A Guilty Pleasure

As a football fan, I am very loyal to my team.  But when the playoffs come along, I am usually forced to take sides when the Jets aren't playing - which over my lifetime has been often.  I have been alive for 34 Super Bowls now and have not been able to enjoy one that featured my team. 

In many of those 34 Super Bowls I took the side of the underdog.  This year was no different.

But in watching the previews of the game and knowing what I know about the recent history of this franchise post Hurricane Katrina, it was hard for me to feel like a Saints fan today.  Perhaps I should've been easily transformed - I have always been a Drew Brees fan, as far back as his days in Purdue.  I used to often play Tecmo Bowl with the Saints if only to bash a few opposing linebackers using Craig "Ironhead" Heyward.  As a Jets fan, I certainly have endured plenty of losing even if I never famously donned a paper-bag on my head, so I couldn't understand my feeling of guilt.

Something felt wrong about rooting for the Saints.  I felt like I hadn't earned it.  I didn't suffer through the hurricane or aid in the rebuilding.  My team's stadium wasn't ripped apart by vicious winds and driving rain, nor was it used as a refuge for the lucky ones who escaped the floods.  I don't sit and wait at the airport when my team flies in after a road game.

I have never even set foot on Bourbon Street and until recently hadn't even tasted crawfish.

I was thrilled with the Saints victory, and was excited for the Saints fans as the clock wound down.  But as a bandwagon fan, I didn't feel like I was a part of the celebration.  Saints fans are just at another level of satisfaction and enjoyment.

Perhaps even worse, I realized that I simply don't love my team as much as Saints fans love theirs.  For me, this thought transcended over to a more business-like analysis.  When you are asked about what makes a successful franchise, a typical answer might be the one that wins the most Championships or has the most fans or makes the most money.  You can throw those theories out the window because the Saints have shown us that the true measure of a franchise's success comes from the love of its fans.  And right now the Saints are the richest franchise in the NFL.