Saints - Incredible Story

[Kansas City Kid]

GO SAINTS, BLESS YOU BOYS!!!

A loss? Not to Saints fans in New Orleans

By Wright Thompson
ESPN.com






NEW ORLEANS -- When it was finally over, a woman walked down Hillary Street and she cried. Her makeup was gone. Her eyes were red and puffy. A few blocks away, a lifelong Saints fan named Stan Gelpi looked up from his empty glass of beer at a stunned Uptown bar. An hour earlier, he'd been plotting a trip to the Super Bowl. Now, he was lost.

Then it hit him, like it hit thousands around this heartbroken town.

Saints fans found plenty to celebrate late Sunday night at Louis Armstrong International Airport, despite the loss.

"I'm going to the airport," he announced. "They brought hope to this city when nobody else could. The mayor sucks. The governor sucks. The legislature sucks. The president sucks. The only thing that doesn't suck is that team. They brought hope to this city, and I'm going to the airport."

Men, women and children poured out of bars and houses, from Uptown to the Quarter, from New Orleans East to Metairie, and they piled into their cars. Only this time they weren't evacuating. They were going to meet their team. Some stopped at drugstores and made signs. They wrote "Thanks for an awesome season" and "We Believe" and, simply, "Bless you boys."

So much in professional sports is canned, and this was something real, something spontaneous and pure. Through a neighborhood they drove, down a winding, dark road to a private terminal where the team's charter would land. Cars parked, one after another, the headlights looking like that scene from "Field of Dreams." Fans brought coolers and bottles of wine, standing in the pouring rain, giving something back to the team that gave them so much.

"Two miles, 'til the end of the road, it's bumper to bumper," said Saints fan Colin Ross, pointing at the people lining up near the runway. "There's little kids down there yelling 'Who Dat?' on the hoods of cars."

Drew Brees got nothing but love from the throng at the airport early Monday morning.

The people who stayed all night will never forget it. Some arrived as early as 7. Others trickled in over the next few hours as word began to spread: Ice had delayed the charter flight. The team was still in Chicago.

In New Orleans, they had a little time to think about the year. Some cried. Karen Porche wiped a tear away and laughed a bit at herself. Most know it's crazy to care so much for a team. You had to be there, on the side of the road in a rainstorm, to understand.

"They brought us a lot of hope," she said.

"We had six feet of water in our house," her husband, Charlie, said, "and they helped."

"You can't be mad at these guys for losing this game," Karen said.

As people waited, the craziest thing happened. What started as a funeral turned into a celebration -- a celebration not just of a team, but of themselves. The beers they raised were toasts to their own resiliency. Fans screamed. They chanted. They sang that U2 song "The Saints are Coming."

"I feel like we won," Ross said.

At least for a while, Katie Jean Hill found a little something to cheer about at Finn McCool's Bar in New Orleans.

Liquor flowed. A man showed up with a trombone and began playing "When the Saints Go Marchin' In." The guy with the "We Believe" sign, who lost his house in St. Bernard Parish, swayed in time to the music.

When a cop turned on his loudspeaker at 10:40 and announced, "The plane has left Chicago," the party went to another level. Size estimates vary. There were about 500 or so right at the gate; but with cars lined up for miles, the number was surely higher.

A young man named Michael Mulé began running up and down the street, leading the wave. The crowd responded, people raising their arms as he sprinted, finally falling to his knees in the pouring rain, the loudest damn screaming you've ever heard embracing him, his hands raised toward the sky, feeling the drops land on his face. He pulled out his asthma inhaler and took a deep breath.

"I think the momentum and the hope that they've given us," he said, "is going to carry over into the whole rebuilding process. Everybody's counting us out, but we still have that hope. It sounds so corny. It sounds so cliché, but they're getting us going."

Eleven o'clock turned into midnight; 1 a.m. inched closer until someone spotted an airplane. The trombone started playing again.

"There they are!" a woman yelled.

"We believe," another screamed.

Players and coaches cranked their cars. To get out, they had to drive down a street lined with people. The fans took pictures of the Saints. The Saints took pictures of the fans. A man chased after Drew Brees' car with a black and gold flag. One drunken fan bummed a light from a member of the caravan. Head coach Sean Payton rolled down his window to soak up the scene. One after another, fans told him, "Thank you." He looked out at the screaming, frothing mass of people.

"Unbelievable," he said.

Saints fan David Watson stands on the steps to his FEMA trailer in Arabi, La. on Sunday. Watson hosted a party to watch the the Bears game.

Defensive back and fan favorite Steve Gleason signed autographs and gave high-fives. It was well past 1 in the morning, rain coming down hard again.

"It makes me proud," Gleason said. "It makes me proud to be a part of this city."

So many things in New Orleans are still wrong; but on this night, one thing was right. More than right. It was perfect.

All things end, of course. Even Mardi Gras has a morning after. When the last Saint pulled away, the crowd dispersed. Some of them were going back to FEMA trailers. Many still haven't rebuilt their homes. Most have family members spread from coast to coast. The city remains battered and beaten, entire swaths of it empty. It's half the size it was before the storm.

