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Contact: tomsancton@yahoo.com

Sunday, February 14, 2010

ALL HAIL KING DREW

Just when I thought that Drew Brees's stature could not rise higher in this town, his performance as King of the Bacchus parade tonight, dressed in a gold tunic with a winglike gold crown, gave him the aura of a Greek God. Like Zeus raining thunderbolts down from Olympus, King Drew hurled plastic footballs into an adoring throng of mortals who gathered by tens of thousands to bask in his glory. Would Indianapolis have worshipped Peyton Manning as fervently if his Colts had won the Superbowl? Indianapolis? You gotta be kidding.

4 comments:

  1. Tom,
    I agree that Drew reigned regally. We enjoyed the parade from a gallery in the CBD. While in New Orleans I read many gushing stories in the press. One titled "Hey Drew" had me choking back the tears. Let me pose a question though: At what point does the love affair the city is having with Drew become too much? Will he place expectations upon himself which he's unable to fulfill? Also, it was a team effort, might not the other guys become envious? I don't want to diminish New Orleans' long over-due elation, but maybe a little reason is in order. Perhaps the Lenten season has already begun that.

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  2. Luke,
    You raise some good questions. I think setting up excessive expectations is a real risk. Considering the euphoric cloud we've all been floating on, the fall to earth could be sudden and hard if the Saints have some disappointments next season--and how could they possibly match this one? The personality cult around Brees is also potentially worrisome if it ruffles feathers of other members of that extraordinary team. But I think it's part of our cultural and biological makeup to focus our adulation on individual heroes. There is a reason why the Odyssey is named for Odysseus and not his shipmates.

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  3. I think the main reason it's called the Odyssey is that everybody but Odysseus died on the way home. Which, incidentally, means there was no one to corroborate or deny his fishy story.

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  4. You mean it wasn't all true? I'm shocked!

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