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The Rotunda
Saturday, July 5, 2025

With a Little Help from Their Friends

Staff Profile: Ben Maitland, Assistant Sports Editor

We all remember the images. Houses underwater, citizens wading through chest deep water trying to get to safety, the Superdome packed beyond capacity with thousands of displaced and dying inhabitants of New Orleans. Five years removed from the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, the Louisiana city still faces a recovery period. Many are still picking up the pieces of the lives they once lived, looking toward the future. Some people just left and did not look back. Those who stayed, however, found solace in watching their beloved Saints take to the field each Sunday during the NFL season. Now, those fans can proudly call the Saints Super Bowl Champions.

The story is well-known, the Saints leaving the Superdome not knowing when they would return to play football in front of their hometown crowd. They did come back, of course, and it is pretty clear that Drew Brees, Reggie Bush, Darren Sharper, and the rest of the team drew their strength and resiliency from the cheers and loyalty of the Saints fans. They rode the wave so to speak, all the way to an NFC Championship title and then a victory Sunday night in Super Bowl XLIV. Sean Payton and his boys used the crowd on more than one occasion to stifle their opponents and seal victories. The Superdome crowd, for lack of a better term, became the veritable "twelfth man" on a field reserved for just eleven Saints competitors.

I am a member of WMLU 91.3FM Sports Broadcasting. On Sunday prior to the kickoff, the sports crew put on a pre-game show where we broke down the matchup between New Orleans and Indianapolis. At one point, I said that I believed in fate and destiny for the Saints, that with the crowd behind them they would be hard to beat. One of my on-air partners Nathan Epstein brought up an interesting point which we tossed around for several minutes: Can you make the argument that the Saints and their fans, who just several years ago wore paper bags over their heads, have taken the place of the Cowboys and their fans around the country and ascended to the title of "America's Team?" I think there is a good case to be made for that argument.

Let's face it, no other team in no other city has faced this much adversity during the past decade, save for the collective New York sports teams following 9/11. The unmitigated destruction of such a lively city was hard to watch on the news day in and day out. The life was flooded right out of the Ninth Ward and the surrounding neighborhoods. Following Sunday's victory, a new atmosphere of pride and joy settled on the city. The party might not stop until the next kickoff in September. With Mardi Gras just several days away, Bourbon Street will keep on rocking. Heck, I would not mind heading down there myself to celebrate with them; because there is nothing quite as special as enjoying the accomplishment of your favorite team or athlete.

In the Saints fans, I see devotion and commitment. I think a lot of the people around the United States who were rooting for New Orleans on Sunday were not bandwagon fans. I think they were just caught up in the moment as much as everyone else was.

It's hard to pick a favorite moment from the Saints win. Maybe it was Drew Brees's record tying 32 completions. Or maybe it was the successful on-side kick that the Saints recovered to start the second half. From Tracy Porter's interception return for a touchdown to Garrett Hartley's three field goals from 40-plus yards, everything just went the Saints way in Miami. I don't know if there has ever been a more meaningful Super Bowl as far as what it meant to an entire community. I cannot stress that enough, just how bleak the situation was several years ago following the hurricane and the flooding. This win has gone a long way towards the healing process.

In writing this, I thought about a song made famous by The Beatles and Joe Cocker, "With a Little Help from My Friends." I guess in the end, the Saints did get by with a little help and support from their friends, all of them, whether they were in the stands or watching from the comfort of their living room. Bringing the Vince Lombardi Trophy home to the bayou was well worth the forty-year wait.

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