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Super Bowl Saints
02/08/10 - 08:19 AM
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By BRETT MARTEL
AP Sports Writer
    MIAMI - Peyton Manning? Intercepted. Brett Favre, too.
    Louisiana native Tracy Porter finished the season by making two
of the biggest interceptions in the history of the team he grew up
rooting for: the New Orleans Saints.
    Now they’re the Super Bowl champion Saints, thanks in no small
part to the second-year pro who grew up in Port Allen, just across
the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge.
    His 74-yard touchdown on an interception of a pass by Manning
gave the Saints an insurmountable two-touchdown lead late in the
fourth quarter of New Orleans’ 31-17 victory over the Indianapolis
Colts on Sunday night.
    In the NFC title game, his interception of Favre’s pass stalled
Minnesota’s potential game-winning drive in the last minute of
regulation. The Saints went on to beat the Vikings in overtime to
earn their first Super Bowl berth in the club’s 43-year history.
    When asked how it felt to make a huge interception against a
quarterback such as Manning in such a big game, Porter knew what to
say.
    “I got the same question when I picked off Brett Favre. Peyton,
he’s a phenomenal quarterback, a first-ballot Hall of Famer, such
as the previous two quarterbacks we played in the playoffs,” he
said, also referring to Arizona’s Kurt Warner.
    As a kid, Porter watched the Saints every Sunday with family and
friends. He remembers paper bags on the heads of embarrassed fans
during the lean years.
    “This team means more to the people of New Orleans than I can
say any team in the NFL. I can say no one is behind their team as
much as the people of New Orleans,” Porter said. “They’re just as
much a part of this victory as we are.”
    Porter had four interceptions during the regular season. He
returned one for a TD on the very same field in the Saints’ 46-34
comeback victory over the Dolphins.
    When Saints first-year defensive coordinator Gregg Williams saw
Porter taking another one all the way back to all but wrap up New
Orleans’ first major professional sports title, he kept thinking
back to his early impressions of the young cornerback during
offseason workouts.
    “When I first got there, everyone was high on him. But they
said ‘Gregg, he takes things too seriously. Gregg, he has a hard
time forgetting plays.’ So I used the whole spring and the whole
training camp and he was my whipping dog,” Williams recalled. “It
took a long time to stop sticking his lip out because I was on him
so hard. Once he figured out that I was giving him a lot of
attention because I liked him, he started giving me some of that
swagger back.
    “You can’t be afraid of making a play. He pulled the trigger.
He made the play,” Williams added.
    Porter said it was a case of productive film study. He
recognized the formation, with Austin Collie going in motion, and
knew Manning would be looking for Reggie Wayne right around the
needed distance for a first down.
    “When I saw Austin Collie go in motion I said, ‘Oh yeah, this
is the route they’ve been running all year,’ and yeah, I had it in
my mind I was going to jump the route,” Porter said. “It was just
like I was watching it on film and I made the break on it and here
comes the end zone.”
    Porter was drafted by the Saints in 2008 and earned a starting
cornerback spot in his rookie season. But that year was cut short
by a broken wrist in the first half of the season.
    This season, Porter went down Nov. 15 with what was thought to
be a season-ending knee injury at St. Louis.
    “I was told that it was a severe knee injury and that I could
be out for the year,” Porter recalled. “During that time I was
real down, thinking I wasn’t going to come back - second year in a
row - thinking maybe I was jinxed.”
    Further examinations revealed it was a severe sprain. His season
wasn’t over and he returned after missing five games.
    Right before getting on the team bus to go to the Super Bowl,
Porter sat in the Saints’ downtown Miami hotel, getting his head
shaved by his regular New Orleans barber, who’d traveled to Miami
for the game.
    Patches of hair left on Porter’s mostly bald head included a
rendering of the Louisiana Superdome, connected by a road to the
Vince Lombardi Trophy, as well as “SB 44,” a reference to the
Saints’ meeting with the Colts in the 44th Super Bowl.
    As Porter explained the design, he added, “Now you can look at
the Lombardi Trophy on the same road back to the Superdome.”