This championship is for you, New Orleans,” Drew Brees shouted after steering the Saints to victory in their first appearance in a Super Bowl. Brees, the New Orleans quarterback, was named Most Valuable Player for completing 32 passes and throwing two touchdowns as the Saints beat the more-fancied Indianapolis Colts 31-17 in Miami.
“I was all meant to be, it’s all destiny,” he said as confetti rained down over Dolphin Stadium after the match. “We just believed in ourselves. We knew that we had an entire city, maybe an entire country behind us.”
Brees had joined the Saints six months after the city was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In four years, he has led them from being the whipping boys of the NFL to the championship.
“Four years ago whoever thought this would be happening?” Brees asked. “When 85 per cent of the city was under water, all of its residents evacuated to places all over the country, most people were wondering if New Orleans would ever come back or if the team would ever come back.” He said that the team had decided to “lean on each other and rebuild together”.
The result was greeted with jubilation on the streets of New Orleans where Mardi Gras started early in the French Quarter. “This is the pinnacle of my life — now I can die,” said Randy Sumrall, who had fled the city after the storm but returned to watch the game on television with his former neighbours.
“The game is pretty much a once-in-a-lifetime event in this city,” said Sam Stonebraker, a host at Rick’s Cabaret where the music stopped for the first time in five years as everyone watched the game in rapt silence.
Sean Payton, the Saints head coach, said he had been happy being the underdogs. “We really felt we had the better team,” Payton said. “To be in that position where maybe a lot of people were picking against us, we liked the spot we were in.”
For the Colts, it was sheer disappointment after beginning the season with victory in 14 consecutive matches. “It’s a bitter pill to swallow,” Jim Caldwell, their head coach, said. “They did a tremendous job during the regular season, but you don’t get any trophies for the regular season.
“We were missing a little bit and weren’t quite as sharp as we would have liked but we’ve got to give all credit to the Saints. They did a heck of a good job, played well all year long, are an outstanding football team and well coached.”
Peyton Manning, the Colts quarterback, used the word “disappointing” ten times in his postgame interview. “We probably never got into a great rhythm,” Manning said. “We just didn’t play well enough at certain times and in certain phases and the Saints certainly deserve the win.”
The Colts were trailing by a touchdown late in the game, but Manning was leading a surge downfield only to throw an interception, which Tracy Porter returned 74 yards for a key score.
“It’s miserable. It’s not the way you want it to end,” Dallas Clark, the Colts tight end, said. “We’ve been able to do a lot of good things in the fourth quarter all season from behind and we just weren’t able to capitalise and execute. You’ve got to give them credit for making the plays.”
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