As we move closer and closer to February 11 and Super Bowl LVIII, we are still waiting to see who will be the final two standing between the San Francisco 49ers and the Detroit Lions (NFC) and the Kansas City Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens (AFC).
To be honest, while we’ve always been a college football family, it wasn’t until we moved to New Orleans that Julie and I began really following the pros. We met and married in Atlanta … but the Falcons? Meh. Then we lived in St. Louis for a season, but that was several years after Kurt Warner had led them to the Super Bowl, and they were already looking to relocate. (St. Louis is a baseball town anyway… Go Cards!)
There were a few reasons we became Saints fans:
- We had just moved to the city and were quickly falling in love with the culture. And the Saints are a HUGE part of the New Orleans culture.
- Candidly, they had a great team that year (eventually beating Indianapolis to win Super Bowl XLIV) so it was a good time to jump on that bandwagon.
- Drew Brees.
In many respects, the Saints’ victory in Sun Life Stadium (Miami, FL) was as much a celebration for the entire city of New Orleans as it was for the team itself. To some degree, it embodied the spirit of recovery and revival the city had been longing for since the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. And leading the way was a man who had come to New Orleans to rebuild and revive his own career, Drew Brees.
I don’t have room enough in an article to give you all the reasons Drew Brees was the adopted leader of New Orleans during this season in the city’s life. I’d 100% encourage you to read (or listen to) his memoir, Coming Back Stronger. But allow me to offer you his own words, which I believe give a little insight into the reason for his impact:
My desire is that people will see me as a man of God who is genuinely trying to live out my faith with my wife, my son (sons and daughter now), my team, and the community I live and serve in.
Drew Brees, Coming Back Stronger
I also hope those who don’t know Christ will be able to look at the way Christian athletes carry themselves and see that they are making their lives define the game, rather than letting the game define their lives.
Geaux Saints! (Ephesians 3:14 – 20)