OK, OK, I give up, the Saints are the best team in the NFL

I have an announcement to make.

Please listen and read this story completely and savor its contents, because such messages do not come often from me because of my stubborn, hard-headed nature.

So here goes and please refrain from laughing at me until the end of the column, because I don’t like being interrupted when I am putting my foot in my mouth.

But I was wrong.

Yes, I said it. I was wrong.

Any Cajun French speakers out there? I got you covered, too.

Here goes: “J’avais tort.”

You want Spanish? I can do that, too: “Estuve equivocado.”

What I was wrong about is your beloved New Orleans Saints. All season long, I have come up with countless excuses as to why the Who Dats weren’t the best team in the NFL.

When in actuality, I was too deep in the forest to see the trees, and my hometown team (that I am not necessarily on speaking terms with in most years) was the NFL’s top dogs all-along, meaning somewhere along the line, I need to go out and get my vision checked out.

The first excuse I used to love to make was the weather. I said all year that once the Saints would get out of the friendly confines of the Louisiana Superdome and were exposed to harsh winter conditions, the team would fold like they did in the 2006 season when they were waxed in the NFC Championship Game by the Chicago Bears in frigid cold temperatures in the Windy City.

But I had to change my story a little bit after the team clinched home-field advantage, so I told the tale about the wise man who once said that defense won championships and the Saints had the No. 25 defense in the NFL, which meant they would yield too many points and would be beaten in the postseason.

Well so much for my story-telling ability and so much for that guy being “wise”, because the Saints defense was in no way great, but they were always just good enough to bend, but not break, which allowed the team to always get a few more points than its opponents en route to the title.

Another excuse I would always make was history. The Saints had never gone to the Super Bowl — ever —, so why would that change now, right? I might not be the smartest kid in the history of the Lafourche Parish Public School System, but I do know that most of the time history repeats itself.

But this time it didn’t repeat itself and it almost seemed like there was something bigger going on here, but more about that later.

Lastly, I said once the team made the Super Bowl that there was no way the team would be able to force turnovers against a half-man, half-robot quarterback like Peyton Manning.

Lo and behold, the Case-Meister was wrong again as it was an interception return for a touchdown that sealed the victory for the Saints and clinched the Super Bowl title.

So much for robots eventually becoming smarter than humans and ruling the planet. But then again, Tracy Porter might be a robot himself, being he did the same thing to the Vikings and Brett Favre in the NFC Championship Game.

So there it is, I admit it. I was wrong . No more excuses. The Saints are the best team in the NFL.

And what happened this year is nothing short of destiny. Pure destiny. There is no other way to explain how no other team in the NFL would offer Drew Brees a contract, allowing him to land in the Big Easy. No other reason to explain how a team that fell behind in all three playoff games and were out-gained in both the NFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl can emerge from the smoke as the Super Bowl champion.

It’s destiny.

And it’s a story the likes of which we may never see again.

Congratulations Saints fans and don’t bother to invite me to the post-Super Bowl parties. My belly hurts from eating a big, giant plate of crow. I’ll be full for weeks.