Saints lose NFL game, but win hearts in Paris
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Paris, city of light and love, has been enjoying a full-on fling with the New Orleans Saints.
The big picture: The team's French roots gave New Orleans something of a home-field advantage in the NFL's first-ever game in France, even if the scoreboard didn't reflect it.
- The Saints lost Sunday to the Pittsburgh Steelers, 16-10.
- The game, played under tight security at the 80,000-seat Stade de France, was a welcome distraction from weeks of social unrest and street protests that have turned violent across France.
⚜️ The backstory: New Orleans, established by the French in 1718 and rich in French architecture, food and culture, was the sentimental favorite.
- A celebrated Parisian watering hole, Harry's New York Bar, temporarily renamed itself Harry's New Orleans Bar.
At the game: Saints fans with black fleurs-de-lis painted on their faces chanted "Who Dat."
- The stadium announcer shouted "Who Dem Saints" after every Saints first down, and the crowd roared along.
- New Orleans got the biggest cheers from the sold-out crowd.
- Valinda Spottsville, 64, shrugged off the recent Paris protests to make the trip solo from New Orleans. "This was a treat from me to me," she said.
💭 Bill's thought bubble: I live in Paris, but I'm a lifelong New England Patriots fan — I grew up in Foxborough, Massachusetts, home to Gillette Stadium — so I had no skin in this game.
- 🌭 The food at the Stade de France was predictably fab, though — even Le Hot-Dog.
- 🤷🏼 So was watching the soccer-crazed French trying to figure out why sometimes you score 6 or 7 points and other times just 3. Sweet revenge for soccer's confusing offside rules.