The secret of the lives of the #saints is their familiarity and confidence with God, which grew within them and made it easier for them to recognize what was pleasing to Him. This familiarity overcomes the fear or the doubt that His will is not for our good.
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) June 24, 2023
The New Orleans Saints may be locked in a copyright infringement lawsuit with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but odds are they won’t be taking Pope Francis to court. On Saturday, the supreme pontiff’s Twitter account shared a message reflecting on the lives of the saints — using a hashtag to further spread the call.
Coincidentally, the NFL has attached the Saints’ fleur-de-lis logo to that same hashtag, meaning the black and gold were just broadcast to the Pope’s 18.7 million followers on Twitter as well as those of the Catholic faith worldwide, who number more than 1.3 billion. Customized hashtags are used by the NFL for every team, but the league’s marketing department has been phoning it in for New Orleans by declining a popular slogan in favor of the team’s name.
And this isn’t the first time this has happened. The Pope accidentally supported the team back in 2019 just hours before the Saints kicked off with the Jacksonville Jaguars, and it turned out to be a good omen — New Orleans left town with a 13-6 win under backup quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, thrust into the starting role after a season-threatening injury to Drew Brees’ throwing hand.
We may be in the middle of the offseason, but when you’re coming off of a miserable 7-win campaign in 2022 like the Saints you’ll take all the help you can get. An inadvertent endorsement from the Holy See might be worth something.
