by Jonathan David Morris
The New Orleans Saints have started their season 5-1. Supposedly this is the NFLs feel-good story of the year. Well, guess what? I dont feel good for them. I dont feel good about their record. I think its abnormal. And I hope they start to lose.
I realize a hurricane destroyed the city of New Orleans last year. I realize people died. And I realize, only a year ago, the place where the Saints play football was being used to house thousands of homeless refugees. The whole thing sucked. I hope the Big Easy bounces back better than everfor its sake, as well as for Girls Gone Wild.
But Im not buying this idea that the Saints are everyones second favorite team now. Im not buying this idea that everyone should support them. Why? Would that make things all better? Would the Saints winning football games somehow bring back the people who died?
In 2001, nineteen a-holes stole four planes and turned one beautiful morning into a funeral for 3,000 people. It was largely considered the worst day in American history. Roughly a month later, the New York Yankees played the Arizona Diamondbacks in one of the best, most memorable, most gut-wrenching World Series that anyone who still watches baseball could ever remember seeing. To make a long story short, the Yankees lost. And life went on.
I was a lifelong Yankee fan. I was someone who grew up outside the Big Apple. It offended me that anyone rooted for those cheesy, expansion-draft D-backs that year. Even President Bush said he was pulling for Arizonasaid he was tired of seeing the Yankees always winning. What did that mean? Was he tired of New York? Tired of America? Tired of freedom? No. It meant this time wasnt different, even if people had died this time.
The Yanks had won the previous year. And the year before that. And the year before that. In fact, theyd won four of the previous five World Series, for a grand total of 26. People were tired of seeing this. And this shouldnt have changed just because there were no Twin Towers.
Yankee fans have always been offended by the idea of other teams existing. And fans of other teams have always been offended by the Yankees. George Bush wasnt rooting against New York City in 2001; he was rooting against a team that he hated, which happened to play there. In this way, the president was rooting for normalcy. And thats the way I am looking at New Orleans.
The Saints were not a winning franchise before Hurricane Katrina. Nor should I want them to be a winning franchise after. If the Saints are winning now, thats great for Saints fans. Its not great for Eagles fans when the Saints beat the Eagles; its not great for Falcons fans when the Saints beat the Falcons.
Anyone who cheers for the Saints for the sake of New Orleans misses the point here. You think, by them winning, the city will bounce back. Thats impossible. Bouncing back means returning to normal. And normal is New Orleans football futility.
If you really care about New Orleans, you will root for the Saints to be dreadful, and for Saints fans to pack the Superdome anyway. Thats how it was before, and so it should be thereafter.
Unless, of course, you hate freedom. In which case Katrina changed everything.
Jonathan David Morris is a political writer -- and sometimes satirist -- based in Pennsylvania. A strong believer in small government, JDM often takes aim at oppressive taxes, entitlements, and laws, writing about incompetence at the highest levels of culture and government. Catch his weekly ramblings at readjdm.com.