Emotional Saints Rewrite History

MIAMI -- If ever there was a Super Bowl champion that was more than just a Super Bowl champion, it's the New Orleans Saints.

"We played for so much more than ourselves. We played for our city. We played for the entire Gulf Coast region. We played for 'Who Dat' nation,'' said Drew Brees, who four-and-a-half years after the Saints were driven from their homes by Hurricane Katrina, led his team to a 31-17 win over the Indianapolis Colts.

"The city was 85 percent under water, most of the population moved to other cities, and none of them knew if they'd ever come back. It's just an amazing feeling.''

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Brees was named the MVP of the game after going 32 of 39 for 288 yards and two touchdowns, but he had plenty of help.

Garrett Hartley, who had played in 15 previous NFL games and attempted just 26 field goals, made three field goals of longer than 40 yards, the first kicker in Super Bowl history to do that.

Coach Sean Payton risked an onside kick at the start of the second half with the Colts holding a 10-6 lead after jumping out 10-0. "By far the most crucial play of the game,'' said punter Thomas Morstead, who kicked off on that play, the first time he has done it this season.

And Tracy Porter capped off the victory with a 74-yard interception return for a score to tie it after Brees had hit Jeremy Shockey with a 2-yard TD pass to put the Saints ahead for good with just under six minutes left. Brees followed with a two-point conversion completion to Lance Moore that first was ruled incomplete, but was ultimately upheld by replay.

Shockey earned his second Super Bowl ring after missing the New York Giants' victory over New England two years ago with a broken ankle. "I was jealous of my [Giants] teammates winning without me,'' he acknowledged after Sunday's game.

During the 2004 season, the Saints seemed jealous of other cities. They played home games in San Antonio, Baton Rouge, and even at "home'' against the Giants at Giants Stadium

During that time, owner Tom Benson was ready to move the team to San Antonio and maybe even to Los Angeles, while the team's home in the Superdome was being used as a shelter for thousands of displaced New Orleans residents. As the water receded and the building was repaired, then-commissioner Paul Tagliabue and his top aide and successor, Roger Goodell, literally had to drag Benson back to New Orleans.

And even with their success this season, they entered this game as 4 1/2- to 6-point underdogs.

"We really felt that as underdogs we had the better team,'' Payton said, part of the reason, he said, that he decided to risk the onside kick.

This sure didn't start like the Saints' day.

They fell behind 10-0 in a first quarter when the Colts looked like they would run them out of Sun Life Stadium. Indianapolis scored a TD on a 96-yard drive that uncharacteristically included 61 yards rushing from the team that was last in the NFL in ground yardage. But New Orleans dominated the second quarter -- Manning didn't throw a pass in a span of almost 13 minutes -- from 9:27 left in the second quarter until 11:47 remained in the third.

Everything turned in a five-minute span at the end of the second quarter and start of the third.

First the Colts, leading 10-3, stuffed the Saints on a fourth-and-goal try by from a yard-and-a-half out -- Gary Brackett buried Pierre Thomas on fourth down. But the Colts couldn't move the ball, were forced to punt and Hartley cut Indianapolis' lead to 10-6 at halftime with a 44-yard kick.

Then came the onside kick -- which the Saints recovered after it bounced from the hands of Indy's Hank Baskett and was fallen on by New Orleans' Chris Reis. Brees' 16-yard screen pass to Pierre Thomas for the Saints' first touchdown was the result.

The Colts took another lead at 17-13, but couldn't deny Brees.

"We just didn't get it done,'' said Colts coach Jim Caldwell, who succeeded the retired Tony Dungy. "We didn't have the ball the entire second quarter. They did a great job spreading the ball around. Drew Brees certainly did a great job."

They also beat the best of the best, Peyton Manning, who was voted the NFL's most valuable player for a record fourth time. His only Super Bowl victory came three years ago in this same stadium, when it was called Dolphin Stadium, one of an endless number of names the edifice has had.

Manning, of course, is a native of New Orleans, son of the most revered Saint of all -- that would be Archie, the team's quarterback from 1971 until 1982, when the Saints never had a winning season. In fact, they have won more games than they have lost just six times in their 43 years of existence.

"The Saints made all the crucial plays when they had do,'' Manning said.

As for that 43-year history ...

This just about atoned for all of it.
The Saints won their first 13 games and lost their last three in the regular season, before bouncing back with playoff victories over Arizona and Minnesota, winning the NFC title game over the Vikings 31-28 in overtime in a brutal game in which their defense continually drove Brett Favre into the turf of the Superdome.

This victory, which made New Orleans 19-3, also was another landmark -- the Saints were the first team to beat the Colts this season in a game that Indy wanted to win.

The Colts started 14-0, then declined to go for an unbeaten season, pulling their starters in the second half of a loss to the Jets, and then losing their finale in Buffalo after pulling or sitting most of their starters. They came back to win two playoff games, making this the first time the top seeds in both conference had met in Super Bowl had met since 1993.

But they couldn't get over the top

"They played well in all phases,'' Manning said. "They made all the plays in critical situations and the defense made plays when it had to.

"We were the opposite. We didn't make the plays.''

After 12 NFL seasons, Manning just has to hope that's not his legacy.

Nor his team's.