It’s safe to assume now that New Orleans Saints Coach Sean Payton has had a few weeks to digest the franchise’s Super Bowl title and has returned to work, he has finally let the shiny Lombardi trophy out of his grasp.
The last the public saw of the Lombardi trophy, awarded to the Saints for their 31-17 victory over the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV, Payton was still clutching the coveted prize during the Orpheus parade.
The big question now is: Where does the Lombardi trophy go next? Will it reside in a trophy case at the team’s Metairie facility? Will it tour the state? Will it be on display somewhere for locals to view?
At the moment, even the Saints aren’t sure.
Following a whirlwind of touring and a little vacation time for several members of the Saints’ front office, the Saints brass hasn’t had much time to contemplate the future of the trophy.
There won’t be a shortage of ideas, however.
Already Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis, in an interview with Sports Illustrated writer Peter King, has suggested that the Saints might take the trophy on a state tour.
Payton also reportedly has said he’d consider doing something like the NHL does with the Stanley Cup, and allow his players to take it for a day.
But that decision will be left up to Saints owner Tom Benson, Loomis said.
Saints spokesman Greg Bensel said a decision could come soon.
If the Saints decide to take the trophy to all 64 parishes in Louisiana, they’ll be following a pattern set by the Colts, who took the Lombardi trophy to nearly 100 towns in Indiana after their victory in Super Bowl XLI.
Colts senior executive vice president Pete Ward said their organization came up with the idea when the team reached
the AFC championship game in 1995, before finally getting to implement the plan when the team won the Super Bowl in 2007.
“Like New Orleans, we are a small market and we need to be a regional team, ” Ward said. “And if we are going to be a regional team then we have to have fans in all corners of the state. And our state has responded.
“It was a basketball state when we moved here; now it’s a football state in every corner. And we felt that it was without question that we needed to take that trophy to all corners of our state and let the fans appreciate it, because it was as much their trophy as it was ours.”
The Colts, however, are one of the few NFL franchises to take such measures.
The Pittsburgh Steelers, who won Super Bowl titles in 2006 and 2009, haven’t displayed their trophies much publicly. All of their NFL-best six Lombardi trophies are displayed at the team’s headquarters, according to a Steelers official.
After the New York Giants won Super Bowl XLII in 2008, the Giants didn’t follow the lead of the Colts and travel with the trophy around the state, a Giants official said. But they did bring the trophy along to many of the organization’s charity events. And the trophy, along with the franchise’s other two championship trophies, is now stored in a glass case in the lobby of the Giants’ front office.
Meanwhile, the Colts’ Lombardi Trophy still hasn’t found a home. Colts officials said rarely does a week go by that the trophy is in the same place. Since winning the award, the Colts have loaned out the Lombardi to many community organizers wishing to allow fans to get an up-close look at the prestigious award.
“We don’t know of any other organization that has done it, ” Ward said. “It’s something that when we did it, it was almost like the second coming of the Beatles in every little town that it went to. It went to nearly 100 towns in Indiana and it was incredibly well-received.
“The feedback that we got back was so exciting I can just imagine in Louisiana you’d need the National Guard for security. I think that would be an awesome thing to do in Louisiana.”
