Feb. 3 (UPI) — Thousands of New Orleans Saints fans took to the streets Sunday for a parade in protest of Super Bowl LIII and the missed pass interference call in the NFC Championship Game. Fans decked in black and gold had the opportunity to express their displeasure with the NFL’s officiating in the Saints’ 26-23 overtime loss against the Los Angeles Rams on Jan. 20. The festitives began in the morning and were expected to go into the night as Saints fans protest their team’s absence in the Super Bowl. #Saints fans turn their anger into a reason to party ⚜️ #BestFans pic.twitter.com/iPu583mQVe — New Orleans Saints (@Saints) February 3, 2019 Saints fans dressed in colorful outfits toted black and gold umbrellas and homemade signs through downtown New Orleans as music blared. In the NFC title game, Rams cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman made helmet-to-helmet contact with Saints receiver Tommylee Lewis before a pass from quarterback Drew Breesarrived. Officials didn’t flag the play for an illegal hit or pass interference. The NFL later admitted a flag should have been thrown on the play. The Rams played the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LIII on Sunday in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.<doc-sep>It was like a scene out of a Who Dat version of “Game of Thrones.” An insurgent army of Saints devotees amassed on Decatur Street near Jackson Square on Sunday (Feb. 3), hours before kickoff in the game they felt robbed of enjoying. The mutinous football fans were armed with black and gold umbrellas, sarcastic T-shirts, and homemade signs questioning the justice and judgment of the NFL on the league’s most sacred day. With the blare of police sirens and hoots of excitement, the army went on the march, bent on demonstrating the allure of the big game, Super Bowl LII, was small potatoes compared to true devotion. Spirits were high, especially considering the crowd celebrated a team that had been denied. Saints fan Carol Mendel captured the spirit perfectly when she said, “I don’t think any losing team is going to have a party like we’re going to have here. It’s going to be better than what’s going on in Atlanta today.” Kim Bergeron, the public relations professional who orchestrated the subversion, said she thinks the New Orleans counter-celebration will not only be better than the Super Bowl, it may be bigger. “Look at these crowds,” she said, “and look at all the events taking place all over the city. I predict today that the crowds in New Orleans will exceed the capacity of that stadium with that other little game in Atlanta.” “This is what happens when Saints fans come together,” she continued, “because we realize that the game is not about the score, it’s about a winning attitude, spirit and showing the world that we are not defeated.” “The Blackout and Gold Second-Line Parade” started a bit later than expected and within two blocks had devolved into a splendidly chaotic, lurching rabble. Were there costumes? Of course there were costumes. Given that the Saints were arguably denied a spot in the Super Bowl by an unobservant referee (no greater understatement has ever been written), it’s not surprising that costumers singled out refs for particular ridicule. There was a hapless referee whose penalty flag was duct-taped in his pocket, there were clown referees, there were well-perforated referee voodoo dolls and several refs who suffered from various degrees of satirical visual impairment. The Who Dat Nation was certainly aggrieved by the Jan. 20 non-call, but Saints fans seem to be purging their vexation with admirably upbeat, self-affirming spectacles. Bless you Who Dats. On a sunny Sunday in the Vieux Carre, you are the eternal winners. Doug MacCash has the best job in the world, covering art, music and culture in New Orleans. Contact him via email at dmaccash@nola.com. Follow him on Twitter at Doug MacCash and on Facebook at Douglas James MacCash. As always, please add your point of view to the comment stream.<doc-sep>NEW ORLEANS — Who Dat Nation has plans for Super Bowl Sunday, but they won’t have anything to do with the matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and New England Patriots. Fresh off one of the most controversial plays in U.S. sports history — a non-call of a penalty that would have set up the New Orleans Saints to beat the Rams in the NFC championship game — the city of New Orleans is preparing a near-total boycott of the Super Bowl. Bars are refusing to show the game, parades and protests have kicked off, and an outdoor party organized in less than two weeks sold out. Voodoo dolls representing NFL referees and the league's commissioner provide a means of expression for some disappointed Saints fans. Lauren Braden “We throw a party for every event,” said Lauren Braden, 36, a lifelong Saints fan who has also been selling voodoo dolls of NFL referees and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. “We throw parties in the streets for funerals, so we have a different mentality than most people.” The blown call has already become part of New Orleans lore, costing the Saints and its fans — known as Who Dat Nation for its “Who Dat?” rallying cry — a chance at winning the Super Bowl on the home field of their hated rival, the Atlanta Falcons. Erick Engelhardt, 43, the creator of the Big Easy Mafia, a Saints fan club, said he could feel the loss throughout the city on the day after the game. “It was literally deflated,” Engelhardt said. “It was almost like the same feeling as somebody dying, the same kind of sulking. You just felt it. It was