NEW ORLEANS (AP) -One month after the New Orleans Saints’ first Super Bowl championship, the team and city were holding yet another party.
It took 43 years for the Saints to win their first title, and four weeks for NFL Films and Warner Home Video to complete a commemorative video recapping the best season in franchise history.
The video’s official release was set for Tuesday, hours after a premiere at the 95-year-old Prytania Theater in New Orleans’ historic Uptown neighborhood on Monday night.
The guest list for the premiere included Drew Brees, who tied Tom Brady’s Super Bowl record with 32 completions, and Tracy Porter, whose interception return for a touchdown gave the Saints an insurmountable two-touchdown lead over the Indianapolis Colts late in the fourth quarter.
Jeff Brown, a Warner Home Video executive vice president specializing in TV sports and animation, said orders from retailers were already 25 percent above expectations.
irst time a team wins and sales, and our orders from retail partners are confirming that,” Brown said.
The Indianapolis Colts were trying to win for the second time in four seasons, so “when the interception occurred by Porter, we knew it was going to help us. That’s just based on history, nothing against the Colts,” Brown said.
The video reviews the season game by game in chronological order, highlighting key plays from each contest, with NFL Films narration interspersed with broadcast calls from games, many by Saints radio play-by-play announcer Jim Henderson and color commentator Hokie Gajan. Mixed in are close-ups of players discussing the action during games with teammates, coaches and even adversaries.
Those curious about what kind of gum head coach Sean Payton was craving during the final minutes of the Super Bowl will hear it from the coach himself.
Then there’s Payton’s well-chronicled exchange with Garrett Hartley moments before the young kicker made his field goal to send the Saints to their first Super Bowl.
“You just groove this thing,” Payton can be heard saying. “I don’t want you thinking about anything but hitting that fleur-de-lis. Just hit your kick though, son. Here’s why. You deserve to be here.”
ed in clips from the Super Bowl.
In a segment from the first half, Fujita jokes with Colts quarterback Peyton Manning: “How about throwing us a few.”
Manning grins and facetiously responds, “Yeah, OK,” the exchange foreshadowing Porter’s game-breaking interception later on.
In the fourth quarter, Fujita walks toward Manning and yells, “Peyton, I can eat Oreos faster than you,” a mocking reference to one of Manning’s many endorsement deals.
Fujita then turns to linebacker Scott Shanle and says, “I just told him the Oreo joke. I don’t think he liked it.”
Fujita wore a microphone during the game, but had to be talked into it.
“I’m glad I did it because it was hilarious,” Fujita said Monday by phone from his home near Monterey, Calif., adding that leaving the Saints won’t lessen his enthusiasm for the video. “No matter what color I’m wearing, I’m always going to have this past season and all those experiences, not just of the 2009 year and the Super Bowl, but everything the last four years. Those are things we will carry forever.”
temmed from drug abuse and turned his life around while helping the Saints win their championship.
And as the credits role, there are scenes from the Saints’ championship parade back in New Orleans, accompanied by an instrumental version of the classic “When the Saints Go Marching In,” the song for which the team was named.
Add A Comment