Geaux Saints!!!

Remember back when I told you that Zack was determined we were going to become Saints fans? Well, slowly but surely I think its happening. I've personally never lived anywhere that had a pro team (of any sort, not just football) to root for so I've never developed a real loyalty to anyone. Since we're here in NOLA now the Saints seem like as good a team as any to get behind. Plus, they're really, really good this year so its easy to like them. (How's that for fair weather fandom on my part)?

The rest of the city though, is absolutely manically obsessed with the Saints. Their reverence for the team is (and it pains me a little to admit this) on par with loyal Kentucky fans' love of their basketball teams. Of course, no team anywhere has fans that can completely match the Big Blue Nation in terms of sheer unabashed loyalty for their team, it would be blasphemy to even say that, but Saints fans come as close as any group I've personally ever seen. In Lexington everyone wears blue; here everyone wears black and gold. During basketball season back home its a safe bet that just about any new conversation you begin on a given day will include at least a two minute discussion about the team. It's the same here. It's been a little unnerving to me actually, because I feel like everyone else is in on this big secret that I'm just now starting to hear about. Everyone at work has been crazy busy the past few weeks trying to finalize the Budget; the Finance department has worked 14 and 15 hour days for weeks. I was talking to one of the ladies on Monday though, just asking her how things were going and she said, "Obviously this is one night where no one is working late!"

I was completely stumped and started running through all the possible reasons for such a comment. Monday? November 2? No. Is it a holiday? No. What gives? Come to find out, the Saints played the Falcons Monday night! I knew this in the back of my mind but it just hadn't occurred to me that a football game would dictate the budget work schedule. But once I realized this was the reason I think I started liking New Orleans just a little bit more. I can totally respect a town and a people who plan their lives around their sporting events!

So yeah, the Saints are having an amazing season so far. Monday night made them 7-0 and supposedly the rest of their schedule is teddy bear soup. If they can manage to avoid any serious injuries everyone's saying they're going to the Superbowl. Granted I'm not a hardcore fan yet but I've got to admit that would be an awesome thing. And like I've said before, it would maybe do as much to boost the morale of this city as anything possibly could. Below are a couple of pictures from the game the other night. No, I didn't take them but I thought they'd be fun to have on here anyway.