Remember When the US beat Canada.... in Curling? Probably Not

Such concentration!

I’ll admit that over the first two weeks of the Olympics, not a whole lot has caught my attention. Of course I watched one of the most exciting days of hockey in my lifetime (Russia vs. Czech Republic in the afternoon, then the classic US/Canada game, then Sweden vs. Finland). And Apolo Ohno, Lindsey Vonn, and Shaun White all caught my eye. But suffice it to say ice dancing didn’t fancy me much. But I’ve got to tell say, over my winter break, I got hooked on one sport in particular, and I’m not the only one: Curling.

No, curling isn't simply throwing a rock and sweeping really fast. It goes all the way back to around 1541 in Scotland, when actual rocks were thrown to a target, a lot like Bocce ball. The term "curling" first appeared around 1620, and comes from the way the stones "curl" as they float down the ice. Although in existence for over 350 years, it wasn't made an Olympic sport until 1924, and even then it was only considered a demonstration event. It wasn't until 1998 that the sport was considered "official". There’s a lot of strategy and drama involved. The sheet of ice is 93 feet long, yet if a thrower misses a shot by 3 inches, it could win or lose a game. 3 inches: the length of a pinky. Do I know all the rules? Not by a long shot. I'll admit that most of the time I have pretty much no clue what's going on or why a certain strategy was chosen over another. But here is what I do know, and hopefully it clears things up a bit for you, too:

• There are ten ends, which are similar to innings in a baseball game. Each team gets 8 stones to throw per end, and teams alternate shots.
• Each team has a strict 73-minute limit to throw all 80 stones. If a team fails to throw all their stones in that time, it is an automatic forfeit. The clock starts as soon as the opposition's stone has stopped moving.
• The goal is to get your stones closest to the button, or the small hole in the center of 3 rings, called the house. If you have the closest stone, it is one point. If you have the closest 2 stones, it is 2 points. Up to 3 points can be awarded (which is a rarity). The team with the most points after 10 ends wins.
• The hammer is the last stone thrown in an end. If a team has the hammer and fails, or chooses not, to score a point, they maintain possession of the hammer (I think...). Having the hammer in the last end is a huge advantage for a team.
• Golfer/cigar-smoking, woman-chasing drunk John Daly is obviously a close relative to someone on the Norwegian curling team.

I don’t know what a draw or a guard is, or why/when a team uses it as a shot. I don’t know what the role of the "skip" is, or why the line that can't be crossed when throwing the stone is called the hog line. I don't know how they determine a player’s accuracy. And I have no freaking clue why every team yells, "WHOA! WHOA!" like Freddy Krueger is chasing them as the stone rolls down the ice. All of this aside, I have found the sport to be spectacularly captivating. The closest thing I can compare it to is the NFL Draft: watching it is like watching paint dry, or grass grow, or Jim Caldwell's facial expression change. Much like baseball, there is a ridiculous amount of time in between throws, just like there is a ton of time in between draft picks. Yet there is something so enthralling about the whole spectacle that I can’t convince myself to change the channel. It could be that the players are essentially professional sweepers. Perhaps it could be the human interest side of the sport makes me want to watch (Over about 4-6 games I saw a statistics teacher, an engineer, a stay-at-home mom, and a computer technician all take vacation time out to travel to Vancouver.) Or it could be the fact that NOTHING is on at 1 p.m. on a weekday. I do not care about how Man A's wife cheated on him with his brother/best friend/cousin, and the ensuing fight that is sure to happen. Or about how a woman slept with 18 guys, had a child, and can't figure out which one is the father. Am I less American because of that?

Maybe what's so attractive about the sport is that, like the Draft, when it ends, it goes away for awhile. Once the Draft is done, I have to wait a whole year until I get to watch again. Once the medals are handed out, it could be 4 years until I see curling on television next. My solution to the issue? Have curling year-round on ESPN. I guarantee it would get ratings. If people will watch 7 losers sit around a table and play poker "professionally", I see no reason why they wouldn’t watch 8 people throw 40 pound rocks on some ice for a few hours. Because it has never been on television, look at who we've missed curl: Don Duguid, Russ Howard, Bob Dunbar, Sandra Schmirler, and my personal favorite, Orest Meleschuk. And who would have forgotten the March 21, 1972 classic between the United States in Canada in the Silver Broom world championship? NO ONE, THAT'S WHO. Curling is incredibly popular in Canada, and as Americans isn't it our job to try and one-up our kind neighbors to the north? We already ruined hockey by putting nearly half the NHL teams in warm weather cities, and it would be very much the American way to greedily take away curling from them, too. Once the Olympics are done, curling will go away until 2014 in Sochi, Russia. I say we keep it going, though, and start the PCA (Professional Curling Association) and continue the incredibly boring, yet captivating, sport into the future outside the Olympic Games. I, for one, would watch, and that's the important thing here, right?.... I thought so.