Three young men walked through the rain toward their car. One carried a Saints flag. Another looked around and sighed.

"Now," he said, "back to reality."

Wright Thompson is a senior writer for ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine. He can be reached at wrightespn@gmail.com.

[Raydah James]

Nice read, but lets be honest........

New Orleans is in the same category as downtown Los Angeles: it needs to blown the fuck up and started all over again.

[BSmack]

Nice read, but lets be honest........

New Orleans is in the same category as downtown Los Angeles: it needs to blown the fuck up and started all over again.

No, it needs to be blown the fuck up and forgotten. If you voluntarily live below sea level, you are a fucking moron.

[trev]

The best thing about the Saints loss is that we have been spared two weeks of maudlin pap like this.

RACK the fuck outta DAA Bears

Do you have even one tiny, little, itty bitty sweet, sentimental bone in your body?

[Truman]

No, it needs to be blown the fuck up and forgotten. If you voluntarily live below sea level, you are a fucking moron.

Gee, B, not unlike living in a city subject to endless winter, lake effect snow, nanny-state liberal government, lacrosse, and... yag... Canadians....

'sayin'.

[rozy]

Dude hates black people, for fuck's sake.

What does that have to do with sentimentality?


..and RACK that article btw

[BBMarley]

Where were all these dedicated Saints fans BEFORE Katrina? Benson dropped ticket prices to ensure he made some money- and everyone is all into the home team all of a sudden! In 2 years when he raises prices, they will be back to mediocre fanbase yet again. Say you want about Philly, Oakland, KC.... We are always rabid.. no matter how good or bad our teams may be.

[Cicero]

I'm glad they lost. They were a good story but I was getting tired of this "America's Team" bullshit.

[TenTallBen]

The best thing about the Saints loss is that we have been spared two weeks of maudlin pap like this.

RACK the fuck outta DAA Bears

Do you have even one tiny, little, itty bitty sweet, sentimental bone in your body?

What's the difference between this dude and mvscal? Mv would never nads to be seen in the street with a sign like this. He keeps his ignorant hatred confined to an anonymous message board on the internet...



RACK the Saints fans that showed their team some love after a big loss. I'm sure raider fan would have preferred to burn down their players homes if they lost a big one like that.

[BSmack]

No, it needs to be blown the fuck up and forgotten. If you voluntarily live below sea level, you are a fucking moron.

Gee, B, not unlike living in a city subject to endless winter, lake effect snow, nanny-state liberal government, lacrosse, and... yag... Canadians....

'sayin'.

The next time a load of lake effect snow wipes out every home in Rochester will be the first time. Apples and fucking bowling balls my boy. The idea of New Orleans as a tourist destination and a place for any other business save that necessary for the operation of the Port of New Orleans should have ended the second the levees broke.

[TenTallBen]

So I should say that all people that live along the San Andreas fault and in Kansas and Oklahoma should deserve what they get when an earthquake or tornado wipes out their homes. Besides, that's what they get for living somewhere where they know they could be wiped out with one snap of mother nature's fingers. All of those people that lived along the coast in south asia deserved that tsunami too.

[TenTallBen]

Holy Shit. Let it go you whiney bitch. It's in good fun. Don't get pissed because your only alibi for wrapping your car around a tree has come and gone.

You lose family members in one of the worst natural disasters in history of the country and have somebody mock that in public and get back to me. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it but would you think it would be cool if I ran around yelling that Chicago needs to be burnt to the ground again? Sorry, but it's just a football game. No need to act like a dick.

[BSmack]

So I should say that all people that live along the San Andreas fault and in Kansas and Oklahoma should deserve what they get when an earthquake or tornado wipes out their homes. Besides, that's what they get for living somewhere where they know they could be wiped out with one snap of mother nature's fingers. All of those people that lived along the coast in south asia deserved that tsunami too.

Take a good look at this picture and tell me why it is a good idea to pour billions of dollars into rebuilding. Seriously, if you move BACK to this after all that has happened, you are a RETARD. We should be sending New Orleans U-Hauls, luggage and low cost loans to move the fuck out of there, not money to rebuild in a tropical area 20 feet below sea level that is surrounded on three sides by water.

[Kansas City Kid]

The best thing about the Saints loss is that we have been spared two weeks of maudlin pap like this.

RACK the fuck outta DAA Bears

Do you have even one tiny, little, itty bitty sweet, sentimental bone in your body?

Leave his bone out of this.........

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

One shithole at a time...

Hopefully Houston is next.

[Mile-Hi T]

The best thing about the Saints loss is that we have been spared two weeks of maudlin pap like this.

RACK the fuck outta DAA Bears

Do you have even one tiny, little, itty bitty sweet, sentimental bone in your body?

You bet. I'm very fond of Hurricane Katrina and all the good it has done for us. I can only hope DC is similarly afflicted one day.

One shithole at a time...

Wherever mv's family is.

[Dinsdale]

I was getting tired of this "America's Team" bullshit.

"America's Team"...seems like I've heard that used before...

That's a nickname for the Chargers, right?