Who Dat won the Super Bowl? The New Orleans Saints, that's who.
Ain't kidding.
Put away those paper bags forever: Drew Brees and the Saints are National Football League champions, rallying to upset Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 Sunday night in one of pro football's most thrilling title games.
Brees tied a Super Bowl record with 32 completions, the last a two-yard slant to Jeremy Shockey for the winning points with 5:42 remaining. The Pro Bowl quarterback was chosen Super Bowl MVP.
For the first time in as long as I can remember, the 'David' slayed the 'Goliath', and emerged victorious. The best part about this ENORMOUS win, means that MARDI GRAS which starts in 9 days, will probably be the BIGGEST PARTY Bourbon Street has ever seen this year!! =)
A Summary via the New Orleans Tribune:
"We just believed in ourselves and we knew that we had an entire city and maybe an entire country behind us," Brees said. "What can I say? I tried to imagine what this moment would be like for a long time and it's better than expected."
A surprise onside kick sparked the Saints' second-half comeback.
At 8:15 p.m, when Jeremy Shockey’s touchdown put the New Orleans Saints ahead late in the game, the crowds at Pat O’Brien’s exploded. Fifteen minutes later, when Tracy Porter’s interception sealed the deal, strangers were hopping up and down, high-fiving and hugging. And when the gun went off about 8:45 p.m., all of New Orleans -- and all lovers of New Orleans in faraway places – leaped, or wept or punched the air for joy.
Brett Duke/The Times-Picayune
New Orleans Saints fans celebrate on Bourbon Street after the team's Super Bowl XLIV victory Sunday in Miami.
Dear Lord, Hallelujah! Who Dat Nation had reached the Promised Land.
After 43 seasons of marital loyalty, of occasional fan abuse and frequent heartbreak, the Saints and their battered, deliriously joyous city stood atop the world Sunday as the Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts, 31-17 in Super Bowl XLIV in Miami.
It meant so much more than football.
It meant victory for a recovering city that in some places still bears the dirty water lines of Hurricane Katrina. Victory for people who lived two years in trailers. Victory for new post-Katrina friends who fell in love with New Orleans rebuilding it. Victory for New Orleanians cheering in exile from Alaska to Miami. Victory on Facebook and on Twitter. Victory on Bourbon Street, on Caffin Avenue, in Chalmette, in Lakeview and St. Tammany.
And it meant victory for countless New Orleanians like Desana Williams, who left Holly Grove in 1998 for a new life in Stafford, Va. But this weekend, Williams and his wife, Malaika, fought their way off the snowbound Atlantic seaboard to get back home for this.
They could be nowhere else, he said.
In the middle of the French Quarter, five minutes after the victory, he was nearly overcome. “This is so heartfelt,” he said. “Now this city has something to be ecstatic about.”
As quarterback Drew Brees killed the clock, Kristine Mina, frantically clutched her daughter, Jessica, buried in a crowd of hundreds on the patio before an outdoor TV screen at Pat O’Brien’s.
“We wonnnn!” she screamed. “I’ve waited for this all my life.” Strangers pounded on her back.
“I told myself I wouldn’t care whether we win or lose!” she screamed at the top of her voice. “But we’re winning! I wish Buddy D was here!”
“This is a team of destiny!” shouted Tulane second year law student Jeff Sundran.
Suddenly, VE Day celebrations erupted in the French Quarter, Metairie and the River Parishes.
People poured into the streets in the French Quarter, which for days had collected Mardi Gras-like crowds.
A machine spewed bubbles over Chartres Street. Crowds across the region screamed “Who Dat!” hour after hour. “Who Dats!” floated up from the deck of the Canal Street ferry in the middle of the Mississippi River.
People mugged with strangers. On Bourbon Street, a couple in their underwear hugged amid the crowd.
Sydnee White, 19, an adoptive Saints fan, drove four hours with a friend and her parents to be in New Orleans for the game. She bore a sign through the French Quarter carrying the team’s biography: "Conceived in 1967. Delivered today.”
As the game ended, simultaneous celebrations burst forth in Metairie, in Treme and elsewhere.
Seconds after the final gun, patrons poured outside Jiggers Sports Bar onto Veterans Memorial Boulevard, dancing and second-lining.
There was no problem with traffic – in Metairie, home of the auto, there was no traffic.
