La. players living dream with Saints

METAIRIE, La. (AP) — When Randall Gay saw middle-aged men exchange tearful embraces in the Louisiana Superdome, he could relate.

Gay grew up in Brusly, near Baton Rouge, in a home of Saints fans. Just about all his relatives loved the Saints, his friends loved the Saints, and so did he.

“When you get accustomed to something, which, everybody around here is accustomed to losing, you really get accustomed to it, so you never think it’s going to change,” Gay said, talking about Saints fans’ reaction to reaching the Super Bowl. “It just shows the passion and how people really love this team and what they’ve been through all these years.”

After playing in two Super Bowls with the New England Patriots and winning one, Gay joined the Saints as a free agent in 2008 — but not without loved ones — even the die-hard Saints fans — trying to warn him about what he might be getting himself into.

“Coming home, people were like, ’You know, the Saints don’t go to the playoffs,’ ” he recalled. “I was like, ’I’ve been in the playoffs every year.’ They’re like, ’You’re not going no more.’ ”

Gay is one of three Louisiana natives who are regulars with what is now the greatest Saints team in the club’s 43-year history, along with wide receiver Devery Henderson and cornerback Tracy Porter.

Two players on the practice squad, defensive tackle Marlon Favorite and defensive back Greg Fassitt, grew up in the New Orleans area.

As kids, they all saw embarrassed fans wearing grocery bags on their heads in the Superdome. They heard about how the lovable losers from New Orleans wouldn’t win the Super Bowl until hell froze over.

As a kid in Port Allen, across the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge, Porter watched the Saints every fall Sunday. There were times while throwing the ball around outside that he imagined he was helping them win it all.

“You can always pretend,” Porter said. “I wanted to envision myself ... helping the Saints reach the Super Bowl.”

Then last Sunday, there was Porter wearing black-and-gold, on the floor of a raucous Superdome, intercepting Brett Favre in the final minute of regulation and rewriting what looked like the latest chapter in a tome full of Saints’ heartbreak.

“To have that happen is unbelievable,” Porter said. “It was big because not only was I playing, but because of the Saints.”

Henderson caught a touchdown pass in the 31-28 overtime win.

“It hasn’t sunk in yet,” Henderson said. “For a guy like me from the state, from LSU, always kind of been around watching the Saints, it’s still kind of unbelievable, but it is reality. It’s reality, so I’ve got to approach it that way and play my heart out.”