The Saints won the Super Bowl. Wow. For any Falcons fan, that’s hard to stomach. For a Falcons fan who spent the football season living in Baton Rouge, it’s a nightmare. I should’ve been happy for my adopted state, for my closest friends, for my father, a lifelong Saints fan, and for the people of New Orleans. But I wasn’t happy, far from it in fact. I was crushed.
That’s right, crushed. As soon as the game ended, I responded to the Saints newfound success with the same bitterness as a 30-year old bridesmaid at her 20-year old sister’s wedding. Thoughts of jealousy consumed me. Cynical, even bitter thoughts. I caught myself making snide comments like “This will never last!” and “Who do they think they are, being happy like this? Where do they get off acting soooo damn happy?”
The same season that the Falcons finally exorcised their demons, and got over the whole “they’ve never had back-to-back winning seasons” thing, our arch-rivals had to go and one-up us. The only team in the NFC South as perpetually hapless and pathetic as us, is now a Super Bowl champion. “Who do they think they are?”
But with the Saints storybook season culminating last night, at least I know it’s over. I can take comfort knowing that it’s now 2010, and every team is 0-0 again.
Good-bye, nightmare season, hello dream offseason. Thomas Dimitroff now has a chance to do what he does best, and that is to crush the draft and free-agency. He has a chance to do what Saints GM Mickey Loomis did last summer, and that’s rebound from a disappointing season, one that saw no playoffs, and build his team into a Super Bowl champion. With 6 draft picks, including either the 19th or 20th of the first round, depending on a coin flip with the Texans, (tails never fails, TD, tails never fails) and the impending removal of the salary cap, Dimitroff will be afforded every opportunity he needs to improve this team.
So fear not, Falcs fan, someday soon we’ll find the one for us. If the Saints can do it, it really can happen to anyone. With apologies to Lions fans, we’re catching that damn bouquet.