13:32 of Nothing

So I admit it: when I woke up at 9:30 this morning, fairly begrudgingly mind you, I had every intention of tuning in along with the rest of the world to Tiger Woods' first public statement since the fateful Thanksgiving weekend accident that exposed a world of.... indiscretions. I hated that from 4 pm Wednesday afternoon until 11 this morning that the rest of the sports world stopped for the conference, and hated that the rest of Friday was devoted to analyzing and questioning it. But from 11 am until 11:15, I put my discontent behind me and became mesmerized by it all. The fact that George W. Bush's former security guards were called in. That news outlets other than ESPN stopped everything to watch. That one athlete could have such an impact. But after the 13 minute, 32 second speech, I snapped back into reality and thought: What did that accomplish?

Emotional Appeal: The fact that Tiger is about as emotional as a rock didn't help his cause. Columnist Bill Simmons put it best on his Twitter page, saying, "I can't believe Nike killed Tiger and replaced him with a robot. Why isn't this a bigger deal?" Don't get me wrong, I was by no means expecting the Progressive employee from those commercials. This is not a laughing matter (at least for him). But.... to sound like this.... for the entire time.... didn't do it for me. It made him sound like a machine. And for someone trying to win back the support of fans (his favorability has gone from 85% down to 40% over the course of this ordeal), the whole monotone, thing isn't the way to go. As a fan, I for one didn't find myself feeling sympathy for him; maybe if he showed even a remote amount of life, I might have. Success: None.

Sense of Sorrow: To make up for his lack of inflection in his voice, Tiger at the most important times looked straight into the camera, so as to show he was not talking to the 40 people in the room, but also to the world. This worked.... until the camera's feed was lost a little more than halfway through. For the last few minutes the only camera that worked was one from the side. So all of Tiger's finger pointing and remorseful glances to the nation went for naught. (Side note: I would NOT want to be the guy who ran the camera. Out of every cameraman in America, he was the one chosen to film perhaps the most-hyped about news conference in sports history. Every major news station in the country, and probably Europe too, was taking the feed that came from his camera, and he lost the video feed. I think I have a better shot at scoring with Jessica Alba than he does at ever getting another camera job.) Basically, his most heartfelt and sympathetic part, where he apologized to all of the families that were a part of his charity organization, sounded like Alpha 5 from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and lost all its power because when he tried to look into the camera, no one could see. His most powerful tool, the one that most effectively showed how truly sorry and changed he was, taken away. (Side Note #2: Odds that Elin took a driver to the camera to ruin the conference: 3-1) Success: Minimal

Productivity: Ever since the car accident was first reported and the confession of guilt came out, people have been asking all sorts of questions. Why was Tiger racing out of his driveway at 2 am? Did Elin know prior to the accident about the cheating? Are they going to stay together? When will he return to golf? Woods has always been a private person, and with the no-questions-allowed policy of the conference, I didn't expect too many answers. But I at least expected to get a question or two answered. I know now as much as I did last night about the situation. Some stuff will stay between him and his wife, as it should be. But he made it a point to apologize to the public and his fans, who he let down. If he wants forgiveness, it's only fair that the public knows for what they are forgiving him, right? (Put it this way: Your spouse cheats on you. You hear some rumors that say it was with your best friend, and others that say it was with a sibling. You are unsure of which. Would you forgive the spouse if they merely said "I'm sorry." without saying with whom they cheated? Exactly. You wouldn't until you knew who it was.) Tiger is the cheater, the public is the clueless spouse. I can't see him gaining forgiveness until he talks some more. And who knows when that will be. Success: None

Basically, for 812 seconds the world all but stopped for this news conference. This was more than an athlete admitting his transgressions. This was a seemingly invincible global icon whose world came crashing down by an enormous meteor, only this time Bruce Willis wasn't there to stop it from happening. But really, what good came from the speech? How did this remedy the situation at all? In retrospect, all this proved was that even when Tiger has hit rock bottom, he can still manipulate the media at will and have things go his way or the highway. The only difference between this apology and those of Mark McGwire, Alex Rodriguez, and Kobe Bryant was fewer reporters, no questions, and a monotonous, Terminator-esque tone of voice.

