If you’re a Saints fan and you watched that game last night… I just can’t imagine a Super Bowl being more awesome and amazing without our beloved team playing in it. Psychologically, I don’t know how you ever recover from that. The Falcons were up 21-3 at halftime, then 28-3… only to watch their lead evaporate as the Patriots forced overtime. There was zero doubt in my mind when the Patriots got the ball back down 28-20 that Brady was going to go get 8 points. There was zero doubt in my mind when the Patriots got the ball to start overtime that Brady would go down and finish the game in one series. I’m not a Patriots/Brady fan by any means and I didn’t get a ton of joy out of watching them do the unthinkable coming back from 25 points down, but I was so blinded by my Falcons hate that this final result superseded any other feelings. Schadenfaude reigned supreme. This is a franchise known for choking, struggling in the clutch, not delivering in big moments… then, up 25 in the Super Bowl, they give us the biggest collapse in Super Bowl history. They ran the ball 5 times after being up 28-3, too, so as much as the media will bathe in the Tom Brady heroics – for me this was all about the colossal failure thanks to brain dead play calling that made the heroics even remotely possible.

As a huge LSU and Saints fan, this season was torture, made so much worse as we saw Alabama and the Falcons mow through the field on their way to the title game. Yet somehow, losses with 1 second left and in overtime (blowing a 25 point lead) is the shot in the arm I needed as a fan to have renewed faith in sports. With the Falcons specifically, it keeps their Super Bowl title tally at 0 and we can continue to hang 2009 over their head in-perpetuity. The twitter memes… by the way. Oh my God some of them have been fantastic. This game and the internet aftermath was enough to wash away every single one of the 2016 sporting sins.

As we look forward to the 2017 offseason, this result has me reinvigorated and excited. We don’t have to go through an offseason of the Falcons being celebrated as the best. It’s hard to grasp what that would have looked like now, but we would have been reminded of Matt Ryan’s feat so many times during the offseason it would have us broken down by the time the season started. We don’t have to have this narrative of how the Saints can overcome them. Now the storyline is how do they bounce back at all from such heartbreak. And maybe they’ll be really good again next year, who knows, but you can never take your opportunity for granted in the big game because you may never get there again. I think we’re familiar with that line of thinking by now. I’m so glad the Saints capitalized when they got there.

In the meantime, the Falcons remain without a Super Bowl title and this will remain true at least a year and quite possibly much longer. And hey, congrats Saints fans. This Super Bowl, without a doubt, is the second most exciting result I’ve ever experienced in my lifetime. The two Panthers losses and the other Falcons loss were pretty sweet but this tops them all. I can’t wait for football to be back in the fall!