A Far, Far Better Thing

27 September 2006



New Orleans’ Superdome Returns to Football Duties

A year and a month after the world watched New Orleans drown and watched the Superdome there become synonymous with Hell, the building returned to its usual duties as a football stadium. While the New Orleans Saints-Atlanta Falcons rivalry provides a little boost to the fans whenever they play, the emotion in the stadium Monday night had less to do with who was playing than with that fact that anyone was playing in New Orleans.

New Orleans remains a shadow of itself, and it is not an overstatement to say that the city that stood on the banks of the Mississippi fourteen months ago is dead. Whatever will arise in that place will have some of the spirit of New Orleans, but it will not be what it was. Monday night’s game was said by many to mark a major milestone in the revival of the city, but it is more accurate to say that it was a milestone on the way to building something new.

Regardless, the Saints had a tough year last year, playing every game on the road, even when they were named the home team. The people of the city, though, held them fast to their hearts. Americans from whatever region draw a sense of personal identity and civic pride from their sports franchises. The Saints’ homecoming was another thing for the city’s residents (many of whom still haven’t had their own homecoming) to grasp tightly.

For once, the script didn’t disappoint. Green Day and U2 played during the pre-game, a pairing that would fill many a stadium without an NFL event following. The first President Bush tossed the coin at the start. And New Orleans scored in the first two minutes when Curtis Deloatch fell on a blocked punt in the end zone. As the AP reported, “DeLoatch ran over to the stands and pointed at the crowd of 70,003, as if to say, ‘Take that Katrina’!” Presicely why the AP decided not to round that figure to 70,000 is anyone's guess.

In the end, the Saints won 23-3 and are 3-0 for the season. Spare a thought, though, for the Atlanta Falcons, whose job it was to spoil the party. Fierce competitors don’t mind ruining the Cinderella story, but New Orleans’ was in a special category. The Falcons tried to play the role, but they were clear that they would rather someone else had the job. “As tough as it is to lose a game, I’d be lying if I said there isn’t a little, little, little piece of me that didn’t appreciate what this game meant to this city,” said Falcons coach Jim Mora, whose father used to coach the Saints.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.


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