crazy, but you honestly felt it.” Many NFL teams around the U.S. have rabid fan bases, but few are as inextricably linked to their cities as the Saints are to New Orleans. For decades, the Saints were the only major professional sports team in New Orleans, and fans endured years with little to no success, even earning the unfortunate nickname the “Aints,” and pioneering the use of paper bags over heads as a sign of their frustration. A New Orleans Saints fan holds a voodoo doll as the Saints take on the Seattle Seahawks at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on Oct. 30, 2016, in New Orleans. Sean Gardner / Getty Images file But the Saints remained an important part of the city’s identity, a bond that was best illustrated by the team’s return to its home field, the Superdome, in the first game after Hurricane Katrina. “We had devastation staring us in the face every single day and truthfully the Saints, be it through their games, their philanthropic endeavors, just picked us up,” Braden said. “It gave us something to look forward to every single Sunday.” “They represent our hope. They gave us back our lives after Katrina.” And so, with the fresh sting of defeat this year, New Orleans residents began to figure out how to mourn their team’s season. A boycott? Sure, but in the spirit of the city, it would be a celebratory boycott. The day after the game, Kim Bergeron, 57, started planning a second-line parade, a New Orleans tradition that originated with jazz funerals, to mourn the Saints season but also look forward to the next one. There are numerous second-line parades being planned, according to Nola.com, a local news website. “This was put together as a catharsis for everyone trying to mend their broken hearts,” she said. “They represent our hope. They gave us back our lives after Katrina.” The biggest event appears to be the “Boycott Bowl,” the brainchild of New Orleans residents Brando Rizzuto, Travis Laurendine and Walter “Kango Slimm” Williams Jr. The event, which will be held on a city street and features more than two dozen local music acts, sold out of its 3,000 tickets. Laurendine, a local entrepreneur who sold tickets through his startup, ShowSparker, said the response to the event had been almost overwhelming, with many more thousands of people on Facebook expressing interest in attending — and Saints in other parts of the country asking for a livestream of the event. He said he wanted to put the event on for Saints fans and to raise money for the New Orleans Recreation Department, where proceeds from the event will go. “We took this opportunity to take a loss for the Saints and turn it into a win for the future athletes, the future champions of New Orleans,” Laurendine said.<doc-sep>
Two weeks ago, the New Orleans Saints had their Super Bowl 53 hopes dashed thanks to, in no small part, a horrible botched call from the officials. On Sunday, with the big game looming, fans in Louisiana banded together to let the world know two weeks wasn’t enough time to get over the uncalled pass interference penalty that allowed the Rams to escape the state with the conference championship in tow. Thousands of Louisianans decked in black and gold took to the streets to express their displeasure with a league that rewarded the Rams’ “if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying” approach with a spot in Super Bowl 53. Parades and second line jazz funerals rang through the streets of New Orleans in a display intended to give disgruntled football fans “something better to do” than watch the team that broke their hearts play for an NFL title. The Storyville Jazz Band is playing for Saints fans along the river. Soon they’ll lead a jazz funeral and second-line! pic.twitter.com/evdgZ5J7Dz — NOLA.com (@NOLAnews) February 3, 2019 Festivities began in the morning and are scheduled to last into the night, starting when the Nola No Call Second Line & Jazz Funeral gave the city one more chance to mourn the Saints’ since-departed 2018 season, a budding giant cut down before its time. Fans had the chance to make (and throw) their own penalty flags and write notes to Roger Goodell, which were almost certainly polite and will definitely be read by the commissioner himself. There was also a spot where fans had the chance to drop a few unfortunate souls dressed as referees into some icy water via dunk tank. Photos from Magazine Street Who Dat protest party: Referees bitten & dunked, Goodell dissed by toddler pic.twitter.com/TZrdnrykKZ — Michael DeMocker (@MichaelDeMocker) February 3, 2019 The event earned an impressive turnout, though it’s not like there was much on TV Sunday to keep fans inside. Video: Thousands of Saints fans second-line through downtown in a massive display of festive anger. pic.twitter.com/CK5Nedxnr7 — Michael DeMocker (@MichaelDeMocker) February 3, 2019 The second lines didn’t stop coming, as bands trumpeted the Saints’ departure from this earthly realm and into the pages of Pro Football Reference’s archives as though they were celebrating a family member. Jazz funeral with the Sophie B. Wright High School brass band walks down Magazine street carrying a casket with the hopes and dreams of the Who Dat Nation. #WhoDat @theadvocateno pic.twitter.com/pPhfad507i — Sophia Germer (@SophiaGermer) February 3, 2019 Those parades led fans to the sold-out Boycott Bowl concert, which provided fans with 10 hours of live music to fight back any temptation to tune into to Sunday’s game. Of course, Choppa was a featured act. The Super Bowl 53 ratings in Louisiana aren’t going to be great, if Sunday’s festivities are any indication.