Sunday, February 28, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Why I Wanted The Saint's To Win...
I live in New Orleans, but I'm from Florida. Florida has enough football for me to have my favorites. As a kid, I didn't connect with any particular team. Actually, I did. My Dad went to Florida State University for one year. Thus he was a Seminoles fan. I don't know why, though, because as a child he lived in closer proximity to Gainsville (where the University of Florida is located). My Dad didn't receive either his Bachelors or Masters degrees from FSU, but he raised my brother and I to pull for them. As I got older and rebellion set in, I found myself going for any other team (UF, University of Miami, even the University of Central Florida) just to oppose him. As far as supporting a team in the NFL, I just flipped back between the Miami Dolphins and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I don't even remember when the Jacksonville Jaguars became a franchise because I wasn't interested.
January 2005. I moved to New Orleans, LA for grad school. I didn't quite fall in love with the Saints then because it was the off-season and Katrina gave me the chance to be an adult and get to live with my parents again for another year because my new home was uninhabitable.
August 2006. It wasn't hard to fall in love with the way the boys in Black and Gold played that year. They made it to their first playoff game in some time. Although they lost, I was pulling for them all the way.
The next few years were not so good for the Saints. But since that 2006 season, the Saints have been supported (selling out the Superdome every season since and having a wait list for season tickets that rivals any other NFL team (you wait for years on the waiting list). After Katrina, the Saints have meant more to this city than anyone can imagine. They're a beacon of hope; a light of possibility in a very dark place. Jesus is the light of the world, yes, but the Saints have never shone brighter.
When the Saints beat the better-record Colts, it was a pivotal moment in the city's history. No more were we the Aint's. The Saints, after 43 years as a franchise, became world champs. That's incredible. The city has been nuts ever since the NFC Championship game when we beat the Vikings two and a half weeks ago. It's a historic time to live here. I'm glad I was here. I had nothing to do with the Saints' wins but I get to say, "Yeah, I was there the night they beat a seemingly unbeatable team."
Tuesday there was a giant victory parade. New Orleans does parades a little differently though. It was basically like Mardi Gras with floats and beads-a-flying. It was great. Andrea and I were down on Poydras and S. Peters, next to Harrah's Casino. The clip below is a friend of Andrea who got to high-five Drew Brees.
Sunday night the entire city was in their cars and bikes just honking and waving at everyone passing because the Saints won. Monday a ton of people met the Saints at the airport to welcome the champs home. Tuesday night there was a parade where many hundreds of thousands of people came to see their heroes. Wednesday through next Tuesday we run two or three krewes each night and have parades all the way to Mardi Gras.
Why you wouldn't want to live here is beyond me.
January 2005. I moved to New Orleans, LA for grad school. I didn't quite fall in love with the Saints then because it was the off-season and Katrina gave me the chance to be an adult and get to live with my parents again for another year because my new home was uninhabitable.
August 2006. It wasn't hard to fall in love with the way the boys in Black and Gold played that year. They made it to their first playoff game in some time. Although they lost, I was pulling for them all the way.
The next few years were not so good for the Saints. But since that 2006 season, the Saints have been supported (selling out the Superdome every season since and having a wait list for season tickets that rivals any other NFL team (you wait for years on the waiting list). After Katrina, the Saints have meant more to this city than anyone can imagine. They're a beacon of hope; a light of possibility in a very dark place. Jesus is the light of the world, yes, but the Saints have never shone brighter.
When the Saints beat the better-record Colts, it was a pivotal moment in the city's history. No more were we the Aint's. The Saints, after 43 years as a franchise, became world champs. That's incredible. The city has been nuts ever since the NFC Championship game when we beat the Vikings two and a half weeks ago. It's a historic time to live here. I'm glad I was here. I had nothing to do with the Saints' wins but I get to say, "Yeah, I was there the night they beat a seemingly unbeatable team."
Tuesday there was a giant victory parade. New Orleans does parades a little differently though. It was basically like Mardi Gras with floats and beads-a-flying. It was great. Andrea and I were down on Poydras and S. Peters, next to Harrah's Casino. The clip below is a friend of Andrea who got to high-five Drew Brees.
Sunday night the entire city was in their cars and bikes just honking and waving at everyone passing because the Saints won. Monday a ton of people met the Saints at the airport to welcome the champs home. Tuesday night there was a parade where many hundreds of thousands of people came to see their heroes. Wednesday through next Tuesday we run two or three krewes each night and have parades all the way to Mardi Gras.
