Bill Loehfelm's Blog, page 64
February 2, 2012
Reason to Believe: Team Gleason
Even casual sports fans know the recent saga of the New Orleans Saints: the lost 2005 season spent practicing in parking lots and high school gyms and playing home games in other teams' arenas; the damage done to the Dome and to the lives of the thousands trapped inside and the thousands more stranded in the flooded streets; the rumors that the Saints might number among the thousands who would never come home. And then the good news: the team begins again in 2006 with a new coach, a new quarterback, both of them men in search of a new start and a place to make their names; a resurgence that culminated in the team's first Super Bowl championship in 2010.
Those of us able to return after Katrina came home with a lot of hopes for the "new" New Orleans. Some of those aspirations were so fragile we feared they'd crumble if we gave them voice. That our beloved Saints would win a Super Bowl and in the process become perennial playoff contenders – that was something most of us never even imagined, never mind discussed. We hoped, mostly, that like our friends and family, like our favorite musicians and chefs, our favorite team would just come home.
Come home they did, and in style, at that. On a Monday night, on ESPN, in one of the most famous games of the last few decades, the New Orleans Saints defeated their biggest rivals, the Atlanta Falcons, by a score of 23-3. The win elevated the Saints to 3-0 and was arguably the biggest win of a season that saw their first trip to the NFC Championship game. Beyond argument is what is now considered the play of the game and one of the biggest plays in team history – Steve Gleason's punt block early in the first quarter (scooped up in the end zone for a TD by Curtis Deloatch).
I'm an avid Saints fan. I also readily admit that I don't know much about football, not like a player or a coach does, but to me, everything good the Saints have accomplished on the field started with that play. That thump of the ball against Gleason's palms was more than the Big Bang that gave birth to the Dat Tuesday victory parade during Mardi Gras 2010. That bass-drum thump, when met by the primal roar of the crowd, formed a tribal call-and-response that summoned something deep in the spirit of the city back to life. Anyone who believes in poetry knows only Steve Gleason could've blocked that punt.
Gleason was not one of the new faces who joined the new Saints after Katrina. He was a survivor from the dark days of struggle and a fan favorite from long before the Dome Coming. In his playing days, he was back-up safety and special teams ace (he blocked four punts over his career). More importantly, he was That Guy. The guy who doesn't make the big millions and get the big endorsements, but who is That Guy that every winning team has to have: the one who makes all the small plays that add up to a W, the hustler, the baller, the badass, the everyman in whom we see ourselves. He was there for us when we needed him. He believed.
By the time the Saints won the Super Bowl, Gleason had retired from football. We all felt a twinge at that, I think. If anyone deserved a ring, it was Gleason – not just for the punt block but for everything he'd given to the city. He stayed after the storm. After his retirement, he married a local girl and they settled in Mid-City. He's remained deeply involved in supporting and rebuilding New Orleans. He got his ring in a surprise ceremony hosted by close friend and former Saints linebacker Scott Fujita.
A little over a year ago, Gleason was diagnosed with ALS, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. ALS is a cruel disease that leaves the mind intact while it robs the body of its strength and functions. It's a cruel fate for anyone, but especially a young, active man who was for many years a world-class athlete. But that's me talking, that's not Steve. Gleason doesn't talk of fate or cruelty, he talks of the fight, and the future, doing so through his Team Gleason/No White Flags movement. He's one of us and we love him. It's that simple, as simple as never give up, as no surrender, as No White Flags. You don't have to be a Saints fan, or a sports fan, to support Steve Gleason. You only need be a fan of fighting the good fight, of living as large and as well as you can for as long as you can. Live like that, and you can't lose. Believe.
Stand up with Steve and the fight against ALS here: http://www.team-gleason.com/
americanroutes:
tehblackboy:
trombone shorty by Nick.Allen on...
trombone shorty by Nick.Allen on Flickr.
Today's : Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews and his older brother James Andrews, in a conversation about nicknames.
