While two other teams prepared to contend for the Lombardi Trophy in Atlanta, Saints faithful spent Super Bowl Sunday turning New Orleans into a rollicking display of solidarity with their team, mixing the sardonic and the gleeful like so much black and gold.

At grass-roots, fan-led events around the city, New Orleans partied as if the Saints were indeed playing in Super Bowl LIII, refusing to quietly accept the circumstances that kept them from the field.

A parade that began in Jackson Square quickly swamped the French Quarter with a crowd wearing black and gold, plus plenty of revelers costumed as refs. Some blocks were so packed it looked like Fat Tuesday in the Quarter.

A music festival dubbed Boycott Bowl took over a stretch of downtown New Orleans, and many bars, restaurants and clubs did their part.

Mixing the ferocious loyalty of Saints fans with a tradition of satire and public spectacle well-honed from generations of Mardi Gras celebrations, the city put on a show that seemed to tap every walk of life.

“We’re happy people. You don't see anyone burning cars in the streets here, but we just want people to know that we got screwed,” said Keith Williams, a Saints season ticket holder since 1978.

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Who Dats arrive for the Boycott Bowl Sunday, Feb. 3, 2019, on Fulton Street in New Orleans. The event, one of many around the city on Sunday, featured a Choppa Style dance contest and a daylong roster of musical acts celebrating the culture and heart of New Orleans, and not the NFL, during the Super Bowl. All money raised from Boycott Bowl will go to The NORD Foundation to coach and equip the next generation of New Orleans champions.

Just as he does at Saints games, Williams showed up for a Saints-themed Uptown second-line dressed as a Who Dat pope, with the added twist of newly printed socks bearing a likeness of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell with a clown nose.

“This means more here than it means another places,” Williams said. “It’s not just football. It’s a religion.”

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A jazz funeral marches down Magazine street with the Da Wright Way Brass Band and a casket full of notes made by New Orleans Saints fans during the Anti-LIE Bowl Party outside Dat Dog in New Orleans, Sunday, Feb. 3, 2019. The party included a dance off between New Orleans walking krewes and a jazz funeral with the Sophie B. Wright High School brass band.

Two actual Ursuline nuns drawn to the same Uptown procession shared Williams’ sentiment, if not his precise terminology.

“Of course we're upset about it. We’re interested in justice,” said Sister Regina Marie Fronmuller. “I’m over the fact that we’re not in the Super Bowl. But I haven’t gotten over the injustice of what happened.”

Sister Ginger Cirone, watching a crowd of fellow Saints fans assemble and a brass band strike up, said the spirit of the day around New Orleans reflected how much the Saints mean in this city.

“The team brings us together," she said. "Hopefully, we can keep this going and it can stream into next season and get us to the Super Bowl."

Just as they are united by the Saints, many in New Orleans now share an unshakable belief that their team was dealt an epic wrong.

For two weeks, they have been loudly making the case that the Saints, not the Rams, would have been playing the Patriots in Super Bowl LIII if only a blatant one-two punch of fouls near the end of the NFC Championship game on Jan. 20 had produced the proper penalty flag. The tepid public response by Goodell last week only added fuel to their righteous fire.

“Bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep,” is how Greg McNamara answered a question about what he’d say to Goodell if given the chance, acknowledging that it would all be profane.

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Members of the Amelia EarHawts arrive in style for the Boycott Bowl Sunday, Feb. 3, 2019, on Fulton Street in New Orleans. The event, one of many around the city on Sunday, featured a Choppa Style dance contest and a daylong roster of musical acts celebrating the culture and heart of New Orleans, and not the NFL, during the Super Bowl. All money raised from Boycott Bowl will go to The NORD Foundation to coach and equip the next generation of New Orleans champions.

'They took it from us'

McNamara joined thousands of others at Boycott Bowl, a concert staged on Fulton Street in an effort to put New Orleans music and culture in the spotlight Sunday instead of that game in Atlanta.

The line to enter Fulton stretched for blocks, which drew some criticism from would-be attendees. Some onlookers popped their heads out of nearby windows and angled for perches in parking garages to get a glimpse of the acts onstage.

True to the spirit of the Boycott Bowl name, though, those who turned up were united in their disdain for the NFL's biggest game of the year.

“We know we won that (NFC Championship) game,” said Terry Henderson. "They took it from us, so I’m out here to celebrate with everybody else.”


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Every fan has an opinion. There is outrage over a blown call. There are plenty of conspiracy theories. There is a general us-against-them attitude prevalent in New Orleans, so fiercely proud of the things that set it apart.

