Article An Unbreakable Bond: For the Saints and their fans, it’s about more than football (1 Viewer)

[TheNOLAGirl]

An Unbreakable Bond: For the Saints and their fans, it’s about more than football

It all started back on Nov. 1, 1966, when the NFL awarded the city of New Orleans a football franchise. From that day on, the Saints and the community have been completely intertwined. Whether it...

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"It all started back on Nov. 1, 1966, when the NFL awarded the city of New Orleans a football franchise. From that day on, the Saints and the community have been completely intertwined. Whether it be when the team takes the field on game days or at one of the many community events they host throughout the year, fans show up in support of the Black & Gold."

 

[AARPSaint]

Wonderful article that sums up the relationship between the Saints and their fans.

 

[Super]

Nice story. certainly rings a bell with all us old fans. I think the Super Bowl may have spoiled a few of the new fans though.

 

[Optimistic Ozzy]

I can remember (I'm 61), going to church with my grandmother (who raised me), and getting really impatient with the preacher who would go past 12:00, seemingly on purpose. In those days, early games started at 11:30 CST. So we'd come home and I'd turn on the TV in hopes the game would be close. Sometimes the games would be, but most of the time it wasn't realistic to think we would win.
I still get nervous before and during games. I'm still a kid, mentally and physically. Thank goodness.

 

[TheNOLAGirl]

Wonderful article that sums up the relationship between the Saints and their fans.

Thank you. It's a labor of love. I started it back in June and must have re-written 100 times. Being from NOLA and having lived through most of it with the team, I wanted to get this story just right.

 

[SirLoinSaint64]

1971. My Father and older Brother were cheering for the Rams. Just being me, I started pulling for the Saints. Archie won the game on a QB sneak. Been a Saints fan ever since. At age 16, bought my first Saints gear. They lost their first 14 games. Didn't buy any Saints stuff for a long time. Was in the Dome with my 16 year old Nephew when the Saints won their first playoff game. His first live game. He will be a lifelong Saints fan as well.

 

[MarylandWHODAT]

Even though I am not from New Orleans, I have been a Saints fan for 40 years from way up here in Maryland. This article absolutely rings true. There is just something about the Saints and the fans. It's almost like a fraternity that no other team can match.

I've had family in Louisiana and have friends there now and love New Orleans!

I've been lucky enough to travel to New Orleans multiple times for games in the Dome. I've seen it so bad, the Dome was chanting L-S-U while the Saints were getting throttled and I was blessed to be at the NFC Championship game against the Vikings. I remember being in New York in the late 90's when there were maybe 10 Saints fans and when the Saints scored a touchdown, I jumped up and yelled and had to look for other Saints fan sections away to cheer.

Highs and lows. I may b***h and curse their name, claim "I'm done" and "I will never watch them again" but I'll never stop being a fan. The Saints are in my blood. They are a part of me. They are an identifier: "Who is that guy?" "You know, the Saints fan." "Oh, right!"

Very spot on article.......

 

[Saint KayBee]

My brother was in the Bless You Boys Club in the 1980s. My family would gather and watch games at home together. Later, he wanted to collect trading cards, so there I was, taking the ones he didn’t want. And then, finally, a game where you could play as the Saints - Tecmo Super Bowl, for the Nintendo. I was hooked, and on top of that - the Saints were winners! That was 1991, the year of “five-and-oh, cha-ching!” so good times were in the air for this seven-year-old. Nothing will make me quit cheering for this team.

 

[NeverGiveUP2]

Nice story. certainly rings a bell with all us old fans. I think the Super Bowl may have spoiled a few of the new fans though.

Yep.. You had to live through those 20+ years where we DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A WINNING RECORD to really appreciate even where we are now... not to mention where SP and DB brought us.. In a way I am glad to have lived through those early years... The love I had for this team began when the TP headline read N.O. GOES PRO... And when John Gilliam ran back the opening kick-off... And when Archie scored (did he?) in his first game... and when Tom Dempsey kicked the longest FG at that time..... We didn't care if we kept losing.... Today... and I understand to a degree... if we don't win 14 games the younger fan base is ready to shut it down and start over... But that unconditional love for a football team is something the "youngens" won't ever really get

 

[broccoli60]

I can still remember being at my grandparents that first Sunday listening on the radio with all the relatives. We couldn’t believe it when Gilliam took it all the way we thought we were going all the way to the Super Bowl. My kids would be grown by the time we finally got there and won.

A couple of weeks ago my son sent me a clip of a young Jets fan calling in to a national radio show saying he’s never known a playoff game as a fan but staying with the team as a fan. I know him. I was him. I am him. Just in Black and Gold instead of Green and White. If it doesn’t happen for him as a kid maybe one day in the future his team hoists the trophy as an old man and he gets to hug his kids in that joyous moment. That’ll be great too.

 

[NeverGiveUP2]

Was in the Dome with my 16 year old Nephew when the Saints won their first playoff game. His first live game.

Hakeem dropped the ball!!!! Hakeem dropped the ball.. Brian Milne may have fallen on it at the 35 yard line. IT IS THE NEW ORLEANS SAINTS FOOTBALL.. Brian Milne the most unlikely hero of them all falls on the fumble the muff by Hakeem... There is a God after all...

The iconic Jim Henderson

Stayed in the parking lot for hours after that game.. Listened to that call all summer long

 

[HoustonSaint68]

Nice story. certainly rings a bell with all us old fans. I think the Super Bowl may have spoiled a few of the new fans though.

Yes, sadly, the proportion of those Saints fans for whom it's NOT more than football is greater than ever...and post-XLIV, that proportion includes some old-timers also.

 

[Super]

Yep.. You had to live through those 20+ years where we DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A WINNING RECORD to really appreciate even where we are now... not to mention where SP and DB brought us.. In a way I am glad to have lived through those early years... The love I had for this team began when the TP headline read N.O. GOES PRO... And when John Gilliam ran back the opening kick-off... And when Archie scored (did he?) in his first game... and when Tom Dempsey kicked the longest FG at that time..... We didn't care if we kept losing.... Today... and I understand to a degree... if we don't win 14 games the younger fan base is ready to shut it down and start over... But that unconditional love for a football team is something the "youngens" won't ever really get

Exactly. Archie and Danny were my heroes. You can’t replace those days. I was 8 and knew every players name and number. And Al Hirt was my neighbor.

 

[VPCajun]

...

"It all started back on Nov. 1, 1966, when the NFL awarded the city of New Orleans a football franchise...."

I was THERE!!

Well, if THERE means reading it in The Times Picayune newspaper when I was 12 years old...

(I've been afflicted ever since!)

 

[Scorpius the Allfather]

I can remember (I'm 61), going to church with my grandmother (who raised me), and getting really impatient with the preacher who would go past 12:00, seemingly on purpose. In those days, early games started at 11:30 CST. So we'd come home and I'd turn on the TV in hopes the game would be close. Sometimes the games would be, but most of the time it wasn't realistic to think we would win.
I still get nervous before and during games. I'm still a kid, mentally and physically. Thank goodness.

My priest could get us through a High Mass within an hour and he did it fast on purpose so that everyone could go listen to the Saints game because it most likely was blacked out to us at the time.