The Saints Are At It Again

The New Orleans Saints are a huge piece of our fall every year. Every Sunday of our fall revolves around their games. They have an uncanny ability to disappoint in very painful ways. Each season Phil choses to believe that possibly the worst team in the NFL will somehow redeem themselves and start winning. He even has a heart-felt belief that if the Saints started winning that the city of New Orleans would "do better and be better". I don't know if this is true, but I know that Phil does better and is better when his team is winning. Their near misses eat him up.

As I write, their preseason game against the Patriots in on the local FOX station here. A televised Saints game is unusual in Boston. During the regular season, Phil usually listens on the internet radio or goes (usually alone) to a sports bar that televises several NFL games and bribes the bartender to show the Saints game. He and the other three Saints fans in Boston find each other (he also knows a handful of Saints fans in London and Oakland) and have their hopes dashed weekly.

I know this because he comes home and retells the whole game to me. I am so uninterested. I tolerate these descriptions because it is important to him, but I just don't get it. So, Phil calls Mitch, his buddy who lives in Austin and they re-live the whole thing together. I am telling you: from the pre-game to the post-game to the Monday-morning quarterbacking I am wore out.

I am worried after tonight's performance. This is a perfect example of the way the Saints love to get your hopes up. Right now their are just a few moments left in the game and they are up by 10 points. This is unusual. They could win it (19 seconds left). This preview, which has no bearing on the regular season, will be something Phil will savor for the next couple weeks. He'll dare to believe that his team can not only beat the Superbowl champs, they could come out of no where and be the Superbowl champs. It is going to be a long fall.

Let's hope--for me and the kids at least--that the Saints suprise us. If they could make the playoffs we'd be happy.