More than a game for Saints fans

Aug. 29, 2005. Sept. 11, 2001. For most people in this country, the latter date stands out more than the former, but not if you're from the Gulf Coast.

On Aug. 29, 2005, as the New Orleans Saints prepared to start their season less than two weeks later against the Carolina Panthers, a blitz of wind and rain pummeled their city. One of Mother Nature's most vicious play calls ever: Hurricane Katrina.

I remember watching the storm coverage on TV in awe, not sure how something so devastating could appear on the horizon one day, disappear the next, and in the process destroy the lives of hundreds of thousands of helpless people.

The day after the storm hit, I answered a phone call from my aunt, who lives in Gulfport, Miss., only a short drive from New Orleans and a short walk from the beach. She couldn't talk long, because cell phone battery power had suddenly become a precious commodity, but she said all she needed to.

"We're alive, but we've lost everything."

Her story was not unique, and the months and years that followed would not get any easier for Katrina's victims. Countless lots still littered with FEMA trailers complemented recurring nightmares as the daily reminders of the storm's wrath. Even Saints quarterback Drew Brees recalled his visit to post-Katrina New Orleans during an interview for USA Today with startling honesty.

"You just say, 'Man, what happened here? It looks like a nuclear bomb went off.'"

Katrina's punishment was swift, unwavering and indiscriminate — the rich and the poor, the black and the white, the young and the old. No one in her path of destruction was spared.

But now, 53 months after Katrina changed New Orleans forever, the Saints have a chance to change it again.

During 2005, the New Orleans Superdome had suffered so much damage that the Saints couldn't play a single home game in it during the season, providing the perfect incubation period for the Saints fever that was preparing to spread.

When 2006 came around, questions still loomed about whether the Saints would return to the Superdome. They did, and so did their fans ... in record numbers. For the first time in franchise history, the Superdome sold out every game of the season just through season tickets.

The season that followed was just as exciting, as the almost-always-an-afterthought Saints made it all the way to the NFC Championship game before losing to the Chicago Bears. Saints fever had become an epidemic.

The team managed only mediocre seasons during 2007 and 2008, but this season has proven to be the charm. After starting 13-0, the Saints are headed to the Super Bowl for the first time in team history.

Throughout the season, as the Saints continued to march over their opponents, evidence of Saints fever became more and more clear. Photos of fans with the fleur-de-lis shaved into their heads or tattooed to their arms made their way to football viewers around the country. "Who dat?" went from being a question for late-night intruders to the rallying cry for Saints Nation.

"Who dat say gon' beat dem Saints?" asked the faithful, and the answer this season was, "No one, really," at least not during the team's meaningful games. Now, the fans are just hoping the answer isn't the Indianapolis Colts.

The Colts were the only team to finish with a better record than the Saints during the regular season and may have the only quarterback in the league better than Brees. But for Saints Nation, that's far from the biggest challenge they've faced in the past few years.

If the Saints can overcome another test and find a way to win the big one, it will be one of the most significant triumphs for an entire city - not just a team - in the history of the NFL. For a team that has already served as the natural high for so many people who were at an all-time low, a Super Bowl title would be the storybook ending to a far-from-fairytale four and a half years.

Regardless of the outcome on Sunday, one thing is clear: The Saints have given hope to the hopeless. FEMA couldn't do it. The National Guard couldn't do it. Even years of volunteer work couldn't help many of those who suffered through Katrina, but every since the Saints returned to New Orleans, hope has been by their side.

Think football is just a game? I'd say that's an understatement.

Contact staff writer Reilly Moore at reilly.moore@richmond.edu