Environmentalists Rejoice! The AL West is Going Green (and Blue, and Sometimes Black)

Tomorrow and Thursday are two of the most important days of the year for an avid sports fan like myself. The Super Bowl is two weeks in the past, March Madness is still a few weeks away, and, well, the snoozefest that is NBA All-Star Weekend isn't cutting it. Anyone who follows baseball has been waiting anxiously since November, and the time has finally come - pitchers and catchers report to spring training. It was a relatively quiet winter in terms of trades and free agency. Sure, Roy Halladay traded Toronto blue for Philadelphia red, and Cliff Lee went to Seattle. On the field, Matt Holliday remained a Cardinal and Jason Bay went from Boston to that other New York team (which for someone who is a Red Sox fan and has a man-crush on Matt Holliday was doubly disappointing, especially because Mike Cameron was what the Sox settled for). But overall, there were very few high-profile shakeups that will have a major impact. Heck, even the Yankees were somewhat dormant, although they did get Curtis Granderson from the Tigers, who is going to become a superstar under the bright lights of the Big Apple. There was one team, however, that went out and got the help they needed to become a playoff team once again. You're reading it first here... the Seattle Mariners are going to win the AL West this season.

No, I'm not crazy, stupid, or drunk. Hear me out on this one.

Last year the Mariners finished 85-77, twelve games behind the division-winning Angels and good enough for third in the division. For awhile they were in the wild card chase, which is a testament to manager Don Wakamatsu considering who the Mariners had to work with. Of course they had Ichiro and Felix Hernandez, but that's about it. Ichiro was 2nd in the AL with a .352 average, but that's it for hitting. Of the 15 players who played at least 45 games for Seattle last year not named Suzuki, two - Jose Lopez and Mike Sweeney - hit above .275. In a related story, they finished tied for last in the AL in average and were 2nd worst in the majors in on-base percentage. They also finished 7th worst in the majors with 105 errors. Basically, they couldn't hit, get on base, or field. So what do they do? They killed four birds with one stone by going out and getting utility man Chone Figgins from the Angels. How is this doing four things in one?

1) Batting: Figgins is a life-time .291 hitter, and if you take out 2006, in which he hit .267, that average goes up to .297. His on-base percentage is 30 points more than the league average. Plus, there's this crazy thing in baseball called "bunting." It's a nearly prehistoric term that is a foreign idea to everyone outside of Anaheim. Under Mike Scioscia and his philosophy of manufacturing runs (which have led to 5 division titles in 6 years, 6 playoff appearances, and a World Series title... just saying), Figgins knows how to be useful in ways other than getting hits, through things like sacrificing and slapping grounders to advance runners. Put Ichiro and Figgins 1-2 in the lineup and it will cause fits for opposing pitchers. Could you imagine it? Ichiro will either get a hit or walk a good portion of the time. With Figgins up next, he can do a multitude of things to get Ichiro into scoring position: get a hit, use a hit-and-run, or bunt. With Jose Lopez up third, he can drive Suzuki in relatively easily. The small-ball abilities that Figgins brings to the table open up a whole new world of opportunities for a team that lost its only real power threat in Russell Branyan.

2) Fielding: Figgins has played 1307 games in the majors. Here's how his positional abilities span:

• Outfield: 607 games
• Middle Infield: 140 games
• Third Base: 540 games
• Designated Hitter: 20 games

He's capable of playing six positions, and isn't a liability at any of them. Last season the Mariners used 5 left fielders, none of whom played more than 56 games. With the signing of Eric Byrnes and Milton Bradley, it is likely one of them will man left, but Figgins is more than capable of doing so if need be. Chances are he'll replace Gold Glover Adrian Beltre at third base, who had an uncharacteristic 14 errors last year. The team isn't downgrading here by any means.

3) Speed and Durability: In each of his last 6 seasons he's played 115+ games, surpassing 145 games in 4 of those seasons. Over that span he has averaged just over 44 steals per season. His speed on the base paths lead to a higher on-base percentage and adds another base stealing threat to complement Ichiro.

