For anyone interested, here are some videos I took of downtown New Orleans following the Saints win. This is actually about an hour after the game ended. My camera at times had trouble focusing because it was so dark.

This first on is me walking to the Quarter from where I parked at Poydras and O'Keefe. This one is super long, and unless you feel like just watching people shout "Who dat" into a camera for ten minutes, it's probably not even worth watching. The reason I post it is because you can get an idea of how many people were all over the place. For those of you familiar with New Orleans, check out Poydras St. in the first minute or so of the video. Then skip to the end to check out Canal St. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9GyWb23-GI If you're not familiar, just take my word for it! People were everywhere.

Since we walked down St. Charles from Poydras, we continued down Royal (for those of you who aren't familiar, the streets running perpendicular to Canal are named differently on the Uptown vs. French Quarter sides of Canal St. St. Charles is the same street as Royal) into the Quarter. This one is long too, but I think my favorite scene of the night is about 50 seconds in when you see the guy playing When the Saints Go Marching In on his trumpet with everyone around him dancing. The remainder of the video is the first two blocks of Royal St. I've never seen Royal St. that crowded before in my life. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCglrfsAGHs

One of the many spontaneous chants of "who dat!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncJAUQtuNl4

These are my three favorite videos I think. This is again Royal St. Some random brass band was entertaining the crowd and people were just dancing in sheer joy. This is When the Saints Go Marching In. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5nO357E5eU These next two are Do Whatcha Wanna (and no, I don't endorse the stomping on the Colts jacket in the first video!). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6foyNP9e-U8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwZ-RMwkl-Y

When we first walked into the Quarter, we walked two blocks in and then up Bienville St. to Bourbon, but Bourbon was literally too packed to walk. Later on when we got to Toulouse St., a few blocks further, we went back to Bourbon. We could have stay there, but didn't feel like having to deal with the bigger crowd, so we went back to Royal. Here's what Bourbon St. at Toulouse looked like (balconies and all). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzX-gIzRelE

Anyway, it's still pretty fun over here. I understand when people say, "what's the fuss about, it's just a game," but it's really hard to explain to someone who didn't live through Katrina down here (as sick as some people probably are of hearing that). It IS just a game, but it's given so many people something to be happy about and a much needed distraction, and there is nothing wrong with being happy. As I've said before, after the game it didn't matter who or what you were. Race, gender, ethnicity, political viewpoint, sexual identity - everyone was partying together. That's pretty rare, and of course it won't last (although I wish it would), but if it takes just a game to make that happen, even for just one night, then so be it.

Take care everyone!

Nathan