Part of me wanted the Arizona Cardinals to lose a long time ago because frankly, New Orleans could use the Super Bowl trip more. No sports fan outside of New Orleans has lived in a city that has supported so much loserdom and futility but gotten next to nothing in return.
Though media types try to capture the agony of fans having to wait for titles, it didn’t work for the 2005 Chicago White Sox (who that year won the World Series for the first time since 1917). And it didn’t work for the 2007-2008 Boston Celtics, who that year treated their fans to their first title since — oh God, the wait! — 1986.
Were you a White Sox fan in Chicago who feared you’d live your whole life without seeing your boys lift the Commissioner’s Trophy?
I can’t imagine the anxiety.
It’s not like you didn’t have Michael Jordan and six Bulls championships to kill the time.
Are you a Windy City Cubby who just couldn’t stand those dirty South Siders winning a title as your drought closed in on 100 years? Go dig up a 1986 Chicago Bears DVD, watch it and shut up.
As for Bostonians who had to stomach a “grueling” wait from Bird, Parrish and McHale to Garnett, Allen and Pierce? It sucks to be you. At least the New Orleans area didn’t have to sit through three Super Bowl parades and two World Series parades.
We have it better. The New Orleans area has gotten to sit through one AAA baseball World Series in 1999 and one split Pacific Coast League championship in 2001, both won by the Zephyrs. Meanwhile, from the Saints, we’ve seen one 1-and-15, one 2-and-12, and three 3-and-13 teams through the years.
The Hornets, for their part, treated us to an 18-and-64 record during the 2004-2005 season.
Then, during the following off-season, Hurricane Katrina happened, and then after that, San Antonio and Oklahoma City tried to plunder the Saints and Hornets franchises.
I must say, though, we had it easier than Celtics fans who had to wait 22 years in between championships.
Seriously. One-and-a-half professional sports championships. Since 1718.
The biggest winner for New Orleans since Lafitte, Jackson and their buddies upset Great Britain out at Chalmette in 1815 has been a baseball team that doesn’t even play at its sport’s highest level and does its winning in Metairie.
And has a nutria as its mascot.
But back to Arizona. The other part of me is glad the Cardinals have risen from the ashes of mediocrity to lift their despairing fans’ spirits, soaring into the Super Bowl like a phoenix, the namesake of their hometown. The symbolism!
They’ve waited a long time to be in a world championship game.
It’s been an eternity, after all, since the Arizona Diamondbacks won the World Series in 2001.
