Superbowl XLIV: Saints to Play with Heart of Bourbon Street

This week I come to you live from New Orleans, home of the Saints, recent NFC Conference Champions in a stunning overtime win against Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings. Super Bowl 44 will mark the first ever Super Bowl appearance for the city of New Orleans. I sit here in a little shanty pub off the beaten path from the rest of the semi-luxurious bars on Bourbon Street ordering doubles while I pick the Super Bowl bets I will be laying down at Bodog.

The walls, tables and urinal cakes are all covered with New Orleans Saints memorabilia. The bartender and waitresses are in full New Orleans face paint and wearing their favorite player jerseys including the likes of Drew Brees, Marcus Colston and Reggie Bush. When can you remember the last time anybody in New Orleans was cheering for anybody with the last name Bush?

It’s been almost a week since the New Orleans Saints made history by clinching the NFC Conference Championship, and thus becoming Superbowl contenders. Although Brett Favre’s dementia may have helped him forget all about it by now, New Orleans fans are still celebrating the victory and partying like it was 1999, the end of prohibition, legalized prostitution, and invention of online sports betting all at once.

However, for these home team fans, it’s hard to imagine that the same field the New Orleans Saints defeated the Minnesota Vikings on last week, was also used as a first-aid camp and morgue during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina just a few years ago.

The events of Hurricane Katrina have forever changed the emotional landscape of New Orleans residents, but the scars of this tragedy have started to heal. The city and the New Orleans team have come along way and have battled through adversity both on and off the field. The New Orleans Saints went from being regular NFC Conference basement dwellers to a team with a superb 13 – 3 record for this season. Let’s remember a couple of those losses were because the Saints chose to rest some of their starters for the NFL playoffs.

The great people of New Orleans are no strangers to being underdogs and they are as confident as ever that this is their year. 2010 marks the 44th annual edition of the Super Bowl, and the 43rd year of the New Orleans Franchise, talk about a championship drought. If you think that the people of New Orleans should consider it a victory just making it to the Super Bowl, think again! Bourbon street dwellers won’t settle for anything less than a Super Bowl Championship.

Currently the Bodog Sportsbook has the New Orleans Saints as +6 point underdogs while Bookmaker has the Saints at +4 ½, against the Indianapolis Colts for Super Bowl 44. Not everyone I have talked to would agree with these odds, but whether you agree with these odds, or not, you can now put your money where your mouth is. We suggest you check out our list of the best online sportsbooks before sitting down to make your much awaited pick.

This Sunday we have two fantastic teams fighting for Super Bowl glory, and I don’t care who you are betting on because this is going to go down as one of the all time best Super Bowls in history. We have the Colts who are lead by a man that comes from a family where winning the Super Bowl is just another tradition, avenging the Saints who refuse to put the weight of this game on any one player’s shoulders, emphasizing team leadership.

Remember, the Indianapolis Colts may have the arm of Payton Manning, but the New Orleans Saints have the heart of Bourbon Street! If you haven’t picked an online sportsbook yet, check out our list of Top Sportsbooks!