All year the camera crews have strained to watch and hear this chant from Drew Brees, which makes for great television as the (often dominant and intimidating) Saints started each game. It's also proven to be a staple in many, many of the songs and music videos that New Orleanians have recorded during this incredible season.

Drew kept the exact nature of it a secret...until now...saying that it was inspired by U.S. Marines he met while on a USO tour in Iraq. In true New Orleans fashion, he reveals his secret to a bar crowd in the warehouse district after the "Dat Tuesday" (a new one I've picked up) parade.

Deuce McAllister doesn't look *thrilled* to be at the "Lombardi Gras" parade, but hopefully he had fun!

Deuce -- the Saints all-time leader in rushing yards and touchdowns -- is heavily involved here in Jackson both as an investor and in charitable endeavors, and he's the first player who really got me interested in the Saints. He's from Mississippi and played college ball at Ole Miss.

After some knee injuries he was cut from the team early this year, but he re-joined them in the post season as honorary captain, getting both teammates and Saints fans excited just by his presence. He retired this year as a Saint. (He's there with tight-end Jeremy Shockey, who supposedly has broken bones and a plate in his leg right now, but still caught a SuperBowl touchdown. Maybe he'll get Deuce's ear in the off-season and they'll both get back up to fighting form. One can hope!)

... when the Saints go marching in!

The procession — the Saintsgiving Day Parade, Lombardi Gras, whatever one prefers — was made up of the huge floats, high school bands, military bands, marching clubs, the Budweiser Clydesdales and Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, elected mayor on Saturday and riding on an old-fashioned horse-drawn fire engine. Saints fans watched from balconies, parking garages, trees and the tops of cars, but despite the chill, they mostly stood up close. New Orleans parades, with beads and doubloons raining down on the crowd from the floats, are not the same from a distance.

Oh, how I long to be in that number...

"We're disappointed the Colts did not win," said lottery spokesman Andrew Reed. "But how can you root against the city of New Orleans after all they've gone through?" 

Reed said Densborn would make good on the bet as soon as Hudson sends her the necessary Saints jersey. Reed said Densborn has requested either the jersey of Indianapolis native and IU grad Courtney Roby or IU grad Tracy Porter, whose interception of Peyton Manning iced Sunday's game.

"At least there were a few Hoosiers who played pivotal roles in helping the Saints win," Reed said. "So that sort of made it a win-win."

A variety of bets were made between officials in Louisiana and Indiana; with the Saints win, all kinds of meats, sauces and sweets are headed South. The funniest bet, though, is the Hoosier Lottery executive director, Kathryn Densborn, who has to sing "When the Saints Go Marching In" while wearing a Saints jersey in front of Lucas Oil Stadium; Densborn has requested either Courtney Roby's or Tracy Porter's jerseys, since both Saints graduated from Indiana University. (Porter is probably the odds-on favorite, unless Rose Hudson of the Louisiana Lottery opts not to "pile on" Colts fans.)

Highlights from the Super Bowl as called by each team's local broadcast; I've gotten a huge kick out of Jim Henderson doing play-by-play on Saints games -- he adds plenty of emotion in this one when Shockey gets the touchdown and Porter makes his interception.