Aside from Archie Bowl, without a doubt the biggest story of this Super Bowl is the city of New Orleans and the fact that it has been four and a half years since Hurricane Katrina left that city in ruins. The Saints are representing a city that has been devastated and they have a chance to help the city heal and to further aid in re-building it.
Wait.........WHAT?
Help re-build it? Let's get realistic about this Super Bowl is and is not for the city of New Orleans.
Will a win put a smile on Saints fans and the people of New Orleans? Yes. Will it give them something to be proud of? Yes. Will it give them a reason to party for a few nights? Yes.
Will it solve the real problems this city currently faces? No.
Will it remove the corrupt politicians that need to be removed? No.
Will it rebuild the houses that need to be rebuilt? No.
Will it put people back in homes they have not seen in four and a half years? No.
Will all of New Orleans' problems be gone with this Super Bowl win? No.
If you paid attention to some of the media for the past week-and-a-half, you would think that if the Saints win New Orleans will finally get it's fairy tale end that it has so long deserved after Hurricane Katrina. No! No it won't be. This would not be the ending, it would just be a meager footnote in a story that started on August 23, 2005 when Katrina first formed over the Bahamas.
Win or lose on Sunday night, the city of New Orleans won't be in any better a condition than it will be. Drew Brees raising a Super Bowl trophy is not going to construct a house. It's not going to re-unite people with their loved one dead from the storm. It's not going to give them their lives back. It's not going to change any of that. It's just going to put a smile on their face and give them the false belief that everything in their city will be all right when in reality, money will go to funding a parade instead of fixing real problems.
A Saints win would make the people in New Orleans and Saints fans perhaps the happiest they have been in 4 and a half years, but give me a break! Let's call a football game a cotdamn football game and not something larger than life that can magically repair the infrastructure of a city so corrupt and so much in need and so devastated that 4-and-a-half years after a hurricane destroyed the city there is still no end in sight.
What are you talking about? A Michigan State National Title would've wiped out all the foreclosed homes, corruption & unemployment plaguing Detroit!
ReplyDeleteIt would've been cool for a sports championship victory to put a corrupt City Council harpy like this lady behind bars*.
*She'll wind up in jail anyways...for corruption.
@ RJBO: Great to hear from you again!
ReplyDeleteI am going by what you told us last year, but Michigan State is not even the most popular D-I school in that area, correct? That's like saying that a Duke championship could benefit Charlotte should it be hit with a catastrophe (from everything I've read, UNC is the team of choice in that area).
At least the Saints can they say the Saints can say they are the only football team in Louisiana.
/No team coached by Les Miles is an actual football team
It might be 60/40 Michigan fans in the metro Detroit area, but the recent struggles of Wolverines basketball & football, those numbers may change. MSU alums & fans have always grumbled about a perceived "Blue Wall" of media attention.
ReplyDeleteI'll always have a soft spot in my heart (and pain in my liver) for New Orleans. I love the place. Even the 96 oz bottles of Miller Lite tasted great, but I agree with you 100%.
@ RJBO: That makes sense I guess. Sparty basketball is all they have up there in terms of sports right now. I mean for goodness sakes, even the awful Sixers are ahead of the Pistons in the standings. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI don't have a problem with New Orleans and I wish the city well in recovery (for the sake of Bloomsburg alum Jahri Evans, I am rooting for the Saints on Sunday), but I'd rather not have the media telling us this football will cure everything in New Orleans.
Let's talk about the past futility of the franchise, not the city.