Buffett was also a citizen of Who Dat Nation
Buffett was also a citizen of Who Dat Nation
By Fran Thompson
Jimmy Buffett was a longtime New Orleans Saints fan, and he frequently visited the team during practices and games. He was in the locker room celebrating with the team when they won their only Super Bowl Back in 2010.
Buffett, who, as a child, went to Tulane football games at the venue with his father, was in the stands when John Gilliam returned the opening kick-off 94 yards against the Los Angeles Rams for a touchdown at the very first Saints game on Sept. 17, 1967 at Tulane Stadium, according to a tribute on the Saints’ website.
“We thought, ‘This is gonna be easy,'” Buffett recalled.
Buffett had gotten to know some of the original Saints while playing at the Bayou Room on Bourbon Street, as the bar was a hangout for Saints players.
“I think it was more because we had a hot chick in our band,” Buffett said. “They were more interested in her than in our music.”
In January 2010, Buffett flew his jet 5,400 miles from Bora Bora to New Orleans, a trip that included a stop to fix a flat tire, to see the Saints beat the Vikings in the NFC Championship Game and advance to the Super Bowl.
According to the Buffett obituary in the New Orleans Times -Picayune, on his way into the game, Buffett stopped at a Poydras Ave. tailgate party thrown by a coalition of fans called the Down Undas. Some wore sun visors sprouting a shock of spiky hair, a tribute to the Saints’ defensive coordinator at the time, Gregg Williams. Buffett offered to get up and sing if someone gave him a visor and a bowl of gumbo.
The Times Picayune reported that Buffett sang “Margaritaville” and “Sea Cruise” atop a flatbed truck with local swamp pop band the Creole String Beans.
“We faked ‘Margaritaville,’ but it didn’t matter,” Buffett said. “Everybody was having a good time.”
Buffett watched the game with Jazz Fest producer Quint Davis in a suite and wrapped Davis in a tearful embrace when Garrett Hartley’s overtime field goal won the game for the Saints, allowing the team to advance to the Super Bowl.
“It was stunned shock and disbelief, such an emotional thing,” Buffett said. “The game had all the great Shakespearean drama you could want.”
Long after fans left the Superdome to join parties all over the city, Buffett went down to the field and laid down in black and gold confetti. “I tossed it around “like the child of Mardi Gras that I am,” he said.
The Times Picayune also reported that in 2019, Buffett came onstage at the 50th anniversary Jazz Fest dressed as a blind referee in reference to what has become known as the NOLA No Call that knocked the Saints out of the play-offs. Who Dat Nation’s wounds were still fresh even three months later.
After leading Buffett around stage for a bit, two Saints’ cheerleaders tore off his referee’s costume and Buffett started his show.
Perhaps the most infamous blown call in NFL history, the NOLA No Call occurred on Jan. 20, 2019 at the end of the Saints NFC Championship Game against the Los Angeles Rams for a spot in the Super Bowl. The Saints were in position to put the game away with a touchdown or by simply getting a first down and running the clock down for a field goal.
On 3rd & 10, Rams defender Nickell Robey-Coleman crunched the Saints Tommy Lewis way before he touched the pass from Drew Brees. It was also an illegal helmet-to-helmet hit. The officials called it an incomplete pass.
Pictured: Jimmy Buffett singing the National Anthem before Saints’ games.