Sugar Bowl

Drew Brees, the leader of the Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints, was selected as the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Outstanding Professional Athlete for Louisiana for 2009-10. The Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee, sponsored by the Allstate Sugar Bowl, selects annual award winners in a variety of categories; it also selects Amateur Athletes of the Month and each year’s Hall of Fame class. 

It was a slam dunk. That basketball metaphor best describes the voting by the Allstate Sugar Bowl Media Selection Committee when it came to identifying this year’s recipients for Louisiana’s Best Pro Team, Best Pro Coach and Best Pro Player as well as the Best Pro Player in New Orleans.

In order, they are the Super Bowl XLIV champion New Orleans Saints, its head coach, Sean Payton, and MVP-caliber quarterback Drew Brees in the double-double.

It took 43 NFL seasons but the Black and Gold finally separated themselves from those sports franchises that have never won a world championship – the Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Clippers to name a few.

World Champions! How sweet the sound.

Now, the Saints are contemplating the idea of pulling off a “Repeat,” or in the enthusiastic words of the Who Dat Nation, “2Dat!”

“Last night was great,” Payton said the morning after the Saints rallied from an early 10-point deficit to upend the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 on Feb. 6 at Sun Life Stadium in Miami. “Yet, there’s still something that burns in you to separate yourself more.

“So, we’ll spend a little bit of time recharging and refueling the batteries and getting ourselves prepared for the challenges ahead, and we know it will be difficult.”

It will certainly be easier with Brees back at the helm. The nine-year veteran enjoyed a spectacular performance against the Colts, tying a Super Bowl record with 32 completions (out of 39 attempts) for 288 yards and two touchdowns, including the go-ahead 2-yard score to Jeremy Shockey with 5:42 remaining in the game.

Brees gushed with praise about Payton, saying the coach’s decision to try an on-side kick at the beginning of the second half was “an unbelievably gutsy call, but one we knew was going to work.”

Brees credited New Orleans’ fans for the victory, saying that the Saints and the city’s hurricane-ravaged residents would “walk together forever.”

“This is something that will always be with us,” Brees said.

Story submitted by Brian Allee-Walsh of the Greater New Orleans Sports Selection Committee.

The Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee began in 1957 when James Collins spearheaded a group of sports journalists to form a sports awards committee to immortalize local sports history. For 13 years, the committee honored local athletes each month. In 1970, the Sugar Bowl stepped in to sponsor and revitalize the committee, leading to the creation of the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame in 1971, honoring 10 legends from the Crescent City in its first induction class. While adding the responsibility of selecting Hall of Famers, the committee has continued to recognize the top amateur athlete in the Greater New Orleans area each month – the honors enter their 64th year in 2020. To be eligible, an athlete must be a native of the greater New Orleans area or must compete for a team in the metropolitan region.

The Allstate Sugar Bowl has established itself as one of the premier college football bowl games, having hosted 28 national champions, 102 Hall of Fame players, 52 Hall of Fame coaches and 21 Heisman Trophy winners in its 89-year history. The 90th Allstate Sugar Bowl Football Classic, which will double as a College Football Playoff Semifinal, is scheduled to be played on January 1, 2024. In addition to football, the Sugar Bowl Committee annually invests over $1 million into the community through the hosting and sponsorship of sporting events, awards, scholarships and clinics. Through these efforts, the organization supports and honors thousands of student-athletes each year, while injecting nearly $2.4 billion into the local economy in the last decade.

-www.AllstateSugarBowl.org-