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I only have four first-cousins. One of them, Kenny, has always been a big sports guy. Whether as a player*, coach, or fan, be it hockey, baseball, or football, Ken is all-in. Especially when it comes to the Los Angeles Kings, the Kansas City Royals, or the New Orleans Saints. Kenny selected his three teams basically at random when he was playing a sports-themed board game with his friends back when he was just eleven or twelve years old, and since then he has given those three teams a lifetime of unwavering support and devotion, down to having each of their logos tattooed onto prominent parts of his body (and it’s not like he’s a tattoo guy; those team logos are his only tattoos).
Like I say, Kenny is big a sports guy.
So when my brother and I had decided to spend a week hanging out in New Orleans and I discovered that we’d be there for a Saints home game against the Carolina Panthers on December 10th, 2023, we decided to ask Ken if he wanted to join us for the trip. I was flabbergasted when he declined, but he finally came around and the three of us did indeed arrive at the Louis Armstrong International Airport together the day before the game.
The Jung Hotel was midway between the French Quarter and the Superdome so once we’d shaken our inaugural Bourbon Street cobwebs from our brains and had a wee bit of breakfast it was just a short walk to the pregame warmup party in Champions Square. So short if fact that along the way I only managed to finish one of the pregame beers I had brought with me. That proved to be a bit problematic when I learned that outside alcohol was not allowed in Champions Square. So I was left to pound my three remaining hi-test IPA beers right there on the sidewalk, which I did in short order. It was 9:15am.
We spent most of the pregame party watching a jumpin’ live band and leaping for t-shirts that were launched into the crowd from a beautiful piece of machinery that crossed a t-shirt cannon with a machine gun. It was a glorious sight to behold, through none of us got a shirt.
The game was scheduled to start at noon and the doors opened two hours before that, so we went in pretty early. We ate up the time pretty easily, wandering around the massive stadium gaping at the largest fixed dome roof in the world (the roof has an area of nearly ten acres) and the two enormous bigscreens that are perched below it, which are the longest display boards in the NFL, each one measuring in at 37’ x 351’.
Yes, the bigscreens are each longer than a football field.
After meandering around the perimeter of the stadium (a walk of a kilometre or more) we lined up for the privilege of purchasing a few items from the very extensive merch store and then took our wares and a couple of cheeseburgers to our seats way, way up in the 600 level.
So far, so awesome.
There was a bit of pregame spectacle with several dozen volunteers unfurling huge flags onto the field and the teams both emerging from their respective tunnels accompanied by fireworks and billowing smoke. When the coin toss came our food was already gone and I’d taken the opportunity to scope out several of the nearest drink vendors.
By the time the Saints opened the scoring with a touchdown at the top of the second quarter I was several beers in and we were all riding high on what was shaping up to be a rather one-sided game that was slanted our way.
At halftime the score was 14-3 for the Saints. During the break we were treated to a nifty performance featuring two full marching bands playing simultaneously and when the game resumed it stayed tilted towards the Saints. Ken spent much of the second half talking to the guy who was seated to his right, a local who bets on sports for a living and who had been one of the people unfurling an American flag on the field before the game (his wife volunteers for something-or-other). He hit his over/under during the fourth quarter and hi-fives were exchanged all-around.
Carolina kept things somewhat interesting with a third-quarter drive all the way to the Saints’ one yard line, although the home team kept them to just a field goal (which marked the only points scored by either team in the quarter). But truly, the game was never really in doubt, and the Saints readily handed the last-place Panthers their sixth loss in a row with a final score of 28-6.
But just because the game wasn’t very exciting doesn’t mean I wasn’t excited! I leapt out of my seat with every touchdown, even the last one that didn’t seem to matter. There were several memorable moments throughout the game too, starting with a first-quarter field goal miss by the Saints from only twenty yards out (it wasn’t even close) and a blocked punt that the Saints defence picked up and ran back for the second touchdown of the game. The Panthers missed a field goal too, one that would have put them within five points in the fourth quarter.
So it was almost an exciting game. But no matter, the three of us had a ball.
(As we did for the remainder of the trip. How could we not? New Orleans is awesome.)
*Kenny’s entire midget hockey team from the 1976/77 season (The Moncton Century Flyers) were inducted into (onto?) Moncton’s Sports Wall of Fame back in 2017. The team’s goalie – Roland Melanson – would go on to win three Stanley Cups back-to-back with the New York Islanders.
Todd Man Out 