Rebecca Neumann
Staff Writer

Last night, the Super Bowl champions returned to the field in style. Well, for the first quarter at least.

The opening drive of the night ended in a fabulous touchdown by Drew Brees. The Superdome erupted into applause that was laced with more than just team pride. Their cheers went out to their entire recovering city.

After suffering the tragedy Hurricane Katrina left in its wake, New Orleans, five years later, is making progress. This in no small part is due to the success of its football team.

The team that was at one time nicknamed the Ain’ts won a super bowl and officially proved itself as a viable franchise in the NFL, joining the ranks of 18 other teams that have hoisted a Lombardi. Now, it’s time for them to prove themselves and they know the pressure is on.

This past week the team has had several guest speakers come to talk them about how to handle the expectations, and whatever was said, it obviously had an impact on the players.

The Saints beat the Vikings, who they also defeated for the NFC Championship earlier this year, 14-9. They started strongly, with a touchdown right off the bat. They lagged in the second quarter and were continually shut down by the tough Vikings defense. But in the third quarter they came back and scored again for the win.

Though no one is talking about a Super bowl repeat now, I wouldn’t count out the Ain’ts just yet.