New Orleans Is Quiet ... for Now

NEW ORLEANS -- Much has been made of Drew Brees' pregame, team-motivating chant this season, which has at times culminated with a 300-esque declaration: "This ... is ... New Orleans!"

Wait ... this is New Orleans? The city that I've heard loves their Saints like no other city has loved anything ever before? The city that is willing to throw a lavish parade whenever someone so much as sneezes? The city that has waited 43 years for their beloved football team to reach a Super Bowl?

Hmm, maybe my flight got re-routed somewhere. Or maybe, like a summer blockbuster film, the hype has built my expectations to unattainable levels. Because my first impression of New Orleans on Super Bowl weekend has been underwhelming, although I've heard I shouldn't get used to it.

For one, it's Thursday, meaning early alarm clocks are set. For another, it's pouring rain here, dampening a French Quarter that is expecting sunshine and temperatures in the 60s all this weekend.

But by all accounts, this will be the perfect place to be this weekend if you like debauchery, big crowds, and massive comings-together of humanity.

Schools and businesses in the area have already declared themselves closed on Monday, and cab drivers and hotel workers around the French Quarter have told me that they've been bracing for two weeks -- since the Saints beat the Vikings in the NFC championship game -- for a massive influx of people, going so far as to say that they've been expecting a weekend far more intense than any Mardi Gras they can remember.

But why are people flocking to New Orleans, rather than Miami, where the Super Bowl will actually be played? That's typically what fans do, but those fans come from cities that aren't New Orleans.

"With the cost of traveling to Miami, and the everyday atmosphere of New Orleans -- which celebrates in good times or bad -- why would you want to leave?" That excellent question was posed to me by an employee of Harrah's, a hotel and casino. And it makes sense. By all accounts the experience in New Orleans after Garrett Hartley booted a 40-yard field goal to send the Saints to the Super Bowl was immensely positive despite the mob of people crowding Bourbon Street after the game. People celebrated -- and hard -- but in a harmonious atmosphere because everyone was so enraptured by the common joy of a Saints win.

Would you rather be at the Super Bowl, lost in a crowd of indifferent corporate sponsors, the media, and those just looking for a spectacle? Or would you rather take part in a brotherhood in one of the most cultured and lively cities in America? Uh, yeah.

But between the locals flocking to the French Quarter and the Saints fans from out-of-area traveling to New Orleans, how will the city deal with it? More than a few bars have told me that they're going to be severely short-staffed because their employees took Sunday off well in advance of the Saints qualifying for the game, just in case.

Still, it's a good problem for the city to have. Everyone who prepared me for what's to come did so in a positive light; forget the sentimentality in post-Katrina New Orleans, these people are pragmatists that see the Saints' playoff run as a huge boost to the local economy.

And after 43 years, hurricane or no hurricane, the city deserves a football team to celebrate. And it's clear that celebrate they will, win or lose.

I'm sure of that, because I was taught long ago to be wary of first impressions.