Why you wouldn't want to live here is beyond me.
Thursday, February 04, 2010
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
New Orleans is Filling up Again!
But, not with water! Thankfully, in the wake of Katrina, save for some bad thunder storms in December of 2009, we haven't experienced any real flooding events like the kind we had in August 2005. And, if you've been watching the NFL at all, you will have seen that Black and Gold from New Orleans are in the Superbowl. I will attempt to put into words what this means to me in a few days, but I found this article on our local Fox affiliate and I thought it was interesting.
"The city of the Saints is filling up with ex-New Orleanians and others ahead of the Super Bowl, many looking to cast off a legacy of football futility and natural disaster — others just looking to party down in one of the world's greatest party towns."
"'We're gearing up for Sunday just like Mardi Gras day," said Earl Bernhardt, a bar owner in the French Quarter. "We're staffing just like we do for Mardi Gras, and if the Saints win, we won't close at all. We'll stay open as long as people are standing.'"
Apparently, everyone wants to party in New Orleans for the Superbowl. I bet locals think this is good for both the city's pulse and our economy; and since I actually live in Mid-City, I suppose that I think this is a good thing too. That is, until I drive somewhere. The city is filling up, yes, so much so that I can tell when getting down to the store or the post office is taking longer because that much more traffic is on the road. How absurd is that? When festivals happen throughout the year (Jazz Fest, Essence Fest, French Quarter Fest, Voodoo Fest, just to name the big ones), you know which parts of town to avoid simply because the sheer volume of people has expanded many folds. But people are coming to New Orleans just to watch a game that's taking place a thousand miles away?
Apparently, this isn't the case in Indianapolis, where the dreaded (and favored to win) Colts hail from:
"Kimberly Harms, a spokeswoman for the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association, said there was no noticeable jump in hotel occupancy there for the weekend. She noted, however that one hotel had set aside 44 rooms at the special rate of $144 in honor of the forty-fourth Super Bowl. If Indianapolis wins, she said, the rooms will be free for those staying in them."
All in all, this proves to be a good game, even if it makes my errand-running take slightly longer. Peyton Manning seems like a nice person. When he hosted SNL, some of his sketches were hilarious (the one where he's a mentor to children and then cusses at the kids when they mess up). His father played for the Saints and both Peyton and Eli Manning attended school here in the city. With the fact that this is the Saints first Superbowl, though, and as it's said around these parts, all I can say is "Who Dat!"
*You can find the article I cited on Fox 8's website*
"The city of the Saints is filling up with ex-New Orleanians and others ahead of the Super Bowl, many looking to cast off a legacy of football futility and natural disaster — others just looking to party down in one of the world's greatest party towns."
"'We're gearing up for Sunday just like Mardi Gras day," said Earl Bernhardt, a bar owner in the French Quarter. "We're staffing just like we do for Mardi Gras, and if the Saints win, we won't close at all. We'll stay open as long as people are standing.'"
Apparently, everyone wants to party in New Orleans for the Superbowl. I bet locals think this is good for both the city's pulse and our economy; and since I actually live in Mid-City, I suppose that I think this is a good thing too. That is, until I drive somewhere. The city is filling up, yes, so much so that I can tell when getting down to the store or the post office is taking longer because that much more traffic is on the road. How absurd is that? When festivals happen throughout the year (Jazz Fest, Essence Fest, French Quarter Fest, Voodoo Fest, just to name the big ones), you know which parts of town to avoid simply because the sheer volume of people has expanded many folds. But people are coming to New Orleans just to watch a game that's taking place a thousand miles away?
Apparently, this isn't the case in Indianapolis, where the dreaded (and favored to win) Colts hail from:
"Kimberly Harms, a spokeswoman for the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association, said there was no noticeable jump in hotel occupancy there for the weekend. She noted, however that one hotel had set aside 44 rooms at the special rate of $144 in honor of the forty-fourth Super Bowl. If Indianapolis wins, she said, the rooms will be free for those staying in them."
All in all, this proves to be a good game, even if it makes my errand-running take slightly longer. Peyton Manning seems like a nice person. When he hosted SNL, some of his sketches were hilarious (the one where he's a mentor to children and then cusses at the kids when they mess up). His father played for the Saints and both Peyton and Eli Manning attended school here in the city. With the fact that this is the Saints first Superbowl, though, and as it's said around these parts, all I can say is "Who Dat!"
*You can find the article I cited on Fox 8's website*
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