Jim Henderson's Final WWL-TV commentary <MERGED THREADS> (1 Viewer)

[rsonza]

Henderson: In N.O. we have too much to celebrate to stay down for long | wwltv.com New Orleans

But, as we put our Black and Gold and Purple and Gold attire back on the hangers in the last row of our closets, we bring our Purple, Green and Gold finery back to its yearly prominence. And the end of the football season mask of sadness that we wear will soon be replaced by the beginning of Carnival season mask of joy.

Elsewhere around the NFL, fans may be talking about reloading or replacing or re-organizing.

In New Orleans, we simply recover.

We sleep it off and re-charge. A long, cold winter still looms ahead in Green Bay where there is little else but the Packers to celebrate. In New Orleans, Spring is right around the corner in a city where there is too much to celebrate to linger too long in the sadness of the moment.

 

[whodat16w]

Favorite Jim Henderson commentary?

In honor of Jim's final commentary (Henderson: In N.O. we have too much to celebrate to stay down for long | wwltv.com New Orleans), I wanted to post my two favorite commentaries that he's done (I've saved a few over the years). They will be missed.

The first that still gets the tears flowing is his after the Saints beat the Pack in 2006 to start 2-0:

9/12/2006:

There hasn't been a night like last night since January 2, 2005. No, that was not the last night that neither Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, nor Liza Minnelli was arrested...though it might have been.

Until last night there hadn't been a night since January 2, 2005, that the Saints had flown back to New Orleans after a regular season victory.

They flew out of the blue of a Carolina afternoon that day. They flew into the New Orleans evening last night, returning to the blue-roofed, pock-marked landscape of a recovering city.

The storm took so much from us, but in one way it gave something back -- the Saints.

Think about it. If Katrina never comes, the Saints probably finish around .500 again last year. Jim Haslett doesn't leave. Aaron Brooks doesn't leave. Sean Payton, Drew Brees, and Reggie Bush never arrive.

The season-ticket base erodes even further to about 25,000. The Superdome doesn't get renovated. The fans don't get reinvigorated. All the irritants that drove a wedge between the owner, the state, the city, the players, the fans, the business community -- they're all still here, worse than ever.

And what probably wouldn't have been here much longer are the Saints. They would have been at the very top of everyone's list in the country for relocation.

Katrina purged most of those irritants.

This is not to say that the little good she did even begins to compensate for the vast harm she inflicted. There is no compensation for that. But, as we cling to whatever psychological life rings we can find in a sea of despair, the Saints have provided one.

In a year of horrific loss maybe nothing was gained. But something was retained. The Saints. The New Orleans Saints.

-------------------------------
I don't know the date of my other favorite, but it has my single favorite line that sums up my love of the Saints:


For every Saints fan, Saint employee, Saint coach - for every person in this city, this state, and this country who has an emotional and/or financial attachment to this football team, for all of them - for all of us - we say "thanks" to the Saints for Sunday.
Thanks - we needed that in the worst possible way.
All last week I heard from many fans who had abandoned ship - from so many more who had one foot on the deck and the other in the lifeboat. Even those fans who professed to have always loved the Saints were questioning the wisdom of that commitment.
Love -- it's been said -- is like an hourglass with the heart filling up as the brain empties. The finish to last season, the start to this, had turned that hourglass upside down. And, as the brain began to think more rationally, the heart began to empty. Another loss yesterday and that might have happened.
But it didn't.
Love is a state of mind that begins when you think life can't get any better, and ends when you think life can't get any worse. That might have happened for thousands of Saints' fans Sunday.
But it didn't.
If you never let yourself fall in love with the Saints, you never are at risk to feel as bad as Saints lovers did a week ago. But if you never let yourself fall in love with the Saints, you never are permitted to feel as good as Saints lovers do today.
<b>In New Orleans, if ever you cease to love the Saints, you cease to share some very powerful emotions with the rest of your city - sometimes good - often bad, but occasionally great. </b>
Falling in love is awfully simple, but falling out is simply awful.
It's awfully good today.

 

[neworleanshoo]

the best.

 

[Mr. Blue Sky]

Icon.

 

[saints4eva]

video

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[No2DC]

All the ol school guys are gone now.

 

[saints4eva]

Truly the end of an era.

 

[Changeling]

When he said 'that's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.'
Or was that Ted baxter???

 

[CentMSSaint]

All the ol school guys are gone now.

At least we still have Jim as the voice of our Black and Gold!!!!!! lus-un2:

 

[Broadmoor74]

We're gonna have a hard time finding a well-dressed broadcast journalist who doesn't talk with yat-marbles in his mouth.

 

[TCEd]

I grew up listening to Jim, hope he continues for a long, long time as the Voice of the Saints.

 

[TCEd]

My favorite Jim H quote... "Drew Brees was harder to contain than a 2 day old hair cut!"

 

[saints4eva]

We're gonna have a hard time finding a well-dressed broadcast journalist who doesn't talk with yat-marbles in his mouth.

What's a yat-marble?

 

[Bayouboy]

You will be missed Jim! Thanks for being the best sportscaster in the land.....and Saints fan to boot! Luckily, we will still have his voice on game days!

Till the day I die, I'll always get goose bumps when I hear, "Pigs have flown, hell has frozen over.....the Saints are on their way to the Superbowl!"

 

[aragas]

Thanks Jim