The Team That Wore Paper Bags
On November 1, 1966 — All Saints' Day — the NFL awarded New Orleans its franchise. The name was inevitable. The New Orleans Saints kicked off their first season in 1967 at Tulane Stadium, and what followed was one of the longest stretches of futility in professional sports history. For twenty years, the Saints didn't post a single winning season. Fans wore paper bags over their heads at games. They called the team the "Aints." The joke wasn't funny because it was too true.
But New Orleans fans didn't abandon the team. They couldn't. In a city where loyalty is a way of life — loyalty to your neighborhood, your family's restaurant, your parade krewe, your second line — giving up on the Saints was never really an option. The fans suffered, loudly and creatively, but they kept showing up.
The Superdome
The Louisiana Superdome opened in 1975 and immediately became one of the most iconic venues in American sports. At the time, it was the largest fixed-dome structure in the world, a massive white flying saucer rising from the downtown skyline. The Saints finally had a home worthy of the city's ambition, even if the team wasn't yet worthy of the building.
The Dome hosted nine Super Bowls, more than any other venue. It hosted the Sugar Bowl annually. It hosted the Bayou Classic — the legendary rivalry game between Grambling State and Southern University that fills the Dome every Thanksgiving weekend with HBCU marching band culture at its finest. The Superdome became New Orleans' living room, the place where the city gathered for its biggest moments.
And then, in August 2005, it became something else entirely — the shelter of last resort for thousands of New Orleanians trapped by Hurricane Katrina. The images of the damaged Dome, its roof peeled back, its interior filled with desperate people, became the defining visual of the worst disaster in modern American history.
The Rebirth
When the Superdome reopened on September 25, 2006 — thirteen months after Katrina — for a Monday Night Football game against the Atlanta Falcons, it was more than a football game. It was a statement. The city was alive. The Dome was rebuilt. The Saints were home. Steve Gleason blocked a punt on the opening drive and the building exploded with an emotion that went far beyond sports. U2 and Green Day played at halftime. The Saints won 23-3. Grown men and women wept in the stands.
Three years later, the Saints won Super Bowl XLIV, beating the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 in Miami. Drew Brees, the quarterback who had chosen to sign with New Orleans when the city was still in ruins, held the Lombardi Trophy overhead while confetti rained down. It was the single most cathartic moment in New Orleans sports history — a team of underdogs, in a city of underdogs, winning the biggest game there is.
Who Dat
The Saints gave New Orleans more than a football team. They gave it a rallying cry. "Who Dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints?" started as a chant in the stands and became the city's battle cry, a phrase that showed up on bumper stickers, T-shirts, and banners across the region. The Who Dat Nation — the sprawling, passionate, slightly unhinged fan base — is one of the most devoted in professional sports, forged not by decades of winning but by decades of not winning and staying anyway.
The Saints are New Orleans in uniform — dramatic, resilient, occasionally heartbreaking, and always worth watching. The paper bag days made the Lombardi Trophy sweeter. The suffering made the joy possible. That's about as New Orleans as a football team can get.
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