Saints use Mardi Gras floats for parade
February 9, 2010
NEW ORLEANS (AP)—Another jolt of Saints euphoria is on tap for New OrleansTuesday when the Super Bowl champs board floats borrowed from Mardi Gras krewesfor a victory parade through the grateful city.
The Carnival-flavored parade honoring the team’s 31-17 win over theIndianapolis Colts is scheduled to start in the afternoon at their home turf,the Louisiana Superdome. It will include 12 marching bands and one float eachfrom 10 krewes. Float builder Barry Kern said he believes it’s the first timethe groups—which celebrate Carnival season with separate parades—willcombine floats in one procession.
On Monday, swarms of fans in black and gold greeted the players as theystepped off a chartered plane at the suburban airport, cheering them with “WhoDat!” chants. The Saints, cellar dwellers for decades, delivered not just theirfirst Lombardi trophy but optimism for the city still recovering from HurricaneKatrina in 2005.
“The Saints kept hope alive in this city that better days were coming,”said Shannon Sims, a 45-year-old criminal court administrator, as she waited forthe team. She said the Saints “were the force that kept us moving forward.”
The win was not just about football for New Orleans, said John Magill, ahistorian at Historic New Orleans Collection.
“We’re all being told that we’re sinking, why bother rebuild it, there wasso much of that attitude,” Magill said. Thanks to the Super Bowl win, he said,Americans will view the city in the positive light it deserves.
Sunday’s victory came a day after New Orleans elected a new mayor andseveral other city officials. But in the area newspapers on Monday there waslittle besides the Saints.
The New Orleans paper, The Times-Picayune, ran a 5-inch headline that said“AMEN.” The subhead read, “After 43 years, our prayers are answered.”
At Lakeside News, which usually sells about 100 copies a day, owner MichaelMarcello said he had sold 6,000 to 7,000 by 9:15 a.m.
“I wish I had some,” he said. “I’m out again. This is the fourth timeI’ve run out.”
Thousands of fans lined the road outside the airport with their Saintsjerseys, “Who Dat!” chants, homemade signs, fleur-de-lis garb, face paint andMardi Gras costumes (like the Saint-a Claus fellow). Coach Sean Payton held theLombardi trophy aloft through the sunroof of his car, eliciting wild screams.
At the airport, 37-year-old courier Aaron Washington said “the dawn of anew day” had come. A brass-band version of “When the Saints Go Marching In”blared from his car stereo.
“This team has allowed us to get past Katrina and look forward to betterthings,” Washington said. He watched the game with dozens of friends andrelatives on a big-screen television in front of a home in eastern New Orleansthat was rebuilt after the 2005 hurricane flooded it with 9 feet of water.