New Orleans erupted in celebration on Sunday night US time when its home team, the Saints, came from behind to win the Super Bowl American football final for the first time.
The Indianapolis Colts, who went into the game favoured to win, led 10-6 at half-time but the Saints ran in 15 unanswered points in the final quarter to clinch an historic 31-17 win.
The Saints' first-ever appearance in the National Football League's showpiece final, played this year in Miami, comes four and a half years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Louisiana coastline, taking more than 1800 lives as floodwaters breached New Orleans's inadequate levees.
Playing 'for an entire city and region'
Their home stadium, the Superdome, became a temporary refuge for thousands of inhabitants, and a symbol of the city's ruin, the BBC reports.
And the players themselves became refugees for the subsequent season, playing "home" games as far afield as New York, Baton Rouge and San Antonio, Texas.
Since the Saints' return to New Orleans for the 2006 season, the bond with their citizens appears to have got stronger. Star quarterback Drew Brees joined the team from San Diego and quickly became an inspirational leader on and off the field.
"We feel like we are playing for so much more than just to win a game for our organisation or team - we're playing for an entire city and region," he said before Sunday night's game.
