How to support "America's Team"

Much coverage has been given to the Saints surprising turnaround season this year and how inspiring that must be to the hurricane ravaged city of New Orleans. That's all well and good... I can't imagine too many new homes have been built by football, but certainly during the regular season it did some good. If nothing else keeping people focused on the problems that still exist despite Brownie's "great job" should be considered a positive. Yesterday, however, I saw the downside of the Saints' Bandwagon.

I went to watch the Eagles v. Saints game at a bar in Arlington with some friends. My first mistake was going out to Arlington. It's really never a good idea. But a lot of my friends were serious Eagles fans and the bar always had a lot of Eagles supporters.

Last night however was very different. When I showed up I was shocked by the number of Saints jerseys in the bar. While in the line, I had to listen to a really stupid girl talk about how she just bought a jersey for "that Brees guy who's really cute" but she didn't want to wear it because it still had the tag on. It only got worse from there. One guy I saw there was cheering and cheering for the Saints and talking shit on Eagles fans while wearing a LA Dodgers hat. Very few of the fans knew a damn thing about the Saints and seemed to think their "miracle" season was entirely caused by Reggie Bush.

I'm certainly not an Eagles fan but I really started to want them to win just to spite all the bandwagon Saints fans. The Eagles had an inspiring story, led by a backup quarterback, they won week after week to win their division against all odds and then win their first playoff game. Yeah, Philadelphia wasn't destroyed by a hurricane, but its football not an application for reconstruction money.

Finally, as I was walking out of the bar, I thought of the final indictment against the bandwagon Saints fans. I can't imagine any of them have given money to the Katrina Relief Fund. Certainly not as much money as they spent on their new Saints jerseys. The real Saints bandwagon should be giving money to help New Orleans get back on their feet and stop the tragically high crime levels. The Saints are a good story, but another win isn't going to help anything.