All posts tagged superbowl

For a lot of football fans this Sunday is the holiest day of the year. That’s right, Super Bowl Sunday. This year the Indianapolis Colts will be facing the New Orleans Saints in Miami.

Do you want to know what makes this year special? The Saints have never been to a Super Bowl. The New Orleans NFL franchise started in 1967 and they have never made a Super Bowl appearance. That will all change this Sunday.

The New Orleans Saints have become the media darling. Even die-hard Indianapolis fans can see why. Ask Chris Graythen:

The Saints come marching in—guns blazing, classy group, everything you could want out of a football team.

Everyone knows the story, Katrina hits, devastating the city of New Orleans…

Who do the people turn to but their lovable loser football team.

They back them, despite the fact that they’ve never been to a Super Bowl, that they’ve had more losing seasons than I’m sure fans care to recall…

The city pulls itself up from its bootstraps, and this team gives it something to stand behind, to root for, to be so proud of.

Which then leads to the question many Colts fan ask themselves…

Why did we get stuck playing the most likeable football team in the history of lovable losers?

Let’s pretend for just a minute that I wanted to root for The Colts. I think I would actually feel guilty.

Fortunately I don’t have to worry about that one bit. Indianapolis has been winning games for years. Peyton Manning just won the Super Bowl and the MVP award three years ago. How many Super Bowls does one guy get to win? Even his brother has won a Super Bowl.

Speaking of the Manning family, did I mention that Peyton Manning’s father Archie played quarterback for the Saints for 10 years?

Archie Manning told the press that he will be rooting for his son, and as a parent I completely support that, but you know that deep down inside Archie would love to see the New Orleans Saints win their first Super Bowl.

To be fair, the Indianapolis Colts have their own feel good story. Colts running back Pierre Garcon, is a native of Haiti who has been using his newfound fame to help friends, family and even strangers back in Haiti after the devastating earthquake they suffered only a few weeks ago.

This whole thing has been exciting. There was even a controversy over who owned the phrase “Who Dat?” which has been a rallying cry for the Saints this year.

New Orleans just has me fired up this year, and that isn’t particularly easy. The Saints are a division rival of my beloved Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I am supposed to hate their guts, but I don’t. I want them to win. I want the people of New Orleans to win. God knows they deserve it.

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Cross-Posted on BlogHer.com

[Photo: licensed under Creative Commons from JustUptown.]