What on earth do the Saints and their Superdome have to do with graveyards? You might be surprised.

The Saints were founded on All Saints Day (also known as the Day of the Dead)- November 1, 1966. Maybe not the best sign and portent ever, compounded by the fact that it only came to pass after much old fashioned shady Louisiana politics.

That year the AFL (American Football League) and NFL (National Football League) were quietly holding merger talks, but it was leaked to the public and Congress brought an antitrust suit to block the action. After who knows what kind of backroom deals and promises, Louisiana reps brought the proceedings to a grinding halt, stopping the antitrust case in its tracks. Local reps managed to push through not only approval of the merger but an agreement to not bring any further action against the league.

A hasty conference call was held amoungst all those newly happy franchise owners, and voila! The next day New Orleans suddenly had themselves a football team, despite not having an actual team, owners, a stadium, or any of those other pesky little details.

One of the first orders of the day was to figure out where to put a stadium. The city chose land previously seized and cleared for a Civic Center several years before, though the Center ended up not using all the land they'd taken and proved to be a good starting point for the Dome.

Part of that property had been Girod St. Cemetery, a primarily Protestant burial ground founded in 1822. Horribly deteriorated and overgrown, it was deconsecrated and the bodies relocated by their descendants where possible and by the city where not.

Although, quite frankly, no one claims that every body interred was moved, and the graveyard already had an unhappy reputation. It was rumored to be a place the Voodoo practitioners went to obtain parts for their rituals. Regardless of the reason, many graves had been broken into over the years, robbed for one reason or another, and bones were strewn everywhere. The odds that they were all treated with care and respect when the bulldozers arrived are fairly long.

(there aren't many photos of Girod St. left, OldNewOrleans has several excellent ones.)

And speaking of long odds, we get back to the Saints and their curse. In their four decades as a team, they've never made it to the Superbowl and have only made it to the playoffs 6 times- winning only 2 of those. Jokingly (well, mostly) the angry dead are blamed for their record.  Priests, Voodoos and everybody else have blessed the area multiple times & there are fans who bring gris-gris bags (voodoo goodluck charms) and pray for the kindness and goodwill of the Girod St. dead before the games, proving that once again the dead are a part of everyday life here.

Today, as we get ready for the Saints 7th playoff game you can bet there'll be a lot of people praying to whoever/whatever will listen. Regardless of how the playoffs go, this has been the best season in our history, so maybe, just maybe, all those prayers have finally paid off.

So... all that being said....

WHO DAT!