I talked to Drew Brees, Steve Gleason, Sean Payton, Wendell Pierce, Jay Duplass and others about the rebirth in my hometown.
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For most NFL fans, tonight’s game between the New Orleans Saints and the Atlanta Falcons is just another matchup between middling division rivals.
For Saints fans, it might as well be a Holy Day of Remembrance.
That’s why soul queen Irma Thomas will sing the National Anthem. And why Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue will be be joined by the likes of Kirk Franklin, Juvenile, Cyril Neville and Ivan Neville to play the halftime show.
It’s a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the rebirth of Superdome, the stadium that sits in the heart of the city, that is the beating heart of the city.
Hurricane Katrina wiped out much of New Orleans in 2005. It remains the darkest part of my life, as it does for most of us who lived there, watching the Superdome become both shelter and nightmare.
The Saints played a few games that season in San Antonio and Baton Rouge. The city that bleeds black and gold thought we might lose them. Then, on Sept. 25, 2006, they returned to the Dome. And thrashed the Falcons.
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I know how silly it sounds, but it was more than a football game. It was hope, sprung by a blocked punt by Steve Gleason. It was the Domecoming.
Last year, I wrote about it, gathering remembrances from such New Orleans icons as Drew Brees, Gleason, Sean Payton, Wendell Pierce and Jay Duplass.
The Dome “was a symbol of horror for quite a while, until Gleason blocked that punt,” Jim Amoss, the former Times-Picayune editor, told me. “Somehow, that was a magical, transformative moment.”
So, tonight is about remembering.
Of course, I wouldn’t mind if my boys also make a nice pot of Dirty Bird Gumbo as a lil lagniappe.
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