Yeah, I'm not much of a sports fan much either...but since I also live in New Orleans part of the time, I was rooting for the Saints all year and stunned that they made it to the Super Bowl after 43 years.
So, I made sure to be down there in New Orleans to watch that game from a local bar. It sure paid off!! TOTAL INSANITY!! I walked doen into the French Quarter after the game and all the way there it was wall-to-wall people joyously screaming out of their minds. You could not fit a sheet of paper between people on Bourbon Street, it was so crowded.
Super Bowl also happened to fall dead in the middle of Mardi Gras as well this year, so really out it over the top. Plus, they had the 4-year mayor election the day before Super Bowl and elected the first white mayor in about 40 years...probably because most of them since then ended up in jail
That's not saying much in New Orleans though because the last white mayor's first name was "Moon" and he is the father of the guy who just got elected (a the new mayor's sister is the State Senator!) It's the only city in the USA more corrupt that Chicago, where our President and most of his pals are from. Democracy is great
But back to sports....the Tuesday after Super Bowl the city had a "win or lose" parade planned. All of the big Mardi Gras "crews" that normally compete with each other to have the best parades and floats...each put up thei best float and loaned them for The Saints parade (first time that ever happened.) So, you have this enormous parade with all The Saints players, management, staff, etc. riding on the best floats and throwing out beads, footballs and about anything else they could!! They even had the big trophy on the float with Drew Brees hoisting it in the air as he threw beads with his other one.
They expected like 300,000 people and ONE MILLION showed up for the day!! No violence, just great fun. It could not have been more perfect...people from all walks of life drinking , laughing and partying together in the streets New Orleans style with music everywhere.
Oh...BTW...at the bar where I watched the game, it was VERY emotional. Just as the game started and they sang the National Anthem on TV, the entire crowd in teh bas slowly began to sing until everyone was singing it loud together. I felt like I was in a movie scene becaue my part of the 'hood is a real mixed crowd...white, black, Cajun, straight, gay, rich and pretty damn broke...but the whole place errupted in song. Truly a once in a lifetime thing. I attribute it to how hard everyone in New Orleans had gotten beaten down by Hurricane Katrina and has tried to come back since. The Saints making it to Super Bowl was sort of our vindication in some strange way. NONE of us really expected them to win it...just getting there was more than we could have imagined.
Having had to evacuate the night before Katrina hit and then go back to rebuild my house there and live through all that devastation...the whole Saints thing this year was great.
New Orleans and the Gulf was just starting to get back to being liveable after 5 years....and now we get drowned in friggin' BP oil!!!! What a crime. It smells like a huge gas station in town and my friends are starting to say they itch after bathing or taking showers, so something is up that no one is talking about.
