It would be easy to take the easy way out and say the recent National Title. It would be easy, but in my mind, wrong. There was a lot of preparation that led up to this, a lot of other games that put the Crimson Tide on the minds of pollsters and struck fear into the hearts of opposing teams. No, instead, I find myself going back to the Alabama-Clemson game in 2008 and the Alabama-Georgia "blackout" game of 2008. Before then, I knew Alabama was coming back in a big way, but those two games, more than any others, undid the hurt of years of watching the program suffer. Those were not mere victories; they were statements and a reminder that the once-great Alabama Crimson Tide had finally awoken from its long slumber... and boy was this newly awakened dragon pissed!

So, what are your thoughts?

I grew up on my beloved Alabama Gulf Coast, seeing people walk around with bags on their heads on game day, and watching the fans, those worthy of the name, endure some of the toughest 40 years this side of the Detroit Lions. Eventually, I hated the Saints for a while, though not as much as I hate the Cowboys. Then, something amazing happened. People stopped laughing at the Saints and started taking them seriously. People stopped talking about the Saints going to the Super Bowl as something that will never happen, to something that just might. And now, here we are, nine days from that very thing happening, and I'm asking myself, "For all that pain, what joy have I denied myself?" Because I'm not a fan. I don't have the right to call myself such. I haven't supported the Saints through their darkest times. I haven't clung to what was once the feeblest and most fragile hope, knowing in my heart of hearts it wouldn't happen, but maybe next year. I don't deserve that name, and I certainly will never be that particularly low-born and pathetic creature known as the "fair weather fan". I'm not a fan. I don't have that right. But now, when the impossible is finally here, I really wish I were.

Go Saints.