Surreal

I'm still in a state of shock really.  The Saints?  Playing for the Super Bowl?  Are you kidding?  There is just no way in my lifetime I ever thought anything like that would happen.  Even with this great season, I just felt like the Aints would show up eventually.  Years and years of disappointment will do that to you.

Caroline didn't stay up to see the end of the game.  It was way past her bedtime.  But while she was still awake, I had to have a talk with her.  We were cheering and she was smiling and laughing.  I had to tell her this it was a a special night.  And although the Saints winning was all she's ever known, it's not how it used to be.

I told her that when her momma was little, the Saints were bad.... really bad.  In fact, they played better with replacement players during the strike of the 80's.  That was the first time her momma remembered them winning.  I told her that her momma remembered years and years of Joe Montana making the Saints look stupid twice a year.  And years when they looked like they were going to turn the corner and pull it together, the followed it up withe mediocrity (or worse).

Her momma remembered seemingly good quarterbacks coming to New Orleans (Jim Everett, Steve Walsh, et al) only to stink it up once they got here.  And when Drew Brees signed with New Orleans it made her momma think that his shoulder must really be screwed up if he was going to the Saints.

So I told her she needed to understand that no matter what happens in Miami, last night was truly a great night.  The Saints were going to the Super Bowl! 

But given the amount of snowfall South Louisiana has seen in the last two years, the Saints going to the Super Bowl doesn't seem so far-fetched.