NEW ORLEANS -- Another jolt of Saints euphoria is on tap Tuesday when the Super Bowl champions board floats borrowed from Mardi Gras krewes for a victory parade through their grateful city.
[On NFL Network:
Watch the
Saints'
Super Bowl XLIV victory parade live on NFL Network at
6 p.m. ET Tuesday.
The Carnival-flavored parade honoring the Saints' 31-17 victory over the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV is scheduled to start in the afternoon at the team's home turf, the Louisiana Superdome. It will include 12 marching bands and one float each from 10 krewes. Float builder Barry Kern said he believes it's the first time the groups -- which celebrate Carnival season with separate parades -- will combine floats in one procession.
On Monday, swarms of fans in black and gold greeted the players as they stepped off a chartered plane at the suburban airport, cheering them with "Who Dat!" chants. The Saints, cellar dwellers for decades, delivered not just their first Lombardi Trophy but optimism for the city still recovering from Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The win was not just about football for New Orleans, said John Magill, a historian at Historic New Orleans Collection.
"We're all being told that we're sinking, why bother rebuild it, there was so 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 one day after New Orleans elected a new mayor and several other city officials. But in the area newspapers Monday, there was little 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 of the newspaper per day, owner Michael Marcello 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 time I've run out."
Thousands of fans lined the road outside the airport with their Saints jerseys, "Who Dat!" chants, homemade signs, fleur-de-lis garb, face paint and Mardi Gras costumes (like the Saint-a Claus fellow). Saints coach Sean Payton held the Lombardi Trophy aloft through the sunroof of his car, eliciting wild screams.
At the airport, 37-year-old courier Aaron Washington said "the dawn of a new 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 better things," Washington said. He watched the game with dozens of friends and relatives on a big-screen television in front of a home in eastern New Orleans that was rebuilt after the 2005 hurricane flooded it with 9 feet of water.
Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press
