SPORTS BETTING NEWS

It is the Mardi Gras that may never end. From the bars of Bourbon Street to those long-suffering households of the Lower Ninth Ward, the people of New Orleans were due to mobilise on Tuesday morning to give their triumphant Saints the type of homecoming parade that would embarrass even Broadway.

As the last piece of tickertape settled at the end of an unforgettable night at Miami's Sun Life Stadium, one sound continued to resound through the stairwells and across the parking lots. It sounded suspiciously like booing and yet its message was quite the contrary. "Who Dat?"

The words belonged to 19th-century minstrel songs, and were later reprised in the jazz numbers that filled the French quarter in the Thirties. Exultant Saints supporters, not daring to believe that a city under water five years ago could ever reach a day like this, kept up the refrain almost until their lungs burst.

Drew Brees, the winning quarterback and all-American boy who has thrust himself to the heart of the city's relief efforts since Hurricane Katrina, put it best when he dedicated their first Super Bowl to "the entire Who Dat Nation."

Jonathan Vilma, the Saints linebacker, felt a more powerful sense of accomplishment than most. As a man of Haitian descent, he had the aftermath of not one natural catastrophe, but two, weighing on his mind in the mayhem of Sunday. Drained of emotion, he looked squarely into the camera and asked: "Who dat say gonna beat dem Saints?" The answer was no one, not this year.

To defy all predictions, the Saints outgunned the Indianapolis Colts 31-17. It seemed fitting, too, that cornerback Tracy Porter, as a Louisiana boy, produced the decisive fourth-quarter score when he jumped in front of Colts quarterback Peyton Manning's intended receiver, Reggie Wayne, before returning the interception 74 yards for the touchdown.

Expect Porter to assume a prominent role when the Saints ride their hometown floats today. Do not be surprised, either, if he and his team-mates are honoured with a tea party at the White House – President Obama is an avowed fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers but he, like all in attendance in Miami, remains acutely sensitive to the plight of New Orleans.

The plaudits will be bestowed mostly upon Brees, who eclipsed Manning, his far more celebrated contemporary, by completing all eight passes that gave the Saints their lead in the final quarter. It would be wrong to overlook, though, the inspiration of Sean Payton, the head coach whose calls galvanised his players to rally from 10-0 down. It was Payton, too, who took the gamble of ordering a short kick-off to start the second half, triggering a mêlée from which the Saints, somehow, emerged with the ball, before Brees picked out Pierre Thomas to score.

"Everybody in New Orleans gets a piece of this," Payton called out as he held aloft the Vince Lombardi Trophy, the first in Saints history. The moment completed an astonishing run by his team – they won three post-season games this year, having managed just two in their previous 42. It also signalled the emergence of Payton as a master tactician on the grandest stage, far removed from his struggle to carve out a living in Leicester in the late Eighties, in Britain's now-defunct Budweiser League.

Hollywood royalty were out in force to watch a story of Hollywood pathos unfold: Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Jamie Foxx and Adam Sandler were in the sky boxes, all apparently cheering for the Saints. They witnessed the thwarting of Manning, by common consent the finest quarterback of his generation, but this was not the narrative of the night.

The story lay in how the Saints managed to engineer a decisive second-half shift in momentum. Such was the threat of Manning, they needed the clear water of a seven-point margin before they dared dream. Jeremy Shockey's touchdown gave the opportunity, but Payton's boldness allowed it to be converted.

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