NEW ORLEANS -- I saw men and women laughing through their tears Sunday night, staring at a confetti blizzard on a field where so many games have been blown and, in life's biggest picture, so many lives were lost. It wasn't long ago when the Superdome was darkly symbolic of Hurricane Katrina and its horrors, a home for thousands seeking a shelter of last resort inside a building that reeked of stench and barely had a roof.But now, finally, the massive mushroom on Poydras Street is the joyful, triumphant shrine of a championship football team. Now, it's where strangers were making out in the aisles Sunday night and where fans refused to leave the Dome until they were kicked out. Once, the New Orleans Saints were so pathetic that the locals called them the "Aints'' and wore paper bags over their heads. Today, for the first time, they are headed to the Super Bowl, persevering in the NFC title game just as their city has tortuously tried to survive for 4 1/2 hellish years. At last, the people of the Bayou received an inspirational gift that can be vital to self-esteem and the ongoing recovery mission, surviving the will of a battered Brett Favre to reach overtime and then steal a 31-28 win over the Minnesota Vikings on a 40-yard field goal by a kicker who had a premonition the night before.
What else would you expect in the land of voodoo and beads but a foretelling?
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