THIS leads my BOSTON Metro section on Super Sunday?
"For fans, Saints bring it all home; It’s ‘more than a game’ to evacuees" by Peter Schworm, Globe Staff | February 7, 2010
They fled Katrina’s wrath to cold, unfamiliar New England, far away from their Bayou homes. Uprooted by the storm and the devastating floods that followed, they left their wrecked houses, their families, their way of life.
But they never left the New Orleans Saints....
Football has become a way for New Orleans ex-pats to bond, especially this charmed season, and Ledet and fellow transplants from Louisiana have built homes away from home at The Baseball Tavern, a sports bar near Fenway Park. They frequently gathered for Saints and Louisiana State University games....
Tonight, with their beloved team playing in its first Super Bowl, a fiercely devoted band of Boston-area Saints fans is awash in anticipation and nostalgia, tugged homeward by the team’s magical run.
“This is more than a game,’’ said Brian Ledet, a 38-year-old New Orleans native who moved to Boston seven months after the hurricane....
Yeah, and five years later some sections of the town haven't even been cleared, never mind rebuilt, and many have never returned.
But, hey, they are in the big game so go give yourselves indigestion, gluttonous AmeriKa. This is a holiday bigger than Christmas.
Who am I to stand in the way of your fun. I'll be grudgingly watching during my socialization period (was that to sarcastic for you, readers)?
Ledet, who shed tears of joy when the Saints edged the Minnesota Vikings in overtime two weeks ago to win the NFC Championship.... and his wife, Jennifer, left their New Orleans town house a day before the storm struck, hurriedly loading up their car with photographs, insurance documents, and a few days’ clothes.
Yeah, people are being blown up all over the planet, but let the water flow over the game.
They drove all night to reach a coastal town along the Florida panhandle, where Jennifer’s cousins lived. The rest of their family escaped to safety as well, scattering across the South.
“It was like stepping on an ant pile,’’ he said. “Everyone went in every direction.’’
A few weeks later, the Ledets returned to find their home badly damaged by the floods, with the first floor destroyed.
The city they had known was scarcely recognizable.
“It looked like death,’’ he said. “I was weak in the knees.’’
They had never lived anywhere else, but decided it was time to try somewhere new.
Yeah, I understand.
Isn't home something worth defending?
In the spring, Jennifer, who worked as an information technology recruiter, was offered a job in Boston, and the couple headed north.
Wow. One of the lucky ones around here.
“It was a tough decision, believe me,’’ Ledet said. “It’s your home. It’s all you know.’’
Yeah, but $till....
Few of those who came to Massachusetts post-Katrina stayed, most of them choosing to head back south to warmer climes and a more familiar culture.
Yeah, except that midddle bit hasn't really worked out to well for them.
“I don’t get the sense that many stayed,’’ said Evelyn Norman of Children’s Services of Roxbury, which helped evacuees. “As soon as they were able to get on their feet and reconnect with family, they were ready to get back.’’
Because they love them?
But the Ledets, and others who will cheer on the Saints today, decided to put down roots, even as they clung to their hometown culture....
Oh, yeah, I forgot, the GAME!
************************
Lindsay Krell, a 26-year-old who works at the New England Institute of Art, lost everything she owned to Katrina.
Send George W. Bush or the U.S. government a bill.
What do you mean banksters and war looters stole it all and left us a mountain of debt to banksters?
While staying with her parents in Miami, depressed and lost over what to do next, she decided she couldn’t go back. She stayed in Miami for graduate school before moving to Boston three months ago....
Distance, however, has not dimmed her fandom. The Saints are the soul of the city, she and other fans say, and stand as a symbol of its hope and resilience.
Can you eat hope? Does "hope" stop wars?
I've had enough "hope" in my paper, 'kay?
“If you’re not from there, if you don’t love the city, you can never understand,’’ she said. “For us, this is so much more than a football game.’’
I don't know; the Pats fans around here are pretty arrogant and pretty angry, too.
And WE HAVE had a LOT of BAD YEARS and PUBLIC EMBARRASSMENTS.
Plenty of 1 win, 2 win seasons, and google "Lisa Olson and Patriots locker room" sometimes. Should call up something from around 1990-91, I recollect.
Yeah, we didn't WEAR BAGS over our heads like 'Aints fans, but....
She recalled watching the Saints’ first game back at the Superdome in 2006, crying by herself in a bar as the team reunited with its hometown fans.
That's great imagery.
For today’s game, she ordered Abita Beer - both the Amber and Restoration ales - straight from New Orleans, along with a Louisiana-style king cake, and is making jambalaya. She is heading to New Orleans for Mardi Gras next week. Should the Saints win, the city will still be celebrating, she said.
--more--"
Related: Just Another Sad, Sad Sunday
Seems like I say that every weekend.
Oh, yeah,
Indianapolis - 37
New Orleans - 16
That's not getting a very warm reception amongst my football buddies up here in chilly old New' England.
