LKelley67

Copied form another Saints board, written well, good insight about the suites sales too..

What a wild strange trip it has been for Saints Fans!

Flashback to preseason 2005, Friday night, August 25th. I was pretty much down on the New Orleans Saints, particularly the head coach and the QB. The previous drafts had been horrendous, 5 years of Brooks and Haslett, Delhomme turning into a Superbowl QB, 2 point conversions in the first half, poor on field decisions, a porous defense (probably the most pathetic in NFL history in one stint), a lethargic offense, particularly in the first half.. I was all but ready to start fishing or maybe even being more masochistic (since I was a Saints fan anyway), start taking my wife shopping, on Sundays. I even found myself spending more time with potted flowers on Sunday mornings….. Yes, on that Freaky Friday night, I was sitting in a suite, half snookered, watching the Saints meaningless final preseason game. I’ll never forget the phone call from my wife, “you better check out the hurricane on television�. We changed the channel and I had another scotch on the rocks, “Oh sh!t1111�.

Well, we all know what happened after that…….on Monday I was watching the same Superdome that I had been in a couple of nights before being destroyed and then seeing human beings suffer more misery in and around that stadium than could be caused by 1 million Big Ben’s…………..lowlights included Deuce tearing up his knee, the fight to keep games in Louisiana, Benson’s ‘love affair’ with Baton Rouge… My next real Saints moment after that preseason game came on a beautiful fall Sunday in Tiger Stadium. I watched Dwight Smith intercept a Tampa Bay pass in the end zone, with an open field in front of him, then being taken down by one of his own teammates, creating a first down for the Bucs. I could not believe my friggin’ eyes……….. The rest of the season was horrible. For the first time since I lived in another country, I decided to shop for a stereo for my new place instead of watching a Saints game. It was a wise decision. Mercifully, the season came to an end. The following months were tough, and the Saints only made the future more uncertain, adding to everyone’s anxiety. Will we lose everything that we loved over our lifetimes?

Thank God for Paul Tagliabue. He, along with the other NFL owners, came to their senses forced Benson to make a commitment to our “City in Ruins� (Yes, you would have had to be at the Jazz Fest that day to understand what the Boss did that day.) Anyways, we had a Mardi Gras, a French Quarter Festival and the Jazz Festival. But before and during that period, the Saints fired Haslett, hired Payton, signed Drew Brees and on the first Saturday of Jazz Fest, I was at the Saints facility when they drafted Reggie Bush. Give credit to Benson, I do not think he even thought twice about that one, and actually heard it from the horse’s mouth, by accident, before the pick was made. Also, we were told the season would be played in New Orleans, and that the Dome would be ready….. that is another story.

But since then, the Saints have managed to sell 55,000 season tickets. Can anyone question Saints fans loyalty? Yes, the Suites are not sold (I know one that is sold), but, there is more to that story than what is being told in the newspapers. Number one, the Saints are looking for 5 year commitments, and the prices more than double in the final two years. And if you want a shorter lease, you will pay dearly. To top it off, you cannot even see what you are getting, and the Saints cannot guarantee you that the Suites will even be ready for this year. The Seats will be in place, but there are no guarantees with regard to anything else. So, can you blame businesses for being slow to commit?
Anyway, as with the City, all of my instincts, being a native New Orleanian, make me be optimistic about the future. Saints fans (and city dwellers) are like cockroaches; they cannot get rid of us. And maybe, just maybe, as a reward for our loyalty and passion, we will finally have a winning football team, maybe even a Superbowl in the near future. What kind of story would that be?

There is so much suffering and devastation in our area that it almost seems irrelevant to be talking about football; but everyone knows it is much more than football. It is about a community struggling to maintain its culture, its history. Where else will 65,000 people gather and for 4 hours, have a common cause. That first game in the Superdome will be sooooo special that it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up just thinking about it. I will fly 5,000 miles that day to be at that Monday Night game.

It will be a special moment for the people of New Orleans. A victory of immense proportions, win or lose the game. If ever the Saints were going to live up to their name, it will be that day. There will be many smiling faces looking down on the Dome from those who have gone before us

saintbuck

Beautiful story, but there is at least one hole. They were playing the Miami Dolphins that game.I was also ther for that debochle

BoudinSandwich

As was I. Boy, what a horrible game that was. Anyone remember paper airplanes?