The Saints set a new mark in team history Sunday night. With a thrilling 31-28 overtime victory over Mississippian Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings, the Saints earned the right to compete for the franchise’s first World Championship ever in Super Bowl XLIV.
However, some local Saints fans had a tough time with this one, as Favre, Mississippi’s native son, was stacked up against their dear Saints, but there was too much special meaning for this season in New Orleans.
The Super Bowl will kick off in Miami Feb. 7, and Saints fans have been waiting an eternity for this moment – well, 43 years. If the rest of the season has been any indication, there will be no lack of black and gold on hand for the season’s final matchup in South Florida.
Thomas Webb, a senior MSU football player, explains the difference between Saints fans and other fans.
“Saints fans rival any other fanbase that exists, just for the fact they still support a franchise that historically has been near the bottom of the National Football League for a long time,” he said.
“Aints” fans have endured far more than abysmal football over the years. Just five years ago, the Superdome was not the home of the Saints, but shelter for refugees from Hurricane Katrina which killed approximately 2,000 people and stranded thousands more.
The Saints have overcome four decades of bad football, a terrible tragedy and possess the most exciting offense in the NFL. Considering all of these facts, it is no surprise the Saints are a popular team to pull for.
These facts, combined with the upcoming trip to the Super Bowl, have raised Saints Nation almost to capacity, so to speak. There have been rumblings on message boards and blogs that die-hard Saints fans are tired of their newfound comrades or so-called bandwagon fans.
Recent Mississippi State alumnus and current New Orleans resident John Alden Patton expresses these die-hard fans are in the minority and said he believes most lifelong fans welcome the new ‘who dats.’
“Some people want to hate on the whole bandwagon thing, but they have to realize that when you have success, then [bandwagon fans] are inevitable,” Patton said. “If anything, it’s a sign of progress and recognition. Nothing changes for the long time fans, but the ‘who dat’ chants sure have gotten louder for sure.”
There has certainly been more public Saints support in Starkville than in recent years. Look around, there are more hats, shirts and stickers than recent years, which puts us in the same boat with the rest of America. However, do not be so quick to throw Starkville, and more generally, Mississippi into the bandwagon category.
Webb said he believes the proximity to New Orleans is a reason there are so many Saints fans in Mississippi, many of them being lifelong fans.
“My dad and his family were always fans because they were the closest team to Mississippi and they were the only games broadcast on local radio and subsequently television,” he said.
Do not expect Saints fans to disappear from Starkville anytime soon, because Saints fans do not expect their high-flying team to fade into NFL obscurity anytime soon.
MSU sophomore Austin Sharp has been a Saints fan for 12 years, and said he knows the past was bleak but expects good things in the future.
“Regardless of whether we win or lose, I speak for most Saints fans when I say we are here to stay,” Sharp said. “We have established ourselves as a team to reckon with year in and year out. We don’t win off of smoke and mirrors like a few years ago, we are even running the ball now.”