Tracey's Original Irish Channel Bar came out early in defiance to the Super Bowl, declaring just a day after the Rams game that Super Bowl LIII would not be shown on its screens. Instead, proprietor Jeff Carreras turned his pub into a Saints pride party, showing great games of the past to lead up to a replay of the 2010 Super Bowl that the Saints won. The bar was packed all day.

"Only New Orleans would take a catastrophe and turn it into a celebration," said Ann Clement, a LaPlace resident who was strolling around a Magazine Street block party dubbed the Anti-LIE Bowl, its name a dig at Super Bowl LIII.

Like many in the crowd, she was decked out as if it really was a Saints game day, with her No. 9 Drew Brees jersey and fleur-de-lis beads.

"We're celebrating our boys," she said. "It was a great season."

Local bars would have been rollicking for a Saints Super Bowl, and it's likely they would have been plenty busy for any other Super Bowl, if not for the no-call controversy. But with the actual Super Bowl in Atlanta not scheduled to begin until 5:30 p.m., there was a whole day of pre-gaming against the game to handle.

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Son of a Saint raises money by offering donators to hit the target and dunk the referee during the Anti-LIE Bowl Party outside the Magazine street Dat Dog in New Orleans, Sunday, Feb. 3, 2019. The party included a dance off between New Orleans walking krewes and a jazz funeral with the Sophie B. Wright High School brass band.

At Dat Dog on Magazine Street, hub of the Anti-LIE Bowl block party, the local nonprofit Son of a Saint set up a dunking booth manned by, you guessed it, a guy dressed as a referee. Zubin Shetty was one of many who lined up to try his arm, and vent some frustration, splashing the "ref" on his third try.

"That throw was for the people of New Orleans," Shetty said afterward. "What happened to the Saints was unbelievable."

The ref, now soaking wet, was Sean Gordon, who said he was happy to take a plunge, considering the cause.

"If I can help people get through it, all the better," he said, noting that he is a Saints fan too.

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Members of the Disco Amigos dance troupe take part in the festivities on Magazine Street for the Anti-LIE Bowl, one of the satirical Super Bowl Sunday events in New Orleans.

Just upriver at Port Orleans Brewing Co., a taproom run by former Saints lineman Zach Strief, the spirit of pre-gaming was merged with a fundraiser for Animal Rescue New Orleans. As the Animal Planet’s “Puppy Bowl” played on all the screens inside, a crowd of young families and beer lovers gathered.

The Smith family from the Irish Channel brought along their retriever, Beignet, who was wearing a “Wag Dat” shirt for the occasion.

“This is how we process things in New Orleans,” said Jenny Smith. “What else are we supposed to do, sit at home and complain about it? That’s not how we roll.”

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Robin Gilliam wears her saints hat to the Anti-LIE Bowl Party outside the Magazine street Dat Dog in New Orleans, Sunday, Feb. 3, 2019. The party included a dance off between New Orleans walking krewes and a jazz funeral with the Sophie B. Wright High School brass band.

'This market counts'

New Orleans, a small-market team with a ferociously dedicated fan base, as defensive as a mama alligator around her nest, did not take its Super Bowl denial lying down.

Larry Rolling, a Covington city councilman known as the “Sign Man” for the clever signs he displays during Saints games, didn’t hold back his disdain for Goodell after the Rams game debacle.

“It’s awesome to see everybody coming together. And we know we’re here for one cause, to celebrate the Saints, but also telling Goodell that he’s a liar,” Rolling said.

“And you know what, this market does count, OK?" he said. "New Orleans counts. This is not New York, but this market counts.”


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Expressions of angst have run from dueling billboards in New Orleans and Atlanta to local bakeries, which quickly whipped up "We Was Robbed" king cakes and edible effigies of referees. The issue even made it to the courts, where various lawsuits seeking to redress the controversy were filed, though so far tossed (unlike a certain penalty flag we could mention).

Super Bowl Sunday, though, was the main act. Like the spontaneous celebrations that erupted when the Saints actually won the Super Bowl in 2010, it came down to everyday fans and New Orleanians.

Many took to the streets not just in Saints colors but also in costumes cooked up by the calamity to the Who Dat nation.

AJ and Jennifer Herbert fashioned bright yellow blankets into penalty flags, signifying the one that went missing.

"They should have thrown one, so we threw these on," said AJ Herbert.

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AJ and Jennifer Herbert dressed like NFL penalty flags on Super Bowl Sunday in New Orleans, in parody of the missed call that outraged many Saints fans. Their dog Sophie was dressed in Saints colors.

Follow Ian McNulty on Twitter, @IanMcNultyNOLA.