The Falcons-Saints Rivalry: Hating America's Team After Hurricane Katrina

Here is a response I wrote the guy:

I am not going to blast you for what you wrote, even if disagreeable to myself and likely any other citizen of New Orleans but none the less it was a well written piece. The one thing I will point out to you, and your lack of understanding on this is understanding because you didn't live through Katrina and its subsequent aftermath, is why the Saints are so intertwined into Katrina and by default any other achievement they have here will be. Here is a quick rundown:

-The Saints played a Ravens team on Friday night week 3 of the preseason this is the night that most folks learned we were going to be under threat of a major hurricane. Lots of us were tuned into that game because of the early season hope that comes with every NFL season and the threat of Katrina (a storm that was hitting Miami at the time) came on very sudden i was at the game and didn't know anything until the Superdome folks put up a weather bulletin on the Jumbo-Tron

- Just over 24 hours after hosting a Saints game the home of the Saints, the Superdome, was to become a shelter of last resort as it had been in the past folks began lining up to get in

- Katrina hits we all know the story New Orleans was under water but most of all the Superdome, the home of the New Orleans Saints was totaled

- After the horrors of the next few weeks most folks had settled in to their new temporary digs be it a shelter, friend's home, or even a summer home in east Texas as was my case. United Radio (all New Orleans radio stations had combined into one mega station after Katrina to combine signal strength to cover the whole country so folks no matter where they went to could keep up with what was going on) interrupted their marathon coverage of destruction, government breakdowns, and civil disorder to broadcast the New Orleans Saints game vs. the Carolina Panthers for anyone listening out there this was our first break from the horror we all lived through. The Saints won and for the first time in about 2 weeks something had made us smile and feel like things might be ok.

- The rest of the season went south and it was no secret that Saints owner Tom Benson was going to move the team to San Antonio that city was openly lobbying right after we were destroyed

- a lot of stuff happened to keep the team here but mainly the NFL backed the city and gave Benson little choice

- People began to return to the city late in the 2005 NFL season and around that time the NFL said the Saints were going to try to make New Orleans work as a result the Saints became an extension of what all of who came back were trying to do "make it work"

- despite going 3-13 in 2005 the Saints sold out the Superdome on a season ticket basis for 2006 and it has been that way since, I venture to say a 3-13 team in NFL history has never pulled off that feat and likely never will

- Then by an engineering miracle, or better yet a lot of hard work from just about every construction company in the region, the Superdome that some said was destroyed beyond-repair was rebuilt and ready for play (hosting your Falcons and the Saints) a little over a year later. This miracle gave us hope that if they can fix the Dome I can re-build my little patch of ground

- The September 25th win vs. your Falcons before a packed house is an immense moment of pride to everyone in this city not because of the game but because it was our way of clawing ourselves back up and saying we will never give up on what was and what will be again the city of New Orleans. The fact that it was the Falcons was irrelevant we could have played anyone and it would have been the same

- Since then the Saints have become more than a football team to everyone here. The Superbowl win is part of that yes, but whatever they do from now on is because without the hope they gave us in 2005 -06 many of us would not be here today in this city and I think it is safe to say that without Katrina the Saints may not be here either, but that is another story for another time

The Saints post Katrina are a different team and a different fanbase born out of the devastation and ashes of what was here prior to Katrina. Many of the " bandwagon fans screaming WHO DAT from coast to coast" are displaced citizens that never made it back home, people who helped us out after Katrina (and there were many of folks that helped out) or people who just to root for the underdog, which the city of New Orleans most certainly is. I hope this opens your eyes a little on the link between Katrina and the Saints and I apoligize for saying this but the Falcons were not around or involved in the terror Sherman wrought on Atlanta/Georgia at the end of the civil war so drawing that link would be a little perilous for a Falcons fan.