New Orleans Saints Forums - blackandgold.com - NOLA.com Dave Dixon's dreams laid the groundwork for New Orleans sports, videos included

For all you New Orleans Saints fans out there, it has been easy to sit back these days treasuring the feeling of being part of the Who Dat Nation, what it means to fly the Lombardi Trophy as your flag, to have Sean Payton and Drew Brees as your roving ambassadors.

Jennifer Zdon/The Times-Picayune archive
Dave Dixon
While I can share such non-stop euphoria, you keep wondering if such moments, such miracles, would have come to pass had a man like Dave Dixon not passed our way.
Consider.
Would there be such a football team as the New Orleans Saints?
Would that giant mushroom be sitting today on Poydras Street?
Would our city have hosted nine Super Bowls, three at Tulane Stadium, another six inside the Superdome, with a seventh on the way?
From what I've seen over the past four decades from a front-row seat, it's impossible to overestimate the impact Dixon, who died Sunday, had on a city he loved to call "the best one God ever created.''
Whenever I complimented Dave on his talents as a super salesman, he'd remind me it wasn't such a daunting task because he was "selling New Orleans.''
Watching Dave "sell'' brought back some fond memories of a master in action.
There was the day he invited Buddy Diliberto and I to meet Vince Lombardi for lunch at Galatoire's. This was at a time in the '60s when Dave was preaching the gospel of professional football, how nice it would be to have a team in the city to call its own, how important it was to have a large crowd for a preseason game involving the Green Bay Packers at Tulane Stadium.
Remember this.

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