4) He's not on Anaheim: For 6 seasons Figgins was amazingly consistent and reliable for the Angels. From the 7th inning on his career average is .295, and in 216 games against the two other AL West teams, Texas and Oakland, he is a career .281 hitter, not great, but not bad either. I always considered Figgins one of the secret weapons that never got the credit he deserved while in Anaheim.

(Tangent Time! I am refusing to call the Angels the "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim". First off, how am I supposed to say it when the Angels aren't included in the name? "Chone Figgins used to play for Los Angeles of Anaheim" sounds ridiculous. Calling their stadium Angel Stadium of Anaheim is just as stupid. I refuse to say it. They play in Anaheim, not L.A. The only reason it is this way is because Bud Selig and Co. wanted the team to be "Major League Baseball's American League representative in the Greater Los Angeles territory that Major League Baseball expects the team to serve." At least, that's what the official press release said. In other words, $18 million a year for Bud Selig isn't enough.)

Anyways, now the Angels have one less weapon in their lineup, while the Mariners gained one.

There! Four good things came out of signing one guy. And the scary part? He's not even close to being the team's best off season pickup. That's right, with the addition of Cliff Lee to the rotation, the Mariners have the most dominant 1-2 punch in the majors. I still wholeheartedly think that the Red Sox have the best rotation in baseball, but even the combo of Josh Beckett-Jon Lester- John Lackey isn't as consistently dominant as Lee and Felix Hernandez should be. With no offensive or defensive support, King Felix managed to go 19-5 with an earned run average of 2.49. Last year he was the second best pitcher in the league, behind only AL Cy Young award winner Zack Greinke. Behind him in the rotation? An aging Jarrod Washburn (who actually pitched pretty well all things considered), Erik Bedard (injury-prone isn't a strong enough term to describe him. A walking injury? Mr. Disabled List? Whatever, you get the idea), Jason Vargas, and Ryan Rowland-Smith (Quick! Where did those two go to college? Ha, you don't know do you?). Not exactly the cream of the crop to work with. If King Felix were a football player, he'd definitely be Matt Schaub. Think about it: He's fantastic at what he does, has only one guy who he can count on consistently (Ichiro to the Texans' Andre Johnson), and he plays for a fairly young franchise that has never lived up to expectations. But now he has Lee, the 2008 AL Cy Young winner with Cleveland. Last year his numbers with the Indians didn't tell the whole story. He went only 7-9, but had an ERA of 3.14, and also had zero run support. When he went to the National League, Lee dominated once again, helping the Phillies reach their second World Series in as many years. Hernandez brings the heat, while Lee devastates hitters with his change-up. Both could easily be in the hunt for this year's Cy Young, and having them go 1-2 come October could carry the M's deep into the playoffs. Just remember that in 2001 Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling started 11 of the Diamondbacks' 17 playoff games. In the World Series they started 5 of the 7 games, and Johnson pitched in relief in Game 7 after pitching 7 innings the day before in Game 6. I'm not saying Lee and Hernandez will be as dominant as Johnson and Schilling, two of the most dominant pitchers of this generation, but they definitely are not Frank Castillo and Mike Maroth. (That's right Frank Castillo, I'm taking a shot at you and your 16-24 record with Boston. You compile a 4.66 ERA in 2 pathetic seasons, come back in '04, pitch in two games, then accept a ring that you didn't deserve? Congrats!)

Simply put, baseball comes down to hitting, pitching, and fielding. My dad's old baseball coach said if you do two out of the three you'll win the majority of games. This off-season the Mariners improved in all three areas with the signing of just two players. In a weak division like the AL West, it is certainly good enough to win, reach the postseason, and strike fear into the rest of the league.

A Model For All Ages

Myron Rolle is a one of a kind student-athlete: that is, he actually is a student.

It seems every other week that a star athlete iss arrested (Michael Vick, Plaxico Burress), has some sort of major character flaw come out (Tiger Woods) or is just so flat out stupid it's hard to believe they can walk and talk at the same time (Gilbert Arenas). In college, "student-athlete" hasn't been a relevant term since John Wooden was in diapers. Basically, it's hard to find an athlete that keeps themselves out of trouble, and hard to find one that puts "student" before the "athlete". So someone with world-class athletic talent who is an upstanding member of society, yet puts the books before sports is basically a one-in-a-million treasure right?

