
COLSTON LOOKS FOR RETURN TO TOP FORM
ELITE TEAMS LIKE SAINTS CAN WIN UGLY
BLACK & GOLD STAYS HIGH IN POWER RANKINGS
| NewOrleans.Com/Sports - New Orleans Saints News |
Written by Marilyn Kristel Marshall Tuesday, 10 November 2009 07:23
NEW ORLEANS | There's something distinctly odd about a city's collective personality when football is involved. All decorum, inhibitions, problems and rationality simply fly out the window and are subsequently replaced with sheer anticipation, superstition and pure unadulterated fanaticism.
While I've never cared about football (or most other sports for that matter), I can't help but marvel at the Saints' remarkable ability to unite New Orleanians from all walks of life in common revelry. Game parties, sports bars left and right, and tailgaters come together in black and gold throngs to boisterously cheer on their boys in black and gold. And that fervor knows no bounds, with superstition and last minute besieging of every god available (along with a few soul-selling inquiries, to be sure) always a permanent Sunday ritual, especially as hopes for the next win for our streak grows.
And how the Saints did on Sunday, I couldn't tell you. It has long been my suspicion (superstition?) that whenever the Saints are doing well and I take an interest, the season subsequently goes immediately into the crapper. As irrational as that may sound, I was literally begged by no less than three intelligent people Sunday to not watch the game. You know, "just in case."
Out of respect for all of you out there, I didn't. But every now and then, when I checked in for the score, I smiled to myself, thinking of all those people out there united in common goal and brotherhood. I smiled as I thought of my brother and his family, a slightly dysfunctional one on their very best of days, and how they were also watching this game, devoid if even for a day of their usual problems, actually enjoying each others company as the Saints triumphed once again. Maybe there's something to this "foosball" after all.
I don't "get" football the game, having never actually tried, but I do get all the hoopla and excitement. Hell, I'm even starting to enjoy it a bit (oh, but don't worry, I won't start watching!). But old habits do die hard and you'll never catch me saying that obnoxious "who dat"---oh, wait, I guess I just did....
Oh, well.....GO SAINTS!!!!!
