The party's on again in New Orleans
It’s only a football game. It won’t save lives in Iraq, help drive our gasoline prices down any further and it certainly won’t cure cancer.
It’s only a football game.
But, to the residents of New Orleans, who suffered so much a year ago, it was everything as the New Orleans Saints played their first game in the Superdome Monday night after it was ravaged by a hurricane a year ago.
There were no cheerleaders on the field last year when thousands sought refuge in the cavernous arena that has hosted Super Bowls, rock bands and anything else with mega, colossal or giant attached to it.
And, when the Saints blocked an Atlanta punt and ran it into the end zone less than two minutes into the game Monday night the fans nearly blew the roof off the stadium again.
It’s only a football game? Nah. This means everything to a city that was ravaged, forgotten then turned into a political football by finger-pointing politicians.
It’s only a football game that is wrapped in inspiration, hope and the promise of recovery.
It means nothing and everything, all at once. It means nothing because, really, how important is a game, a game where big guys run around the field with a ball and crash into each other? It means everything because the Superdome was an icon as the city started to rebuild, a milestone that residents could look to as some sort of progress among the tragic disarray.
Even though parts of the city remain torn asunder, the Saints are carrying the hopes and dreams of those who party on Bourbon Street by night, then toil at their jobs through the day.
They dance to their own brand of music, speak a poetic combination of French-English called Cajun and add color, warmth and indefatigable spirit to the American profile.
Let it rip, New Orleans. You deserve a party because despite the odds, the neglect and the disinterest, you are making a comeback, slow, to be sure, but you’re gonna make it.
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