Sky Sports NFL’s Cam Hogwood visited New Orleans ahead of the Super Bowl, witnessing the Saints snap their seven-game losing streak against the Atlanta Falcons following the firing of Dennis Allen as Darren Rizzi stole the show in his first game as interim head coach at the Superdome.
New Orleans voodoo is real. You could see it, you could feel it, resurfacing on demand as if summoned by the Bat-Signal when the city needed it most, tormenting a rival kicker, compelling an interim head coach to wildly overshare and conjuring a defiant party atmosphere at the Superdome.
Somewhere on Sunday the right leg of Younghoe Koo’s voodoo doll was being poked, prodded and nullified as the Atlanta Falcons man missed three field goals to surrender a 20-17 defeat to the rejuvenated Saints, including the kind of doink for which only a mystic force could have been responsible.
The voodoo doll of this visiting journalist was meanwhile being forced to feast on countless portions of gumbo, jambalaya and bread pudding, powerless to world-class NOLA cuisine during a pre-Super Bowl tour of the city. It wasn’t my fault, promise.
What had opened as a week of despairing uncertainty in light of Dennis Allen’s dismissal as head coach and the departure of cornerstone defensive back Marshon Lattimore would evolve drastically into a picture of New Orleans vibrancy, where Mardi Gras-style beads glistened that little bit brighter, where cries of ‘WHO DAT?’ hit that little bit harder and where the Superdome became that little bit more suffocating.
Something had felt different, local spirit having been reignited and a family unity restored behind the infectious full-throttle attitude of the impressive Darren Rizzi.
From running back Alvin Kamara to Irish kicker Charlie Smyth, Saints players had spent the back end of the week bowing to the galvanising influence of their temporary (but how temporary?) leader, keen to insist there is no let-up behind the scenes from the fiery intensity evident on the sidelines.
Within just a few days, the lengths to which players would go to serve him and the reasons as to why were clear.
As much was underlined by the most unique post-game press conference story of the season as the former special teams coordinator, unprompted, admitted to blocking the toilet earlier in the day. Pre-game nerves, perhaps.
“I’m a pretty open guy,” he said. “This is how my day started: I get down to the Superdome, I go in the head coach’s locker room, which I’ve never used before. Here I am, early in the morning, I go to the bathroom. This is how my day started. I clogged the toilet.
“I’m like, ‘this is gonna be a crappy day.’ Pun intended!”
As reporters erupted into laughter, so too did safety Tyrann Mathieu while waiting for his turn at the podium from the side of the room. Rizzi and the Saints had just snapped a seven-game losing streak, victory over a division rival coupling with his toilet anecdote in transforming the mood entirely from that with which they had entered the week.
With that came another giggle-inciting recollection of losing all feeling in his arm after taking a ‘stinger’ from Payton Turner in celebration at the end of the game, as well as a shower of praise for Falcons kicker Koo as Rizzi leapt to his defense by reminding all of his success against the Saints in their previous meeting.
In just the few days I had spent in Louisiana, Rizzi had carried himself and been spoken of as every bit the perfect flag-bearer for New Orleans pluck and fortitude.
Among his initial moves to change things earlier in the week had been the decision to remodel the Saints locker room, bringing players closer together in a literal sense and ensuring they sat with new team-mates from different position groups.
Small adjustments reaped immediate rewards, including the no-brainer appointment of Kamara as a captain – as much being vindicated when the new Saints all-time rushing leader emerged from the tunnel to the loudest, most raucous cheer of the day at the Superdome.
With rah-rah approaches must always come slick decision-making, acute playbook architecture, efficient quarterback play and, well, wins.
The Rizzi experience could yet prove a bumpy one such is the makeshift nature of a Saints roster that turned to Marquez Valdez-Scantling and Kevin Austin, who Allen’s interim successor joked that ‘nobody knew’. But he has given them life, there can be no doubt.
Rich Bisaccia was beloved by the Las Vegas Raiders during his brief interim stint, and such was Antonio Pierce’s popularity among the players that he was rewarded with the full-time post despite more limited experience than other prospective candidates.
Not enough can, meanwhile, be said of Dan Campbell and the defining role his heart-on-sleeve emotion, unrivalled commitment to his players and contagious energy has played alongside smart play-calling, personnel identification and shrewd system-tailoring in spring-boarding a fresh era of contention for the Detroit Lions.
Rizzi has been part of the Saints organisation since joining as special teams coordinator in 2019, having also previously carried out the same role with the Miami Dolphins after serving as Rhode Island head coach in 2008.
With the organisation staring at an ugly cap situation over the coming years, would it be a surprise to see them put their faith in the 54-year-old while they encounter multiple obstacles? Perhaps not.
Upon landing in NOLA on Wednesday you wondered what atmosphere might await with the team skidding towards a losing season after its 2-0 start, and as Lattimore moved on in the kind of veteran trade that would often point to an admission that contention may be some way away.
But as you listened to a fired-up Kamara and Cam Jordan – not just the faces of the team but faces of the city – set the tone at practice on Thursday, and as you picked the brains of kicker Smyth – as devoted as any international player I have ever met to making it in the NFL, by the way – and as you wondered into Champions Square, and as you soaked up the latest rendition of The Saints Are Coming pre-game, you realised there was something new in the air. The mood of the city had changed.
It required only a few days to realise Rizzi is the type of character born to serve a city like New Orleans.
