Completions, yardage, economic impact, TV ratings and the amount of beer consumed by linebacker Scott Fujita... the numbers emanating from the Super Bowl postgame analyses boggle the mind.
I think I have divined the most compelling statistical phenomenon from whole event, a detail that likely escaped all but the most astute of observers – namely, me.
It touches on so much more than the Xs and Os of the game, and speaks directly to emotional ferocity that burns the collective hearts and minds of the Who Dat Nation.
Leading up to and following the game, I read every story and watched every report about the tenacious loyalty of long-suffering Saints fans and here’s what I discovered: That if every lifelong fan who claims to have been at the very first Saints game at Tulane Stadium back in 1967 was telling the truth, then the attendance at that games rounds out to roughly three quarters of a million people.
How many stories have we heard from the tearful baby boomer who went with his grandaddy, god bless his soul, if only he were alive today to see this. Et cetera, et cetera.
It’s all reminiscent of a statistical anomaly chronicled by Esquire or Rolling Stone or one of those magazines, which - upon the 25th anniversary of Woodstock, in 1994 – conducted a nationwide survey of American men over the age of 50 and found that something like 60 percent of them said they were there.
Attendance at that first Saints game – the excitement, the energy, a touchdown on the team’s very first play! – seems to be the benchmark that defines who the TRUE suffering schlubs have been from the beginning.
This statistical anomaly could probably fill three chapters of a psychology textbook, examining how time plays tricks on the memory, how the ego rewrites history to suit its needs - and how a couple shots of Jaegermeister right before a TV interview emboldens the historical revisionist in us all.
Truthfully, I think it’s a crazy, beautiful thing. I don’t know the reason for it, nor do I care to look too closely, but I will clarify this point, which is probably already self-evident:
Despite reports that may claim otherwise, there were a LOT more people at that first Saints game than were at Woodstock.
This I know. I saw it for myself. Because I was at both.
