The Saints are a week away from taking over Atlanta, or at least the Falcons’ practice facility and locker room.
And the prospect isn’t sitting too well with local officials there.
Via Beau Evans of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said while answering questions from a reporter she wanted to see “anybody other than the Saints” in the Super Bowl which is coming to her city.
After saying she didn’t have a preference who came to Atlanta for the game, she added: “As long as it’s not the Saints, I’m happy.”
“I know there’s going to be a bounty on my head for saying that,” she added.
She played it off as a joke, but if Bottoms was actually making a Gregg Williams-era reference that the Saints were injuring opponents in exchange for money and not just using the words in a generic sense, you almost have to respect her football memory enough to justify the shot.
Of course, local politicians in New Orleans had to fire back, because you can’t just have one side pandering.
New Orleans City Councilman Jay Banks, preparing a re-election bid apparently, was ready.
“I’m disappointed that she felt that way,” Banks said, “but we are still coming. And it’s not our fault that her team sucks.”
“I mean, if they could win, then they wouldn’t have this problem. At the end of the day, don’t get mad with me. Don’t hate the player, don’t hate the game, learn how to play the game better.”
This is actually refreshing, because it hasn’t devolved into a corny bet between mayors of locally famous food products, and if local politicians are going to insult each other, it also makes you wonder what we’re missing with the Bears and Eagles crashing out of the playoffs so soon.