Meet Myron Rolle.

In 2008 he was the starting safety for the Florida State Seminoles. He was named 3rd-team All-American and it looked like a bright NFL future was ahead of him. However, he ended up making headlines by deciding NOT entering the 2009 NFL Draft, even though he was projected to be a second- to third-round pick. You may be asking why someone would turn down millions of dollars and an almost guaranteed shot to play in NFL? Well, unlike 99.999999% of college stars who play football or basketball, Rolle actually cared about his education enough to pursue a Rhodes Scholarship, which for the less informed is a highly esteemed post-graduation chance to study at the University of Oxford for a year. This award is so prestigious that only 32 Americans are awarded the scholarship each year. In comparison, 256 players are drafted into the NFL each year. In November Elliot Gerson of The Washington Post wrote that "Rhodes scholars have left Oxford with virtually any job available to them... They have reached the highest levels in virtually all fields." Rolle will take that to a whole new level by returning to the gridiron this year in hopes of being drafted into The League, and after a solid Senior Bowl, chances are he'll go somewhere in the second day of the draft (aka Rounds 2-3). I, for one, am blown away by this man's accomplishments, and hope that he becomes one of the league's top safeties, because no one would be a better role model for fans and players alike, especially as we hear ridiculous stories like 7th-graders verbally committing to play football for USC (only Lane Kiffin....)

There have been only two times that I have been blown away in a 5-minute span by an athlete or group of athletes to the point where I will forever root for them:

• At Big East Football Media Day in Newport, RI last summer I had the opportunity to meet Scott McKillop, former Pittsburgh Panther and current linebacker for the 49ers. Of course, everyone was crowded around West Virginia's Pat White and then first-year coach Bill Stewart. My dad basically said, "Bad interview anyways. Not worth my time" and meandered over to Pitt's table and interviewed McKillop. Before the interview I received a big handshake, a nice smile, and a genuine "How are you?" After a great interview with my dad, he became the interviewer. He asked me how old I was, where I wanted to go to school, etc. He was attentive, actually listened, and when we left I got another strong, firm handshake. Absolutely fantastic individual, and he made a fan that day. It's unfortunate he plays for the 49ers.
• After the tragedy of UConn cornerback Jasper Howard's death this past October, the Huskies went into Morgantown, West Virginia - an environment considered incredibly hostile - and took on the Mountaineers. UConn received standing ovations when they entered and exited the field, had on #6 wristbands, and all of the students signed a banner that was given to the Huskies. After a moment of silence, the players met at midfield for a pre-game handshake. WVU coach Bill Stewart, though, refused Randy Edsall's handshake. Instead, Edsall was the recipient of an enormous bear hug. Never again should any West Virginia team be booed within a 25-mile radius of Storrs, Connecticut.

Myron Rolle became the third person to join this list. As if I wasn't already impressed by the young man, he blew me away during an interview on ESPN's Pardon the Interruption a few weeks ago. Generally, PTI is a very laid-back, informal show. Rolle, though, gave the show a little class. The first question he answered, "No sir." He referred to Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon as "Mr. Wilbon" and "Mr. Kornheiser". Kornheiser was so pleasantly surprised, he nearly lost the rest of his hair from shock. It immediately reminded me of a Derek Jeter interview a few years back, when 13 years into his career he still called Joe Torre "Mr. Torre". Total class for five minutes, a well-spoken man who has as much a chance of being arrested as Michael Vick does in becoming the president of PETA.

And as well-mannered as Rolle was, his story wasn't too shabby either. He woke up at 6 a.m. every morning in England to work out with a rugby team for three hours. That would be before he studied for his Masters of Arts in medical anthropology. And I thought balancing calculus, statistics, and a job was difficult. During Senior Bowl week, while Tim Tebow was hogging the spotlight for his troubles (Eddie Harris in the movie Major League may have argued that Jesus Christ can in fact hit a curveball, but it has been proven that the second-coming can't throw a football, that's for sure), Rolle was quietly impressing scouts with his quickness, how in-shape he is, and, obviously, his intelligence. The only real concern for one NFL scout was that "He's got so many things outside football that he might get downgraded just a little because you might wonder in three or four years what he's going to do." Cbssportsline.com had him as the 200th best player as of today, projecting him to go in the 6th round. If this was SportsNation Colin Cowherd would be going insane, because there's absolutely no way Rolle gets past the third round. With his combination of size (6'2", 217, decent by NFL standards for safeties), speed (4.29 40-yard dash, which is, again, about average), and brains, he would be a perfect fit for a team like Denver. He could go there, learn from Brian Dawkins for a few seasons, then take the reigns from Weapon X when he retires.

