New Orleans Saints Champions of Super Bowl XLIV

Many football fans, leading with their head, viewed the Indianapolis Colts as the better team coming into Super Bowl XLIV. But when all the multicolored confetti had rained down on Sun Life Stadium, after the New Orleans Saints took down the favored Colts 31-17, the game turned out to be about heart. After the Saints won their first National Football League championship -- 43 years after they played their first game -- they talked about the once-ravaged city they represent. “We play for so much more than ourselves,” said Saints quarterback Drew Brees with his brown hair matted to his forehead. “We played for our city.

We played for the entire Gulf Coast region. We played for the entire Who Dat nation that has been behind us every step of the way.” Brees referenced trying to rebuild New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina -- and a football franchise, too. Burn those bags. Put the S back in front of those Ain’ts. These Saints, finally, are Superb. “It means everything,” Brees said. “We’re here because of their strength and everything they fought through here the last few years. They’ve given us so much support, so we owe it all to our fans.”

Some 700 miles away from Sun Life Stadium, it was All Saints Night on Bourbon Street as the French Quarter rocked with something approaching Mardi Gras intensity. “Just to think of the road we’ve all traveled, the adversity we’ve all faced,” Brees said. “It’s unbelievable. I mean, are you kidding me? Four years ago, whoever thought this would be happening? Eighty-five percent of the city was under water. Most people left not knowing if New Orleans would ever come back, or if the organization would ever come back. “We just all looked at one another and said, ‘We’re going to rebuild together. We are going to lean on each other.’ That’s what we’ve done the last four years and this is the culmination in all that belief.”

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