They used to be called the New Orleans Ain'ts back when there was nothing Big or Easy about their football.
It was so bad, in those dark days, that their fans used to turn up at the Louisiana Superdome with paper bags over their heads, shamed before a game had even started, mortified that they were about to be a part of the inevitable train wreck that the forthcoming hour of play would become.
Yet when perennial gridiron disaster was superceded by an altogether more powerful, natural catastrophe actually deserving of the word, things began to turn around for the team from New Orleans.
When the levees broke that grim August day in 2005 and the Crescent City was submerged; when the Superdome went from stadium to refugee camp and the depths of human despair were plumbed, something happened to turn the Ain'ts into Saints.
“The popular thing back in 2006 was not to come to New Orleans,” quarterback Drew Brees said on Sunday night as he reflected on his decision as a free agent to sign for the Saints and incoming head coach Sean Payton.
“Yet so many of our core players did and we had a dream then and we believed we could do this, that we could become Super Bowl champions.”
Brees and Co. made that dream become reality Sunday night in Miami as the Saints defeated the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 with a mixture of bravura, heart, aggression and self belief that left the team from the north as cold as the city they had left behind.
Like the wild and marauding Goth tribes taking on the disciplined ranks of the Roman legions, the Saints proved the anithesis of the well-oiled Colts machine throughout the season, doing everything with emotion and passion while opposite number Peyton Manning led Indianapolis on a well-ordered campaign of organised destruction.
Even when the Colts lost, they did it by design, throwing away an unbeaten 14-game start to the season for the sake of the bigger picture, withdrawing their general and best soldiers from the fray to fight a more decisive battle further down the line.
Yet even great armies have weaknesses and the free-wheeling mavericks from New Orleans ambushed the Colts in Miami on Sunday night, catching them napping at the start of the second half with a cheeky on-side kick to restart the game rather than punting upfield and collecting on the gamble by winning back the ball from a startled Indy receiver.
It was enough to set up a Saints touchdown from the resultant drive and they didn't look back, eventually toppling General Manning with an interception in the fourth quarter for a famous victory.
As the party started in the French Quarter of New Orleans, a little bit of Mardi Gras came to Miami.
Ain't that great?