Now, I'm no NFL scout by any means. I'm not saying Myron Rolle will be the greatest safety to ever play the game by the time he's done. But unlike so many athletes today, he has his priorities straight, knows he's not going to play forever, and has achieved greatness off the field. So come Draft Week, as all the talk goes to Ndamukong Suh, Tim Tebow, and Sam Bradford, I'll be waiting around, praying that Rolle doesn't go to Cleveland, Cincinnati, Baltimore, or New England, and cheering when his name finally gets called. And even if he does get drafted to one of the those four teams, I'll be cheering him on anyways. Come Sundays, after fuming about the Steelers and checking up on my boys from UConn, he'll be the first name I search for in the box scores. That is, of course, after I finish all my homework. But that shouldn't be too hard right? It's not like I'll be balancing studying medical anthropology and starting for a storied college football program (in that exact order, too).

Christian, Jew, Atheist, Whatever: Pray for the Saints Come Sunday

Super Bowl XLIV is this weekend in Miami as the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints face off. It’s the first time two #1 seeds will have met in the Big Game since 1993 (Cowboys vs. Bills), and has the potential to be the biggest offensive juggernaut game since 1998 (Packers and Broncos). But as opposed to past years, where allegiances are usually split about 50-50 between the two teams, this year you have to, you must, root for the Saints. For no other team, no other city, deserves a Super Bowl as much as 'Nawlins does.

The only people who should root for the Colts on Sunday are Colts fans. It’s nothing against Indy. Personally, I think Peyton Manning will be the greatest quarterback ever by the time he retires, plus I love Donald Brown. But there's no better story in the NFL - heck, in all of sports maybe - than the Saints. Five years removed from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the city is rebuilding itself, and the Saints are the heart and soul of it all. 30,000 people were living in the SuperDome after the hurricane. Last week it hosted its first ever NFC Championship Game. One of the best stories of the last decade was when the Superdome reopened on Monday Night Football in September 2006. When the Saints blocked an Atlanta punt 2 minutes in, the Dome went wild, surpassing 100 decibels of noise for a full 40 seconds. Putting that in perspective, imagine putting your ear right next to a motorcycle at full blast, firecrackers as they go off, or a small gun being fired consecutively for 40 seconds. Crazy loud.

Quarterback Drew Brees thinks there is a direct correlation between the reconstruction of the city and the success of the team. There are very few who aren't donning the black and gold in Louisiana. Even Peyton's brother, Cooper, is wishing the Colts were not playing the Saints, because his allegiances are torn.

But aside from the heartfelt side to the Saints' season, there's also the side that is officially putting an end to the era of the New Orleans Aints. Including this season, they’ve made the playoffs just seven times in 43 years existence. They consider Archie Manning (yes, Peyton and Eli’s dad) their greatest player, which is pretty pathetic considering he threw 48 more interceptions (173) than touchdowns (125) in his career. His passer rating of 67.1 would have been 28th among starters this year, below the likes of Cleveland's Brady Quinn (67.2), Buffalo's Ryan Fitzpatrick (69.7), and KC's Matt Cassell (69.9). I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say none of them will be considered "legends" or "icons" of their respective teams 30 years from now.

Finally, it's about time the best QB in the league without a ring finally drops that title in Drew Brees. The thing's he's done off the field for the city, like his Brees Dream Foundation that has rebuilt schools, playgrounds, and after-school programs for the New Orleans region, combined with his ability on it, the only thing missing from Breesus's resume is a championship.

After four decades of futility, Who Dat Nation has finally found an identity, and they are ready to explode should the Saints win (Could you imagine that parade?? It would make Mardi Gras look more lifeless than a love-child of Al Davis and Bill Belichick). Come Sunday Bourbon Street will be empty for what may be the first time ever. That’s because everyone will be in their homes or in a bar, cheering on their beloved Saints. If you had a heart, you would be doing the same.