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Only a football game? Don't tell New Orleanians: Jarvis DeBerry
By Jarvis Deberry
January 26, 2010, 5:55AM
After the New Orleans Saints prevailed over the Minnesota Vikings Sunday night and earned the team its first-ever trip to the Super Bowl, Brett Favre, the vanquished quarterback, struggled to keep the loss in its proper perspective.
"You try to say it's just a game, and of course it is," he told Sports Illustrated's Peter King. "You know that's the case, but it still hurts."
Almost five years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, many New Orleanians continue to hurt. Because they do, Sunday's contest was more than "just a game." It was a communal catharsis, an opportunity for the people of this city to gather together and to yell ourselves back into some semblance of wholeness.
Favre wasn't completely off-base. A football game probably shouldn't mean as much as Sunday night's game meant to Saints fans, but it did, and fortunately for us it ended with the biggest victory in the history of the franchise.
Eliot Kamenitz / The Times-PicayuneFans in dramatic costumes sport signs before the NFC Championship game between the New Orleans Saints and the Minnesota Vikings at the Louisiana Superdome Sunday. Up in Section 633 it was impossible to hear what New Orleans Coach Sean Payton said before he hoisted the NFC championship trophy above his head.
I can't say if the coach's remarks were incomprehensible because of some shortcoming with the sound system or if I couldn't hear him because I'd been rendered half deaf during the game itself. But he is quoted as saying, "This is for everybody in this city. This stadium used to have holes in it and used to be wet. It's not wet anymore. This is for the city of New Orleans."
Again, I didn't know what he was saying, but just like everybody else, I knew to roar in appreciation when he stopped talking and raised the trophy into the air.
When the Saints demolished the Arizona Cardinals during the NFC Divisional round, the subsequent ride home on the St. Charles Avenue was the most joyous commute ever. We chanted "Who dat? Who dat? Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints?" We sang "When the Saints Go Marching In" and the Ying Yang Twins' "Halftime," better known by its hook, "Stand up and get crunk!!!"
And yet, the ride up St. Charles after the Saints 31-28 victory over the Vikings was orders of magnitude more intense than the ride after the team's 45-14 win over the Cardinals. New Orleans has known some parties, has known wild-eyed delirium and near-reckless euphoria. But with the possible exception of this country prevailing in World War II, I'm not sure the mood in the city has ever been as high and excited as it was after our football team's victory Sunday night. Strangers hugged one another, gave each other high fives, howled into the night air like wild animals and sometimes just skipped along our uneven sidewalks like third-graders at recess.
It was more than a game. You know how it feels on a perfect Mardi Gras? It was more than that, too.
People who've had the experience say there's no other feeling quite like rolling down a wide New Orleans thoroughfare during Carnival, throwing beads and doubloons to throngs of joyous people with their arms and their voices raised. There may not have been a comparable experience before Sunday night, but after the game, those of us aboard the St. Charles streetcar felt like we were inaugural members of the city's most popular krewe. We were aboard our float chanting "Who Dat" all the way as pedestrians on either side rushed toward us with their arms outstretched.
The people on the ground should not have been as close to the streetcar as they were, and the people on board should not have been holding their arms out of the car slapping hands with the people outside. Outside Fat Harry's bar at St. Charles and Napoleon, the streetcar was so thoroughly surrounded you'd have thought we were on a Zulu float at Orleans and Claiborne.
Sorry, Favre, but as important as it might be to you to tell yourself that it was just a game, it was so much more than that for us. The loss might hurt you for a long time, but for at least that same amount of time, we'll be feeling great.
Jarvis DeBerry can be reached at jdeberry@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3355. Follow him at
By Jarvis Deberry
January 26, 2010, 5:55AM
After the New Orleans Saints prevailed over the Minnesota Vikings Sunday night and earned the team its first-ever trip to the Super Bowl, Brett Favre, the vanquished quarterback, struggled to keep the loss in its proper perspective.
"You try to say it's just a game, and of course it is," he told Sports Illustrated's Peter King. "You know that's the case, but it still hurts."
Almost five years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, many New Orleanians continue to hurt. Because they do, Sunday's contest was more than "just a game." It was a communal catharsis, an opportunity for the people of this city to gather together and to yell ourselves back into some semblance of wholeness.
Favre wasn't completely off-base. A football game probably shouldn't mean as much as Sunday night's game meant to Saints fans, but it did, and fortunately for us it ended with the biggest victory in the history of the franchise.
Eliot Kamenitz / The Times-PicayuneFans in dramatic costumes sport signs before the NFC Championship game between the New Orleans Saints and the Minnesota Vikings at the Louisiana Superdome Sunday. Up in Section 633 it was impossible to hear what New Orleans Coach Sean Payton said before he hoisted the NFC championship trophy above his head.
I can't say if the coach's remarks were incomprehensible because of some shortcoming with the sound system or if I couldn't hear him because I'd been rendered half deaf during the game itself. But he is quoted as saying, "This is for everybody in this city. This stadium used to have holes in it and used to be wet. It's not wet anymore. This is for the city of New Orleans."
Again, I didn't know what he was saying, but just like everybody else, I knew to roar in appreciation when he stopped talking and raised the trophy into the air.
When the Saints demolished the Arizona Cardinals during the NFC Divisional round, the subsequent ride home on the St. Charles Avenue was the most joyous commute ever. We chanted "Who dat? Who dat? Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints?" We sang "When the Saints Go Marching In" and the Ying Yang Twins' "Halftime," better known by its hook, "Stand up and get crunk!!!"
And yet, the ride up St. Charles after the Saints 31-28 victory over the Vikings was orders of magnitude more intense than the ride after the team's 45-14 win over the Cardinals. New Orleans has known some parties, has known wild-eyed delirium and near-reckless euphoria. But with the possible exception of this country prevailing in World War II, I'm not sure the mood in the city has ever been as high and excited as it was after our football team's victory Sunday night. Strangers hugged one another, gave each other high fives, howled into the night air like wild animals and sometimes just skipped along our uneven sidewalks like third-graders at recess.
It was more than a game. You know how it feels on a perfect Mardi Gras? It was more than that, too.
People who've had the experience say there's no other feeling quite like rolling down a wide New Orleans thoroughfare during Carnival, throwing beads and doubloons to throngs of joyous people with their arms and their voices raised. There may not have been a comparable experience before Sunday night, but after the game, those of us aboard the St. Charles streetcar felt like we were inaugural members of the city's most popular krewe. We were aboard our float chanting "Who Dat" all the way as pedestrians on either side rushed toward us with their arms outstretched.
The people on the ground should not have been as close to the streetcar as they were, and the people on board should not have been holding their arms out of the car slapping hands with the people outside. Outside Fat Harry's bar at St. Charles and Napoleon, the streetcar was so thoroughly surrounded you'd have thought we were on a Zulu float at Orleans and Claiborne.
Sorry, Favre, but as important as it might be to you to tell yourself that it was just a game, it was so much more than that for us. The loss might hurt you for a long time, but for at least that same amount of time, we'll be feeling great.
Jarvis DeBerry can be reached at jdeberry@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3355. Follow him at