"Words can't express what this means to me," Paul Kirkparick screamed. "The Saints have been my father's life, my life, my son's life. We are world champions, baby!"
Kirkpatrick, 33, lives in Biloxi, but made sure he was in New Orleans to watch his beloved New Orleans Saints win the Super Bowl.
As did Christian Guild, who drove from Memphis on Saturday night to see the game. "This is just amazing for the city," Guild said. "Because this is for everyone! Everyone! I wouldn't want to be anywhere else for this.”
In central Metairie, residents poured from their homes into the street in joyous celebration. Fireworks lit up the sky, sirens wailed and “Who Dats” filled the air.
In Treme, trumpeter Kermit Ruffins presided over a celebration at his club, Sidney’s Saloon, smiling and looking natty in an outsize black newsboy cap, a black suit and a fleur-de-lis tie.
The New Orleans trumpeter, who has owned the bar at St. Bernard and St. Claude avenues for two years, started preparing early for the onslaught, fixing barbecued meat, five meatloaves and 15 pounds of red beans and rice.
Within an hour of victory, rivers of headlights from Metairie and the West Bank began to converge on downtown New Orleans.
There was no place to fit them, but no matter; people seemed driven by a need to celebrate with each other.
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The Indianapolis Colts have been to "the Show" before, the New Orleans Saints were making their first trip to a Super Bowl Game in Franchise History. It was not the scoring haven that many predicted, but it had plenty of entertainment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dVGy20akQI
(highlights of the game, it's only 5 minutes, but it sums it up nicely)
For a city that had been RAVAGED a short 5 years ago by Hurricane Katrina (the damage so extensive to their stadium that it took over a year to repair/reopen, forcing them to play an Entire Season on the road),.... the Saints needed this game for them. For every single person who was affected by that Disaster. NEW ORLEANS IS BACK!
This was a storybook ending for not only the city, and the state of Louisiana, but especially the quarterback that the San Diego Chargers wrote off just 4 years ago. Drew Brees was named SuperBowl 44 MVP, and was well deserving in his moment to shine. When you can OUTPLAY one of the best quarterbacks in League History (Peyton Manning of the Colts), that shows you've got a future in this game.
For any of you that don't follow football on a regular basis... here's the WIKIPEDIA 2009 SuperBowl Breakdown. (Krysta.. this IS aimed at you.. HAHA)
The game was broadcast live on CBS, and the halftime show featured the English rock band The Who.
Super Bowl XLIV was an American football game pitting the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Indianapolis Colts against the National Football Conference (NFC) champion New Orleans Saints to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 2009 season. The New Orleans Saints defeated the Indianapolis Colts by a score of 31–17, earning their first Super Bowl win. The game was played at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, and the game's kickoff took place at 4:28 p.m. MST on February 7, 2010, the latest calendar date for a Super Bowl yet. The game was the Saints' first Super Bowl appearance and the fourth for the Colts franchise. Coincidentally, all four of the Colts' Super Bowl games have been played in Miami, with their first two games in the former Miami Orange Bowl and the last two in the current Miami stadium (which has changed names several times since its opening, most recently in January 2010).
The Saints entered the game with a 13–3 record for the 2009 regular season, compared to the Colts' 14–2 record. In the playoff games, both teams had a 1st round bye. The Colts entered the Super Bowl off of 20–3 and 30–17 victories, while the Saints advanced with scores of 45–14 and 31–28 (in overtime), defeating last year's runners up the Arizona Cardinals in their first game. The Pittsburgh Steelers, as defending champions, failed to make the playoffs based on tiebreakers. It was the first time since Super Bowl XXVIII (16 years previously) that both number one seeds have reached the Super Bowl. The Saints' head coach was Sean Payton, having joined from the Dallas Cowboys in 2006, while his opposing head coach Jim Caldwell was appointed the Colts head coach in 2009 having joined them in 2002 as assistant head coach.
It was the tenth time the Super Bowl has been held in Miami at the home stadium of the Miami Dolphins: the now-Sun Life Stadium had hosted four previous Super Bowls (XXIII, XXIX, XXXIII, and XLI) and five were played in the Dolphins' now demolished former home, the Miami Orange Bowl (II, III, V, X, XIII). Per convention as an even numbered Super Bowl, the Colts as the AFC representatives had the home team designation, wearing blue jerseys with white pants, while the Saints (who wore their white jerseys in several home games this year) wore white jerseys with gold pants.
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