King Kaufman's Sports Daily
The Saints' homecoming is a victory in every sense as they pound the Falcons and New Orleans erupts in joy.
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Sept. 26, 2006 | Some nights, it's hard to be a cynic.
"A Saints win would be a little too perfect, dramaturgically," a certain misanthrope wrote in his NFL Week 3 preview Friday, but as New Orleans' team returned to the Superdome to a roaring welcome, it looked like the script was going to play out perfectly against the Atlanta Falcons, cast as Apollo Creed for the evening.
On the game's first series, Falcons quarterback Michael Vick sprinted left on third-and-4, was hit from behind by linebacker Scott Fujita and fumbled. Safety Bryan Scott had a chance to recover, but instead of falling on the bouncing ball at the Falcons 30, he tried to pick it up and run for what would have been a touchdown.
Instead, he knocked it out of bounds and the Falcons retained possession. The Saints had had a chance for a huge play early, one that would have sent the crowd to the moon and the Falcons reeling a minute into the game, but it wasn't to be because, hey, this is real life, not some corny old movie.
Sometimes you're the good guy and everybody's rooting for you and you strap it on tight and do your best and it just doesn't work out, and not for any good reason either. It's not because tragedy produces catharsis in an audience or failure speaks to the human condition or at least sets up a sequel. It's just because sometimes things don't work out.
On the next play the Saints blocked a punt and fell on it in the end zone. Touchdown. 7-0. The crowd went to the moon. The Falcons saw little birdies flying around their heads. They never recovered. They never had a good moment. They lost 23-3.
It couldn't have been scripted any better, everybody kept saying, and they were right.
Life isn't like the movies, it's true. Sometimes, life works out better. Movies about New Orleans tend to be kind of a downer, after all. For one night, New Orleans got just what it needed, a jumping-over-fences movie, "Breaking Away" and "Hoosiers" and "The Natural" and "Seabiscuit" and a hundred others all rolled into one.
The Falcons might not agree, but everybody else left the theater on a cloud.
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ESPN's annoying habit of bringing celebrities into the booth for long, pointless interviews during the game, which really has to stop, worked out Monday night.
Spike Lee, who made a documentary about Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath called "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts," seemed like an appropriate guest on a night when the football game was the central focus but not the only one.
Next page: "A year later, it's not right here." Plus: U2 and Green Day are nice, but where were all the locals?