• By SHELDON MICKLES
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Feb 6, 2010 - Page: 1C

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — To see the New Orleans Saints advance to the Super Bowl for the first time in the 43-year history of the franchise is one thing.

To live it, and be a part of it as a native Louisianian, is something entirely different. Which is a feeling only Saints wide receiver Devery Henderson and cornerbacks Randall Gay and Tracy Porter will know.

While Super Bowl XLIV is a special time for all Saints fans, it’s even bigger — if you can imagine that — for Henderson (Opelousas), Gay (Brusly) and Porter (Port Allen), who will be on the field for Sunday night’s game against the Indianapolis Colts in Sun Life Stadium.

“You have no idea how much this means,” said Henderson, who, along with the others can say they played a part in helping their home-state franchise finally end a 43-year Super Bowl drought. “Louisiana high school, Louisiana college, now the Saints in the Super Bowl.

“I’ve been here for a long time, longer than most of these guys,” said Henderson, one of the Saints’ two starters at wide receiver. “We had one goal this entire year and we’ve been through so much. Now we are one win away from the ultimate goal.”

For Gay, getting to the big game is becoming old hat. He got there in 2004 and 2007 with the New England Patriots, but this one may mean a little bit more considering the colors he’ll be wearing Sunday night.

“It’s just like at LSU when we made it to the (BCS) national championship game,” said Gay, during Media Day activities earlier this week. “I’m from here and I’m doing something that a lot of people didn’t get a chance to do.”

Gay and Henderson were LSU teammates and seniors on the 2003 team that won the school’s first national football title in 45 years. Now, they’re getting a chance to end a dry spell that lasted almost as long.

“After 43 years, I’m part of that first (Saints) team that made it to the Super Bowl and has a chance to win the Super Bowl,” he said. “So that’s pretty special.”

Porter went to college at Indiana University, which is located about an hour from Indianapolis, but that didn’t diminish the sense of pride he felt after the Saints advanced to the Super Bowl with a 31-28 overtime victory against the Minnesota Vikings on Jan. 24.

His interception off Brett Favre in the closing seconds of regulation ended a Vikings’ drive and prevented them from a shot at a game-winning field goal.

“This is huge because this city hasn’t had a team in the Super Bowl; the Saints have never been there,” Porter said a day after the Vikings game. “This is huge for the city and the fans.

“It’s pretty ironic that I went to school up there and I’m going to be playing against a team from up there. At the same time, I’m playing for the home team. It’s kind of ironic that I get the best of both worlds.”