Beating a dead horse

Maybe the thing to do is to find the person, or people, who aren't Saints fans, or who, for whatever reasons (other commitments, work, health reasons, whatever) will not be attending, or watching, the Super Bowl.

Even in Saints Country, there are bound to be a few.

Maybe they'll be wanting to see it, or maybe they won't, and you can get explanations/reactions along those lines. Or maybe, they have another, more important, real-life priority that you could write about, and you could play off of that.

Whatever/whomever it is, on Super Bowl weekend, that would be an angle, and perhaps, the most interesting story.

 

These are more featurey ideas I realize, but how about what people are doing as far as parties and/or gatherings on Sunday? What are they having to eat or drink? Any unusual superstitions that fans have? What is the local business community doing? Have any restaurants changed the name of their menu items? What are the supermarkets doing to capitalize on food sales? How are merchandise sales? What is the security plan if the Saints win? Is there a bet between the respective Mayors? Have people done wild and wacky to the exterior of their house to decorate?

 

Find some riverboat captains to see if they'll be watching on the ship going up or down the Big Muddy.

Drag your ME along and have her keelhauled while you're doing the interview. Then ask what other great ideas she has.

 

Whoops, thought this would be about Big Brown beating Eight Belles at the 2008 Kentucky Derby.

 

Some good ideas in there. We're a pretty small town. I don't think we need to worry about a security plan if the Saints win, unless the usual thug element decides to fire off some guns for the hell of it. Same with the mayor bets.

I do like the idea of finding some Colts fans. With the Archie-Peyton connection there might actually be some around here.

Thanks for the ideas, y'all. Keep 'em coming!

 

game is being played at a time when many churches have Sunday evening services ... are any in your town altering their worship schedule ... or are they remaining "true saints" and sticking to their routine? ...

 

Did your ME tell you to run a list of all of the names of the fans of the Saints? "It gets names in the paper, and everyone will buy a paper and look for their name."

Actually, any voodooers selling Saints dolls? Or better yet, Colts dolls? I could see Saints fans in front of the TV Sunday around 8 p.m. sticking pins in Peyton Manning's right arm.

 

Watch it at a soccer bar with a lot of foreigners. Profit.

 

See if any schools are using the SB in their lesson plans.

Such as geography for locating where Indianapolis and Miami is on a map, or history.

 

You know, I realize to writers the story angles are boring, but readers suck them up. Sports fans just love to read chintzy stuff about other fans, Even if it gets old to the people who have to crank them out day after day, I really think readers love them.

 

I wrote a feature last week on a guy who has held tickets since '67. Was stationed in Maryland at the time, was a (Baltimore) Colts fan.

Interesting interview, though I'm not sure it translated into a particularly compelling story.