Beating a dead horse

We're in Saints country.
Unfortunately.
We've done the local fan reaction — twice; once during the season and once in the playoffs — we've got what amounts to a special section printing this weekend, and we're running regional AP nuggets and stories about all the Saints fans going crazy every day. Our local Saints fans seem excited, but aren't doing anything crazy like wrestling alligators for Super Bowl tickets.
Today, the ME comes in and says she wants more. Suggests watching the Super Bowl with a priest since, you know, Saints and priests go together. I think I was able to head that one off but she still wants some sort of local reaction.
So I beseech you, noble SportsJournalists.com warriors, how do you keep finding and writing these stories without making them all the same? It seems like the same story over and over — Saints fans are happy; they yell a lot during the game; Yee-Ha!!
Please help!

 

Talk your editor into flying you out to Nevada so that you can watch the game in a brothel.

Play up the Saints and sinners angle.

 

Another local yokel fan reaction story. That will lead to higher circulation.

 

If you have to do a fans story, I would do a bigger picture story.

What are people in the area/in New Orleans planning for the game? Huge parties, etc.

Are people going to congregate anywhere?

Even though the game is in Miami what will New Orleans/your area be like if the Saints win? Will there be bedlam in the streets?

That's if you absolutely have to do one.

 

Make sure to call them local yokels as you interview them. That will lead to higher circulation.

 

If you have a casino nearby, go there. Even if the casino isn't making book -- and it won't be in Louisiana or Mississippi -- you'll definitely have an interesting crowd from which to do a story.

 

Any Colts bars in or around the area?
Any conventions in town this week? If so, they could be sources of contrarians, too.

 

And if you hit it big, you don't even have to do a story.

 

We're in the same boat. All Saints, all week. We're doing the Colts fan angle, we've already done one on a local guy who used to scout for the Saints, we'll play up the merchandising end, we're going to try to find some SB parties and crash one or two (well, with an invite, I guess), there's a local guy who's now a GM for the Superdome, and just about anything else we can dig up.

 

A brutally bad idea

 

Unless he also goes to a horse farm to watch it with colts.

 

Or to Baltimore to watch it with the original Colts fans.