The 2006 NFL season is coming to a close in a couple of weeks, so of course, it’s only necessary to have a retrospective look at one of the craziest seasons in recent memory. However, that would be too clich, and I’m going to go a different direction.Everyone has his or her favorite team and favorite player, and across the country, this varies. For instance, if you’re a Bengals fan, you probably love Carson Palmer. I’m a Colts fan, and I love Mike Doss. However, there is something all of football fans can agree upon: their second favorite team and their second favorite player.
After New Orleans was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina like a girl at prom, people saw the city sports franchises get relocated to other states and cities. Some thought that the moves could be permanent. There was a lot of speculation that the NBA Hornets and the NFL Saints could be moved to Oklahoma City and San Antonio, respectively. However, the NFL contributed $20 million of the $150+ million needed to fix up the Superdome and the Saints could return home. With this, the New Orleans Saints replaced the Dallas Cowboys as America’s Team and, thus became everyone’s second favorite team. Many would probably be content with just this one sign of life in the Superdome, but a new hope was on the horizon.
In one of the greatest sports blunders of all-time, the Houston Texans did not select Heisman winner Reggie Bush with the first overall pick of the 2006 NFL Draft. This miracle left the disenfranchised franchise to select Reggie Bush as the second overall pick. With this move, the New Orleans Saints would go from last to first very quickly. Earlier in the off-season, the Saints picked up Drew Brees in Free Agency. Brees would go on to lead the league in passing yards this year. Suddenly, the city and country actually had hope that the Saints would at least .500, something no one thought possible a year ago.
Reggie Bush could have shown his age by simply being like any other player: that is, if he only played football, held out for an extended amount of time, and was greedy. But no, Bush did none of those things. Bush held out very little, got into training camp, and showed what the Texans were missing. However, he didn’t stop there. He contributed thousands of dollars and time to the community of New Orleans and became known as Saint Reggie.
With these actions and a persona that’s more likable than Kermit the Frog, Reggie Bush became everyone’s second favorite player. He’s a great talent and has bushed, I mean pushed, his team into the NFC Conference Championship game. It doesn’t even matter if they win the Super Bowl because the team and city have been blessed with hope and success, something they haven’t had for a while. Although it would kill me to see the Saints beat the Colts in the Super Bowl, if that’s the path fate decides to take, it would be fitting for such an unexpected, but deserved, football season.