Well, it is Super Bowl Weekend, and the papers and television media has been inundating us with Super Bowl images. I’ve never been to the big game. Last year was the closest, when my friends Brett and Jennifer and Chris and Stephen all travelled to Chicago to watch the Saints take on Chicago, before the Bears headed to Miami…

That was a cold day, and the beer and snow didn’t mix well, but we endured. That was the closest I’ve been as a fan.

But there was a day, back in 1996, when Green Bay was taking on New England in the Super Bowl XXXI. Back then bungee jumping was popular, and there was a Dorito’s commercial where actor Chris Eliot would bungee jump tethered from a blimp over the stadium, and perfectly finish the dive with a chip in his mouth into some dip. So the halftime show was to entertain with several bungee jumpers from the Superdome roof, all in costume.

I was working the night shift for EMS the day before the game, and everyone was practicing for the big show the next day. Suddenly we got a call from 911 that someone had fallen from the Superdome roof. A few calls later we learned it was INSIDE the Dome, and we found a small gathering of worried onlookers near the Gravier Street side bleachers.

One of the bungee jumpers’ fastenings had come loose, and she hit the floor three times, hard, from a free-fall from the ceiling. She was beyond dead, and it was pretty gross, even by EMS standards, but her mother and sister were there, and we worked on her, trying to find anyway possible to restore a pulse or heartbeat. Nothing worked.

I had seen some pretty horrific head injuries in my years on the streets, but that one was probably, and still stands, as the worst I’ve seen.

Well, it was unclear if the harness had merely malfunctioned, or, as someone mentioned on the scene, “tampered with”. That sent an ugly tone through the NFL people, and they were there, at Charity  by the time we finished the call. They were surrounding the police, took us aside, and basically made sure the story was this was an “accident”, no matter what.

Because to entertain any other option would have made the Superdome a CRIME SCENE, possibly unavailable for the event to follow the next day. Well, it seemed no one wanted that.

And, years later, there is nothing to suggest the accident was anything more than that.

So, now, the Saints are poised to represent the NFL in England next season, giving up a home game for the chance to play overseas in Wembley Stadium. There has been a very angry bit of griping from Saints season-ticket holders, complaining that they lose a home game.

Well, that’s valid as far as a complaint. But what we should have learned in ’96, and even more now after the ’05 Katrina season, is that when the NFL asks a favor, you do it. Because these same people who are complaining right now are going to wonder why, in 2010, 2011, and as far away as 2019, New Orleans hasn’t hosted a Super Bowl in over a decade.

New Orleans and the Superdome are the BEST venue for the Super Bowl, or any huge sporting event. The proximity of the airport, the hotels, the restaurants, the tourists destinations, is unmatched by any other location. Miami? Forget it? Houston? People are still waiting in traffic to get to Reliant. Tampa Bay? Decent stadium, but what ELSE do you do in that town but watch the football game?

If New Orleans wants help, and to be considered a viable worldwide destination, the people need to take opportunities handed them and run with them.