Thursday, September 1, 2011

Football Season

Words can't explain how stoked I am about the upcoming football season.  Both LSU and the New Orleans Saints are looking to field strong teams this year.  With a 14 hour time difference, I will be staying up late, or waking up early to catch most of the games, but I don't care.  My friend, Sara, is from Chicago and is a Bears fan.  I've already informed her numerous times that the Saints will hand the Bears a loss when they meet in the SuperDome on September 18.  Moreover, there is no doubt in my mind that the Saints will hoist their second Lombardi on February of 2012.  The Saints are solid and deep at every position, and nobody outside of New Orleans is mentioning them as a contender for a Super Bowl title.  As long as Drew Brees is healthy, Greg Williams is our defensive coordinator, and Sean Payton is our head coach, the Saints should always be mentioned.  

It all starts on September 8 in Green Bay on Thursday night.  It's absurd how fired up I am about this game.  Drew Brees vs Aaron Rogers in a dream matchup pitting the last two Super Bowl champions on Thursday night in Lambeau Field on national network TV to kick off the NFL season.  Thinking about it makes me want to run through a wall.  As a fan, I have no fear going into this game.  Coach Payton is intelligently aggressive, and competitive is not a strong enough word to describe him.  I know for a fact that there is nobody who is more fired up about the game than him.  I am confident that he will have the Saints ready to play good football on Thursday night.  I am also confident in stating that the Saints will walk into Green Bay, and steal a win.  I believe in Brees.  I believe in Coach Payton.  I believe in Greg Williams.  I believe in our defense.  I believe.

I've said since college that the Saints are my mother, and LSU football is my wife.  I grew up on the Saints.  Some of my first memories were watching Saints games with my dad and my brothers.  And unlike most other generations of Saints fans, the Saints were winners when my generation was old enough to understand football.  My first memories were of Bobbie Hebert, Ricky Jackson, Pat Swilling, Sam Mills, Vaughn Johnson, Toi Cook, Stan Brock, Hobie Brenner, Eric Martin (former LSU Tiger), and Dalton Hilliard (former LSU Tiger).  They fielded some great teams.  The reason they never went far was because they were in the same division as Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Ronnie Lott, and the San Francisco 49ers.

I went away to Baton Rouge for college at LSU.  And in Baton Rouge, I lived and breathed LSU football, maybe even to the point that it was a detriment to my GPA.  It was there that LSU football became my wife.  I was a freshmen during Little Nicky's first year as football coach of the Tigers in 2000.  Tiger stadium just added the east upper deck to make Death Valley 92,000 strong.  And what an awesome time I had watching LSU there!  I saw some great games against teams like Alabama, Tennessee, Florida, Auburn, Ole Miss, Georgia, and many others.  I was in my fourth year at LSU when they won their second national title in 2003.  I still say it was the funnest year of my life.  I witnessed players like Joseph Addai, Rohan Davey, Josh Reed, Labrandon Toefield, Bradie James, Trev Faulk, Corey Webster, Devery Henderson, Kyle Williams, Marcus Spears, Andrew Whitworth, Michael Clayton, Jamarcus Russell (Say what you want about him as a pro, but as an LSU Tiger, he was incredible), Glen Dorsey, Dwayne Bowe, Early Doucet, and Jacob Hester.  My mother, the Saints, sort of took a back seat at that time.

I returned to the New Orleans area in 2009, the year the Saints won their first Super Bowl.  I was back home living amongst the Who Dat Nation, and it was there that I reconnected with my precollegiate childhood passion that I had for the Saints.  Living in Baton Rouge, I had forgotten how passionate New Orleanians are about the Saints.  I had forgotten about the genuine love and strong loyalty that they have for their team.  One of the funnest conversations you can have is talking NFL football with a y'at.  I quickly caught the fever, and witnessing the Saints win their first Super Bowl title was one of the greatest moments of my life.  And I know witnessing their second will be equally as good.

I love football.  It's the greatest game in the world.  So without further due, here's to another intense, passion-filled, competitive, emotional, and exciting football season!  And good luck to all of your favorite teams, unless you are a Falcons fan.  In that case, I loathe your team, and hope they lose every single game they play.              

1 comment:

  1. I love this post! I tell people all the time that I inherited a passion LSU. I'm fairly certain that my Daddy bleeds purple and gold, and he passed that along to his children, for sure! Daniel married into the LSU love. And rest easy knowing we're raising our children in the way they should grow... as tiger fans! LSU fans have the most loyalty, passion, and spirit than any other team. GEAUX Tigers!!!!!!

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