Only the Hard...Only the Strong! I'm Inspired By: The Saints

Over the past week, I've been overfilled with so much emotion; I didn't quite know what to write or say. Not only did my favorite team win the grandest of games: The Super Bowl; but my family’s city had the opp to bask in glory. But being a Saint’s fan has been more of a religious experience than anything else. It’s taught me to keep the faith EVEN when the appearance of things and common sense tells me to jump ship. I can remember going to one of the games in the Superdome just 2 years ago and this angry fan yells at me, “You could have blocked that for Brees. Where in the hell is the coverage”? YIKES. The bad part about it,  he was right.



My bro has been a fan for close to 30 years compared to my 20, and man it’s been such a long and defeating road. I remember when the Saints finally looked like they were going to win the Super Bowl; I glanced over at my brother and his face said it all, he was in a total state of shock. I think it’s like that in life. We get used to things being a certain way weather they’re good or bad. We don’t REALLY anticipate any real change. Sure, we hope for it. We might even talk about it occasionally. Like, “What if the Saints got such and such on the squad”? But it’s like discussing Fantasy football, it’s all in theory, when it’s said and done. Most of us don’t BELIEVE in the possibility because it’s beyond our control. And looking back on the record of the Saints of old, I can’t really blame fans for loosing their patience. But to lose belief is something entirely different.


To believe in them for so long and to finally reap the reward is in itself AWESOME. You see, the SAINTS have never been a “good” team by NFL standards until recently. And, most folks thought they had a fluke, great year Post Katrina. Thinking back on it, there was never a reason to pick the Saints unless you personally wanted to be tortured as a fan. And some folks love being tortured and rooting for the underdog. But the Saints took that routine to another level. It was flat out painful.


I picked the Saints as a kid by default, always looking up to my big brother. It’s bad enough I was sour at the Rams for abandoning my city but to root for the Saints was barely a step in the right direction. Most folks pick teams initially because of 3 reasons: they are born in that city or they’re family is born there, they’re bandwagon-jumpers that follow the winning teams or they follow teams with their favorite players. I picked the first category. And it turned out to be the most gruesome path that tested my fan hood.


Perhaps that’s why the media just couldn’t totally fathom the depth of talent on the Saints squad. I mean putting the two words together: Saints and Winning seemed counterintuitive when discussing the Super Bowl. Poor Brees never got his just due until the very end. Hell, the game against MN had turned into the Favre show and Manning was being hyped as the Poster Boy for the NFL, well that might not change. But isn’t that a metaphor for life? No one believes until you demonstrate it. But then that begs the question: How did the Saints learn to believe when the NFL and media didn’t’?


I would like to give a personal thanks to Sean Peyton for Lead Inspirer. But most of all, thanks to all the diehard, crazy Saint’s fans who believed when no one else did.


I see yall!  Who Dat! Who Dat!
Shak
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