who did the new orleans saints beat in the super bowl
Super Bowl XLIV Super Bowl XLIV was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion New Orleans Saints and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Indianapolis Colts to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 2009 season. The Saints defeated the Colts by a score of 31â€“17, earning their first Super Bowl win. The game was played at Hard Rock Stadium (the formerly-named-Joe Robbie Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida for the fifth time (and in South Florida for the tenth time), on February 7, 2010, the latest calendar date for a Super Bowl yet.
Super Bowl XLIV The Saints finished the next season with an 11â€“5 record, but failed to defend their league title after they were eliminated by the Seattle Seahawks in the Wild Card playoff round. Super Bowl XLIV later became the subject of the wider New Orleans Saints bounty scandal, also known as "Bountygate", in which the NFL alleged in 2012 that several Saints defenders operated a slush fund that was in operation from the 2009 season and Super Bowl XLIV, through 2011. This alleged slush fund paid out bonuses, or "bounties", for in-game performance in violation of NFL rules, including deliberately injuring or knocking opposing players out of games. The league responded with some of the most severe sanctions in the league's 92-year history, and among the most severe punishments for an on-field incident in North American professional sports history.[49] In 2012, New Orleans failed to make the playoffs for the first time since their Super Bowl win, with the sanctions for Bountygate cited as one of the primary causes. The Saints rebounded in 2013, but were eliminated in the Divisional playoff round by the eventual Super Bowl XLVIII champion Seahawks, and have returned to the playoffs in 2018 by defeating Carolina Panthers in the Wildcard Round, but lost to Minnesota Vikings in the Divisional Rounds. Thus, New Orleans have not advanced to the Conference Championship Game since Super Bowl XLIV.