New Orleans Saints – A Love Story
Saints Room • Queen Bed • Sleeps 2
The city of New Orleans was awarded an NFL franchise on November 1, 1966. The team was named “Saints” due to its birthday on the Roman Catholic Church’s All Saints Day—a fitting nickname for a team in the largely Catholic New Orleans area. The team’s original stadium was Tulane Stadium, which could seat more than 80,000.
The Saints struggled as a rag tag team for several decades. It was so bad that a local journalist and radio/TV personality, Buddy Diliberto, wore a paper grocery bag over his head to promote the brown bag special of Sonic. Many fans took to wearing bags over their heads when attending games. The moniker “Aint’s” was also born due to the ineptitude of the 1980 Saints.
In the early 2000’s, the Saints began to show some vast improvement and the fans love affair grew stronger.
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast region. The Superdome was used as an emergency, temporary shelter for displaced residents. The stadium suffered damage from the hurricane. The Saints were forced to play their home games at Giants Stadium, at the Alamodome in San Antonio and Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge.
During the season, it was rumored that Saints’ owner Tom Benson might deem the Superdome unusable and seek to legally void his contract and relocate the team to San Antonio, where he had business interests. Ultimately, however, the Superdome was repaired and renovated in time for the 2006 season at an estimated cost of US$185 million.
The New Orleans Saints’ first post-Katrina home game was an emotionally charged Monday Night Football game versus their division rival, the Atlanta Falcons. The Saints, under rookie head coach Sean Payton and new quarterback Drew Brees, defeated the Falcons 23–3, and went on to notch the second playoff win in franchise history.
The 2009 season was a historic one for the Saints. Winning a franchise-record 13 games, they qualified for Super Bowl XLIV and defeated the AFC champion Indianapolis Colts 31–17. To date, it is the only Super Bowl championship that they have won, and as it is the only Super Bowl the Saints have appeared in, they join the New York Jets and Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the only three NFL teams to win their lone Super Bowl appearance.
Frenchmen Street Guesthouse owner, Lisa Sins, was an avid fan and attended the Super Bowl in 2009 in Miami with dear friends. Lisa hosted lavish Saints parties at her home every Sunday for her family and friends. She wore black and gold every Friday through Sunday during Football Season and insisted her guests do the same.