'Magical' Saints Complete Miracle Run

MIAMI -- The more the seconds turn into minutes along the way to hours, days and years after the most improbable victory in the history of sports, the more the New Orleans Saints become a living testimony for a higher power.

If you haven't gone to church in a while, you might consider it now. For one, there have been more references to God and faith regarding what the Saints did to the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday at Sun Life Stadium than during the previous 43 Super Bowls combined. And for another, well, this wasn't supposed to happen.

Here's something else to consider: no more alibis, please. Just like that, those in charge of traditionally lousy pro franchises and major college programs -- ranging from the Los Angeles Clippers and Vanderbilt football to the Detroit Lions and any baseball team that dares to play in the nation's capital -- have lost the ability forever to blame this or that while ending another season in purgatory.

I mean, the Saints won the Super Bowl.

This wasn't supposed to happen, and this had nothing to do with those silly voodoo dolls of Peyton Manning around the French Quarter.

Take it from Drew Brees, the Saints' quarterback, spiritual leader and the game's MVP, who said, this was "God's master plan and destiny." Brees added during a news conference on Monday in nearby Fort Lauderdale, "I had to wake up this morning and turn to my wife and say, 'Did yesterday really happen?' She said, 'Yes, it did.' What a special moment. Something that you dream about."

Yeah, but the Saints spent most of their four decades in existence losing in prolific (and often comical) ways. They were the Aints, with all of those folks wearing bags over their heads at the Louisiana Superdome. They were loved anyway around New Orleans, but their owner, Tom Benson, was loathed. Even before Hurricane Katrina demolished the city five years ago, Benson always was threatening to ship the franchise elsewhere to make it somebody else's NFL laughingstock.

Then this happened: In 2006, after the Saints finished the previous year with the league's second-worst record at 3-13, they acquired Sean Payton as their coach and Brees as their quarterback. They both were pretty good. They also became local icons as hands-on workers during New Orleans' post-Hurricane Katrina recovery effort.

Not only that, Payton and Brees found ways to mold all of that into a four-season march toward the strange -- or shall we say divinely inspired -- things that kept occurring in the Super Bowl. This was after the supposedly great Manning and the Colts spurted to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter. Only the Washington Redskins, in 1988, had overcome such a deficit in Super Bowl lore.

But along came those things for the Saints after a jittery start ...

You had their ability to rebound from going scoreless after facing first-and-goal at the Colts 4 inside the last two minutes of the first half. They eventually managed a field goal for a little halftime momentum.

You had their rookie kicker, Thomas Morstead, who Payton said "was nervous as hell," but who nevertheless perfectly executed an onside kick to begin the second half that the Saints recovered to convert into a touchdown and more momentum.

You had Lance Moore falling shy of the end zone -- or so it appeared -- after catching a Brees pass for an attempt at a two-point conversion. Still, following a replay challenge by Payton, NFL officials determined that Moore twisted in such a way before hitting the ground to break the plane with the ball.

You had the supposedly great Manning throwing an interception to Tracy Porter, who raced 74 yards to the end zone.

You had Saints assistant coach Joe Lombardi, taking turns with others by holding the Super Bowl trophy that is named after Vince Lombardi, his grandfather.

Said Payton, "I just thought to myself, 'If you believe in heaven, and if you believe Vince Lombardi is there, looking down on his grandson, it doesn't get any better.' "

So you can forget about the Miracle Mets when crowning the all-time magic team. The same goes for Jim Valvano's sprint around the court after North Carolina State shocked Phi Slama Jama.

The Miracle on Ice? Well, Team USA in hockey never was as brutal as the Saints' franchise. And somebody should rewrite the storyline for the movie Hoosiers to swap the unlikely journey of that little Indiana basketball team to a state championship with what the Saints did.

How about "Cajuns?"

"It was clearly more than a game," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said, telling the truth on Monday. "I keep thinking of the word 'magical.' "

Actually, with all of those joyful souls around bayou country, ignoring their difficult plights in life to sing and shout and second-line themselves into the unforeseeable future over these Saints, the word is 'spiritual.'