By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – Nearly 18 hours after the New Orleans Saints left the field of Sun Life Stadium in Miami as Super Bowl XLIV champions, the excitement of the team’s first appearance in the big game continued to pulsate throughout St. John Parish.

Residents carried on regular routines wearing shirts, hats and other clothing emblazoned with the fleur-de-lis and other Saints markings.

“I’ve been waiting so many years for this moment,” said Reserve resident Allene Gregoire, who was dressed in a custom-made Saints jacket. “All that bad football just got erased from memory. It has been so exciting all week.”

Seventy-five-year-old Saints fan Alvin Duhe of LaPlace said he knows everything about that “bad football” the Saints used to play.

“I got to see it all first hand from the old Tulane Stadium,” said Duhe, who was dressed in a white Drew Brees Jersey as he shopped for groceries at Wal-Mart. “I thought things might get better when they moved into the Superdome in ’75 – of course it didn’t, but it didn’t matter because we still always went and still held out hope.”

Duhe described Sunday’s decisive victory over the Indianapolis Colts as “redemption for all who have suffered in Saints purgatory.”

“I was starting to think I’d never see the day,” he said. “I think it was the best I’ve ever seen them play, and I have seen a lot.”

LaPlace postal worker George Green, who worked his route Monday dressed in a black Marques Colston Jersey, said he is convinced that the team is far from finished when it comes to Super Bowl wins.

“This is not a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” Green said. “We’ve easily got three or four more left in us. I’m certain of that. These guys just look too good.”

One stop on Green’s regular route is LaPlace clothing store All Star Outfitters, where he engaged in quick conversation with employee Tony Zuber.

Zuber said Monday Saints apparel sales have been “through the roof” all season and continued to be extremely high in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl.

“We made four or five orders for championship shirts and hats,” Zuber said. “Our entire supply of jerseys is gone, and the company we buy from said they have run out.”

Zuber’s store is one of few in the area selling the Super Bowl championship gear. He said Monday he was expecting to have them in stock later that afternoon.

“I’m anticipating tremendous response,” Zuber said. “It was extremely crazy in here when we got the NFC South and NFC Champion shirts.”

Zuber, a fan himself, said he couldn’t make it out to the game, but managed to find his way down to the French Quarter for the biggest party in the city’s history.

“Wall to wall people,” he said. “It was hard to move. I didn’t get to sleep this morning until after 5 a.m., and the only reason I went to sleep was because the laptop I was watching game highlights on ran out of battery life, and I was too tired to grab the charger.”

Retail demand in LaPlace the past few weeks goes beyond a simple shirt and hat. Stores like Roussel’s Fine Jewelry and Gifts, which sells a plethora of Saints and fleur-de-lis memorabilia, have been overwhelmed by fans looking for Saints merchandise.

“Saints supporters are unlike any other in the country,” said store manager Earl Rodrigue Jr. “They love their team and are not afraid to show support.”

Rodrigue said his store has capitalized on the popularity of the fleur-de-lis symbol and said jewelry, artwork, scarves and other merchandise has been flying off the shelves.

“I call is fleur-de-lis bliss,” Rodrigue said. “It amazes me how the rest of the country has embraced this symbol that dates back centuries. It has become a symbol of rebirth for the city, and the region.”

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