Article:Super Bowl XLIV: A Part of Destiny

How can one root against dem Saints?

It's pretty simple, if you held this belief: "Winners Win, Losers Lose."

I grew up watching Jordan leading the Chicago Bulls to six NBA Championships, Elway and the Broncos fight for a Super Bowl win in 1999 against the Atlanta Falcons and Lance Armstrong defeat cancer and the Tour de France.

Once could assume I know nothing of losing.

However, I remember when my midget league softball team, Heilig-Meyers, went one and whatever. The next year Heilig-Meyers went four and whatever.

Am I a loser? No, I am a fighter.

During my third year playing softball, the record didn't matter. While I moved up in leagues and changed teams, my new team, C. C. Tops, was league champions.

I know nothing of losing because I never sat around to not learn from an "L".

To this day, at a tender age of 24, I live by this one motto: "Winners Win, Loser Lose!"

I completely understand miracles, Cinderella stories and whatever you can call them. In truth, I happen to love them, but I still hold the notion that sometimes Goliath shouldn't fall.

As I look at the Super Bowl XLIV match-up (New Orleans Saints v Indianapolis Colts), I think it must be a part of destiny.This game challenges my motto against my hopes and dream.

I, too, believe in the American dream. I believe that a nobody can become a somebody if he/she never loses sight of the thought that winners never give up.

Henceforth in my dream or nightmare, I keep hearing... Who dat! Who dat! Who! Who dat marching to Miami for the Super Bowl?

All I can say is dem N'Orleans Saints (15-3) are headed to the Magic City to cap a history longing to see their dreams come true.

Drew Brees, the ailing QB when the Saints signed him in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina, has led this team to the unthinkable. His offensive prowess has given N'Orleans a second, a third, a fourth or an umpteenth life. For a city that bends and damn near breaks, this football organization has done a four-year rehabilitation.

I ask myself, once again... Are dem Saints winners or losers?

They are a little bit of both. They are winners at a losing game. (Thank you Rascal Flatts.)

Why?

Because no matter what they do this coming Sunday, the Indianapolis Colts (16-2) will still be the same team that has prepared for this game. The Saints have prepared to get to this opportunity, but Manning and Co. have systematically worked wonders under a Jim Caldwell plan that has outlined the lifting up of the Lombardi Trophy as the ultimate goal.

Not to slight the Saints, but a 43-year fight for a city is much more different and difficult than zoning in on one goal of winning a Lombardi trophy.

The Colts are too-focused, too-trained, too-experienced and too much Manning to falter now. This isn't perfection that they are after. This isn't a city's revival. This is obtaining a second Lombardi Trophy. This is a chance to see the plan come to fruition.

Passing of the torch! From Tony Dungy to Caldwell, the Colts are designing the blueprint for an organization to remain winning during a transition. Follow the leaders.

On Sunday, February the 7th, the New Orleans Saints will face the Indianapolis Colts. It will be an offensive match-up of two of the best teams in the NFL. Number One v Number Two. No matter who hoists the Lombardi Trophy, there will still be two winners.

Win or lose, the Saints are better than where they used to be.

"I'm gonna lay it all out/

On the line tonight/

And I think that it's time/

To tell this uphill fight goodbye."

One day Brees, Sean Payton and Reggie Bush and company will win it all and that 44 years or so of pain will have been worth it. For now, this game is a mere formality; it's a part of destiny. This game the Saints have to play.