It looked and sounded like football, but it was more
than that. Sunday’s New Orleans Saints-Indiana Colts
showdown was about redemption.

It was redemption.
Hope for a city nearly destroyed four-and-a-half
years ago by Hurricane Katrina—recompense for a city
neglected by its own government.Watched by 106.5 million
viewers, the Super Bowl thrust the “Big Easy” back
into the limelight of America,unifying football fans in a
big way. The victory came one day after New Orleans
elected a new mayor to lead the post-Katrina recovery. It’s
a new beginning.

But don’t get it twisted. There were plenty of pure
football moments which will go down in history. Like the
onside kick which started the third quarter—a gutsy move
which pulled the Saints from a subdued first half, and positioned
them to recover the kick and drive a 42-yard touchdown.

Colts quarterback Peyton Manning wasleft scratching his head. But
the thrill of the night came when Saints player Tracey
Porter intercepted a pass from Manning, running 74 yards
for a touchdown, and cementing the 31-17 victory.

“Everybody back in New Orleans gets a piece of this trophy,”
Saints Coach Sean Payton said, holding up the Lombardi Trophy
after being doused with Gatorade. Saints quarterback Drew Brees told
reporters, “Don’t expect anyone to go to work [Monday] morning in New
Orleans, or maybe for the next two weeks considering Mardi Gras is
next week.

This is something that I think we all deserve to enjoy for a while, and
reflect on what it’s taken to get to this point.”

He added that when the team came together in 2006 after Katrina, the
players were free agents, “the ones nobody wanted,” but they worked
together to rebuild the team. This is the Saints’ first Super Bowl
championship in its 43-year history.

Tuesday was a quasi-holiday in New Orleans when the parade rolled
into town—the third day of partying which began Sunday night. Many
residents took off work Monday and schools reported that only half the
students showed up.

Fans braved chilling temperatures to stand along the parade route when
the 5 p.m. festivities began, exchanging “Who Dat” chants. Major highways
were backed up and city streets were impassable. United Airlines
pilots, trapped in their New Orleans hotel rooms, couldn’t make their
flight to Los Angeles because of the crowd. The flight was cancelled. By
contrast, about 11 fans greeted the returning Colts at the airport, according
to the Indianapolis Star. “When you think about the relationship
between the Saints and the Gulf Coast and the city of New Orleans,

it was more than just a football game and more than just a football
team, “ NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said. “The hopes, the
dreams and the struggles of that community were all reflected in that football
game.”

No one knows better than a Katrina survivor what such an event can
do to lift the human spirit. And no one appreciates being helped after
a natural disaster more than survivor Gary Simms. He is a newly published
author who is donating 25 percent of the profits of his book, The
Top 25 Things You Can do to Change Your Life for the Better to Haiti recovery
efforts.

“We need to do all we can to support them through this time—especially
when the cameras stop rolling and it becomes yesterday’s news. It
will be a slow process and they will need support for some time to come,”
Simms said