Saints Alive

January 29, 2010
Saints Alive

Now nearly a week after the Saints’ thrilling overtime defeat of the Vikings, the passions of football — so volatile, so atavistic, so animal in us the fans — rise up from the unconscious. I am angry that the Saints’ defense is so pointedly focused on physically hurting the quarterback, as they did Favre. I dislike the man, but he kept popping up like a Punchinello even when his ankle was beaten and twisted to a pulp, I grudgingly give him his due. He lost by his own weakness, a love of the risky cross-body pass, which a sharp-eyed Saint defender picked up on and picked off. That kind of defense I admire; I deplore ‘kill the quarterback’.

On the other hand my dander gets up when I read in the NYTimes a litany of missed calls by officials in the game, most if not all in favor of the Saints, especially including the now infamous double hit on Favre, from above and from below, too far below. The article deceitfully implied, without saying so outright, that the officials gave us the game. Listen, you blockheads, the final score is the final score, and can you count the Vikings’ turnovers, you blockheads?

I am pleased to hear that the celebrating, drunken crowds in the Quarter on Sunday evening did not riot and vandalize property, as we would expect in any European city after European football. I am pleased, but not surprised. Isn’t this the way we are in New Orleans? After, we say, “we’re not Philadelphia or Chicago,” placing the madding crowd a lot closer to home. Now the Carmelite nuns in New Orleans became huge Saints fans this season, and they prayed — with gusto and almost ecclesiastical violence — for St. Joseph to help them. “When we won the toss in overtime, I knew we had it,” chortled Sister Miriam, who obviously has been watching the NFL every weekend (!). Then another sister, perhaps the Mother Superior, or whatever, explained, “we knew what it meant when the ball went through the goalposts and the referee raised his arms! We understood that, we knew!!” (applause and delight all around from the sisters). “And the warmth and kindness of the crowds, no violence — these are godlike qualities,” she added, projecting her vision of the world onto New Orleans. The identification of the city and the Saints, resurrection and redemption, death and rebirth — these are all eternal verities, I guess.

Oh, well, it’s all for the good. I still dislike football, aside from what the Saints are doing — football, a game where much of importance that we have just witnessed is reviewed, challenged and nullified, as though it never happened at all. Not so in baseball (except for the very recent admission of instant replay review of playoff homers, upon challenge, which I deplore).

Next week, let’s get Manning! On him, Saints! Knock him down!

gmc