Faith in a Team Links New Orleans to Salt Lake
Posted by James Seaman on September 04, 2008
‘Gustav Aftermath with Hanna Approaching’ (AP)
I left New Orleans on Friday with an eerie feeling. Bound for Ann Arbor where the Michigan Wolverines awaited my beloved Utes in the Big House, I watched the Crescent City’s skyline fade in my rearview mirror as I sped toward the airport. While the plane lifted off, I felt the strangest pang somewhere deep in my gut. For the first time in fourteen months of living in the Big Easy, I thought of New Orleans as home. This seems incredibly odd because New Orleans and Salt Lake City—the place that I will always call home—seem totally juxtaposed.
Maybe it takes something as crazy as a churning Atlantic monster named Gustav and a massive evacuation to make the place to which you relocated finally feel like home. But upon further review, Salt Lake and New Orleans actually have some significant similarities. Sports, as always, can make this clearer to us.
When the Jazz moved to Utah in 1979, someone famously commented on the irony of New Orleans having the Saints and Salt Lake having the Jazz. Of course, I get teased down here a lot by folks who accuse Utah of stealing New Orleans’ basketball team, or at least the name. Jokes aside, both communities really do depend on their one flagship franchise. Southern Louisiana may have the Hornets now, but it would take a ten-year run of winning, fueled by Chris Paul, to build the fan base necessary to make basketball stick. Even before Katrina, New Orleans lacked the financial resources to host two major league sports teams. They already lost one basketball franchise, and they will eventually lose the Hornets. But losing the Saints would rip the heart right out of the city.
Sitting high atop the playing surface, tucked away in the nosebleed seats in a corner of the Superdome, reminds me of watching a Jazz game from the rafters. Fans scream and curse and tear their hair out. In Salt Lake, they kick the green seats and stomp the concrete floor. In New Orleans, they pound on the aluminum panels behind the top row with their fists. Utahns throw debris onto the court while Louisianans hurl full cups of beer at fans wearing the wrong jersey. In both places, people work too hard for too little pay and then invest their money, emotional energy, and mental well-being in an athletic manifestation of their town’s identity. Just as soggy Louisiana desperately longs for a cloudless sky the way parched Utah hopelessly prays for a rain-drenched morning, New Orleans needs the Saints like Salt Lake needs the Jazz.
Teams represent towns because of the loyalty, character, and personality of the fans that stand behind those clubs. Salt Lake’s commitment to the Jazz ties us to the people of New Orleans who live and die with the Saints. Contrary to what any reporter might tell you about the importance of the French Quarter, the Cajun food, or the street cars on St. Charles Avenue, the people themselves form the beating heart of New Orleans. The resilient residents will return again, this time to a city that evacuated its people in time, whose levees held, whose officers patrolled the streets and saw no looting. This Sunday, they will fill the Superdome and literally lift the hideous cement structure from its foundation with a collective expression of hope and belief. My only desire is to snag a ticket so I can be part of it.
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Jared Conger on September 04, 2008 said:
wear your rain-slicker, and keep to high ground buddy!
oh, and the saints suck. sorry man, but reggie bush broke my freakin heart last year.
NFL predictions:
AZ Cardinals make the playoffs, Houston Texans make the playoffs.
The Lions narrowly miss the playoffs in their last game of the year. (that one is a heartbreaker).
Superbowl: Patriots (yes!) vs. Vikings (AP!!!)
Runners up: Chargers / Cowboys
there ya go; stamp it.