skymike

put it this way, Canton. I live in Houston, and the Texans can have a home game, and you can be COMPLETELY UNAWARE the Texans are playing. I am not exaggerating.

I roll into New Orleans early Monday afternoon before the Falcons game. Four hours prior, traffic is already crazy. It looks like every business has let their employees off. Every vehicle on the road has Saints something on it. Every radio station I hear, even the gay Mix station is tailgating the game, playing a pump-up party mix---- (here they would be playing the latest Norah Jones song, and talking about how many "continuous minutes of music we play every hour.") The entire Downtown, (we call it the CBD) and French Quarter looks like a tailgate party. Anyone wearing something not black and gold stands out, because everyone else on the street has something Saints on. Helicopters are buzzing over the Superdome. This is an entire city of people all wearing the same thing, shouting on the street in ways that might attract attention of the police anywhere else. Every other billboard, every other neon sign, every shop has Saints stuff. Its a matter of time before I pull up some toilet paper with WhoDat printed on it. It's on everything else.

There cannot be another city so connected with its football team as New Orleans. And afterward, the victory parade extends about 100 miles on the Interstate.