By Robin Shannon

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – This past Thursday night, the New Orleans Saints kicked off the 2010 NFL regular season with a 14-9 victory over the Minnesota Vikings at the Louisiana Superdome.

The win was a nice carryover from last year’s dream season in which the Saints took home the Lombardi trophy as Super Bowl Champions. As last season wore on, fans learned of an assortment of quirks and little superstitions the players and coaches go through prior to and during a game. This ritualistic nature tends to carryover to the devoted Saints fans of the River Parishes, who have a wide variety of game day traditions.

The results of last week’s poll at lobservateur.com show that 56 percent of respondents do indeed participate in some kind of ritual before or during the game. Of the list of choices offered in the poll, the leading vote getter was getting together with friends to party or tailgate, which garnered 25 percent of the votes.

The next closest was opting to turn down the sound on the television and turn up commentary on the radio, which garnered 17 percent of the vote.

A handful of other voters said they have specific superstitions like a special seat, meal, or lucky clothing, while others said they have other ideas that were not listed in the poll.

Although more than half of the respondents said they have a ritual, there was still a large number of voters, 44 percent, who claim to not buy into a ritual for game day.

A full breakdown of responses follows:

• 44 percent of respondents chose “I don’t have a ritual.”

• 25 percent of respondents chose “getting together with friends to tailgate.”

• 17 percent of respondents chose “turn down the television and turn up the radio.”

• 8 percent of respondents chose “none of the above or other.”

• 6 percent of respondents chose “game day superstitions such as lucky clothing, specific meal, etc.”

• 0 percent of respondents chose “paint face or dress up.”

This week’s question: The recent dismal performance of the national economy has many concerned about the future rebound. How long do you think it will take for the U.S. to get back on track?

Visit www.lobservateur.com to vote.