints Black and Gold.

People say when something big happens you will remember where you were, who you were with and what you said. And that you will never forget for the rest of your life.

Well, I will always remember where I was, who I was with and what I said as the final seconds ran off in the Saints 31-17 super Bowl victory.

Even as a Falcons fan, I will remember that for the rest of my life.

This is why we love sports. This is why sports are more than just a game.