By Michael Silver

MIAMI – Shortly before the start of the third quarter of Super Bowl XLIV, while the 74,059 fans at Sun Life Stadium were rocking out to the raucous climax of The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton put on a crowd-pleasing performance in the visitors’ locker room.

“Listen, we’re gonna run ‘Ambush’ to start the second half,” Payton told his players, referring to an onside-kick call the team had practiced repeatedly in the two weeks leading up to Sunday’s showdown with the Indianapolis Colts. “We’re playing this game to win it. We’ve got all the bullets; we might as well use ‘em. So you’d better get on that damn ball and make me look good.”

The Saints howled their approval, then headed back onto the field with a bounce in their step. Trailing by four points against the seemingly indomitable Peyton Manning(notes), New Orleans would be fueled by the audacity of hope as it had all season.

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By Pat Yasinskas

MIAMI — On the very first question of his Monday news conference, not even 12 hours after his team had won Super Bowl XLIV, Sean Payton suddenly had to face the future.

He was asked about how the Saints would respond to the challenge of following up a championship season, a challenge that’s been difficult for most recent winners. Payton would have been well within his rights to say something like, “Please, let us enjoy this for at least a day.’’

But he didn’t. He made mention of the fact the Saints have a young team and a steady Drew Brees, who now officially has joined, if not surpassed, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady on the list of the game’s elite quarterbacks. That’s a good start right there, but history hasn’t always been kind to teams that finish at the top of the NFL when they come back for the next season.

Especially teams that finish at the top of the NFC South. Prior to the Saints, the NFC South has had two Super Bowl teams. The 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers won it and the 2003 Carolina Panthers lost it. Neither came close to even getting to the game the next season.

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WWL/AP Reporting

MIAMI (AP) Jeremy Shockey wasn’t in a suite for this Super Bowl. Instead, he was part of the New Orleans Saints’ sweetest victory.

Shockey hauled in a touchdown catch for the go-ahead score Sunday night, helping the Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 for their first Super Bowl championship.

And for Shockey, that 2-yard score had to feel like redemption. He was with the New York Giants – in name only – when they won the Super Bowl two years ago, watching that title game from a suite and feeling like an outcast after breaking his left leg and missing their scintillating playoff run.

That essentially set up his trade to New Orleans. This ring, he can say he earned.

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By KAREN CROUSE

MIAMI — Jonathan Vilma and Jeremy Shockey formed a bond during their first few weeks of college that has become almost familial, their football careers a double helix intersecting here and in New York and in New Orleans.

Almost 10 years after meeting as newcomers to the University of Miami, Vilma, 27, and Shockey, 29, have come full circle. As players on the New Orleans Saints, they spent the week leading to their Super Bowl XLIV showdown against the Indianapolis Colts training on the Miami campus and changing in their old locker room and scheming to achieve what they pulled off in their last college game together: a championship.

“Our friendship has been strong and will remain strong for a long time,” Shockey said.

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By Pat Yasinskas

MIAMI — For the past year, and especially over the past few weeks, we have heard a lot about the past decade.

There have been all-decade teams named by numerous media outlets and one by the NFL. Those have been all-star teams patched together from across the league. And when people talk about the 2000s, they usually talk about the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts as being the best teams of the decade.

That is understandable because those teams have won a bunch of big games and were the closest things we’ve seen to modern dynasties. But instead of looking back on the past decade, let’s spin it ahead to the next.

“Hopefully, in a few years, people are talking about the New Orleans Saints as the team of the next decade,’’ New Orleans center Jonathan Goodwin said.

The Saints as the team of any decade? Yeah, their history isn’t that great and Sunday marks the first time this franchise has been in a Super Bowl. But give it a little thought and maybe Goodwin’s wish isn’t that far-fetched.

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For decades America’s National Football League paid little attention to the chants of “Who Dat?” from fans of the New Orleans Saints, as the team stumbled from one losing season to the next. “Who Dat? Who Dat? Who Dat Say Dey Gonna Beat Dem Saints?” crowds would chorus in a display of false bravado, masking the unspoken reality that just about everybody beat the downtrodden club.

Now, after breaking a 43-year run of bad luck to win a place at this weekend’s Super Bowl, the NFL’s multi-billion dollar corporate machine has taken a sudden interest in the “Who Dat” catchphrase, claiming that it owns the rights to its usage. It has even issued “cease and desist” notices against small-time souvenir vendors for using the words on T-shirts and demanding royalties on their profits.

The move prompted uproar among the Saints’ fan army, known as the Who Dat Nation, and turned into a political crisis when the Louisiana Democratic State Central Committee passed a motion calling on the State Governor, Bobby Jindal, to set his attorney-general on the NFL.

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By Pat Yasinskas

MIAMI — I’m clearly in the minority here and I know it. But I’m going to pick the Saints to win Super Bowl XLIV. I’m taking them 31-24 over the Colts.

Yeah, that might have something to do with the fact that I’m the NFC South blogger. But that doesn’t mean I’m being a homer. I’m basing my pick on the fact that I saw most of the Saints’ games this year and I believe it’s their time. I believe they’re a team of destiny.

The Colts are a great team and I fully understand why they’re the favorite. But I don’t think the people who determine favorites have seen enough of the Saints. They’ve got an offense that’s capable of staying with the Colts. They’ve got a defense that’s capable of producing a turnover or two, no matter how difficult that is against Peyton Manning.

Besides, all the pressure is on the Colts. They’re supposed to win. Even if the Saints lose, they’re still having a parade in New Orleans. But I think it will be a victory parade.

From Pat’s NFC South Blog.

By Chris Kirkham, The Times-Picayune

February 04, 2010, 2:00PM

As speculation mounts on whether Indianapolis Colts star defensive end Dwight Freeney will play Sunday, his probable backup, Raheem Brock, has nonetheless been confident about the Colts’ chances in Super Bowl XLIV.

His Twitter followers yesterday got a sense of that bravado when an image appeared on his page showing Hurricane Katrina barreling toward Louisiana with a superimposed image of the Colts’ logo with a message that said, “Storm bout to hit miami on sunday! Lol.”

Colts player Raheem Brock's Twitter photo page

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