Who Dat won the Super Bowl? The New Orleans Saints, that’s who.
Ain’t kidding.
Put away those paper bags forever. Drew Brees and the Saints are NFL champions, rallying to upset Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 Sunday night in one of pro football’s most thrilling title games.
Brees tied a Super Bowl record with 32 completions, the last a 2-yard slant to Jeremy Shockey for the winning points with 5:42 remaining, and was chosen the game’s MVP.
New Orleans Saints fans celebrate their team’s victory after the NFL Super Bowl XLIV football game against the Indianapolis Colts in Miami, Sunday, Feb. 7, 2010. The Saints won 31-17.
“We just believed in ourselves and we knew that we had an entire city and maybe an entire country behind us,” Brees said. “What can I say? I tried to imagine what this moment would be like for a long time and it’s better than expected.”
A surprise onside kick sparked the Saints’ second-half comeback. Their 25th-ranked defense made several key stops, and Tracy Porter’s(notes) 74-yard interception return on a pass from Manning, of all people, clinched it.
Manning tried to give chase, but was blocked by a New Orleans defender and fell awkwardly as the cornerback raced by. The four-time NFL MVP forlornly walked to the sideline as the Big Easy celebrations began.
“It’s time for the Saints to celebrate,” he said. “It’s their field and it’s their championship.”
An NFL embarrassment for much of their 43 years, the Saints’ football renaissance, led by Brees and coach Sean Payton, climaxed with Shockey’s touchdown and Lance Moore’s(notes) 2-point conversion catch, originally ruled incomplete but overturned on Payton’s challenge.
Porter’s pick, just as dramatic as his interception of Brett Favre’s(notes) pass to force overtime in the NFC title game, was the game’s only turnover. It’s one Manning will forever regret.
The Saints (16-3) won three postseason games this winter after winning only two in the previous 42 years. They beat Arizona, Minnesota and Indianapolis (16-3)—all division winners—for their first title, scoring 107 points and allowing only 59.
The championship came 4 1/2 years after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, making the Saints nomads for the 2005 season. There even was some doubt they would return, but the NFL refused to abandon the city. The Superdome was repaired and the Saints won the NFC South in ’06, their first season with Brees and Payton.
That was the season Manning won his only Super Bowl. He had the Colts, favored by 5 points, in front for much of this one, but New Orleans’ league-leading offense, which scored 510 points this season, outscored Indy 31-7 after falling behind 10-0. That matched the biggest comeback in a Super Bowl.
Payton held the Vince Lombardi Trophy high over his head and ran into the end zone toward several hundred fans chanting the Saints’ rally cry: “Who dat, who dat, who dat say gonna beat dem Saints?”
Nobody can say it now.
“Everybody back in New Orleans gets a piece of this trophy,” he said.
“I think I could kiss him,” owner Tom Benson said.
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