The excitement in the city as each day passed leading up to the Vikings’ game was at its highest level ever in all of New Orleans’ history.  I knew this time, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that we would win the biggest game and would be Super Bowl-bound.

I contacted a new dear friend, Rita Benson LeBlanc, and asked her if she knew where we could find tickets to the Saints-killing-the-Vikings game that was coming the next Sunday.  She responded that she would take care of it, and my heart pounded faster than ever.

Anticipation day after day, wondering where we would sit or what to wear were crazy feelings of excitement never felt before in all of my life.  When Rita’s assistant gave me a call and told me my tickets were ready to be picked up, my heart started pounding again.  I called Tanya and told her I had a surprise and would pick her up in 15 minutes.  She doesn’t like surprises, but I’m the king of giving great ones, and she questioned me the whole time I was driving.  As we neared Saints’ headquarters, she finally guessed our destination.

Prior to our three losses, we had tickets compliments of Rita to the New England game.  We had sideline pre-game passes and club-level seats with visiting passes to her suite during halftime.  I had told Tanya that it could never get any better than that, and we were spoiled for the rest of our lives.  This game against the Vikings symbolized the most important game we had ever played with home-field advantage.

I entered to the counter, where the envelope with my name on it waited patiently for me to arrive and pick it up.  I hoped with all my heart as I slowly tore it open, only to see the dream admission package once again.  We had pre-game sideline passes and tickets to Rita’s suite, which blew my mind and almost reduced me to tears.  Now our minds had but one thing of prime focus and that was this all-important game.

We gave this one great planning, as it would be the game of all games and who could imagine that it could get any better?  I announced that both restaurants would be closed for such an historic event and began dreaming of something I’d almost lost hope for throughout the years.  Sunday came and it was blissful as we waited for the moment to depart and head toward the historical game that evening.

I had cleansed my body that week with no alcohol or food poisons, as I wanted to be in a mindset of pure positive energy.  The morning of the game, I sat on my couch watching Reggie Bush videos, getting my blood pumping wildly and my mind at full throttle.  I listened to “Get Crunked” a thousand times with cold chills running through my spine, waiting for the moment that was soon approaching.

Scott & Tanya - Davenport Lounge

As it came time to start the journey, we decidedto “tailgate” at the Ritz-Carlton in the Davenport Lounge with a bottle of Champagne.  We felt on top of the world and nothing could stop us now. We took Champagne to go and started walking toward our beloved Superdome.  We walked slowly, taking it all in, not wanting to go very fast, and enjoying every second of the journey that was upon us.  We came to the entrance gate and embraced the moment by people-watching before we entered to begin this magical night.

We entered at ground level, where they escorted us to the sidelines and the dream game experience was upon us.  The crowd was overwhelming with a feeling of pure bliss. We

started filming our every historical footstep.  We ran into James Carville, who frequents Stanley. Then there was Rita and Paw-Paw Benson and the magic began again.  All of a sudden there was George Bush Sr. and all of the Secret Service, and holy s__t, it seemed no longer to be real! The Ying Yang twins came walking by and cameras were like bees swarming honey.  We stood there totally in shock as so much was going on.  I shook the hand of George Bush Sr. and I knew that the magic that we had was truly unbeatable.  Simply said, our moment had arrived.

We proceeded up to the suite, where we had our pre-assigned seats sitting next to two dear friends, Rodney and Frances Smith, owners of The Soniat House.  Five seats over to our left was George Bush Sr. and his wife, Barbara Bush.  They sat next to Mr. Benson and his wife, Gayle.  Then, as it seemed beyond belief, in came Kate Hudson to bring her luck to our wonderful stadium.  The cards were set in motion and the game was pure bliss. With so much eye candy, it was hard to keep the focus.  Watching Rita with her Blackberry, acting DJ, playing songs at crucial moments to keep the team and crowd roaring, and also dancing.  The game was tight all the way to the end, going into overtime and ending with the greatest field goal ever kicked in New Orleans Saints’ history.  I cried as we all hugged, knowing in two weeks where we would be, and the joy was as overwhelming as it gets.

We moved to another room with all of Mr. Benson’s and Rita’s guests to drink Champagne and begin the long night of party festivities. The city was on fire and it is all still a blur, ending up home at 5 a.m., opening more Champagne.

We woke up late the next day, exhausted from all of the festivities, with one thing on my mind and that was Stanley bloody marys.  After Stanley, a quick trip to Stella, then off for a celebration dinner of an oyster and crawfish feast at my favorite spot, Acme Oyster House in the French Quarter.  Tanya and I finished with more bloodys at the Carousel Bar and back to bed, as there were plans, great plans, that had to be made.

The next day I asked Tanya what in the world we could get Rita as a gift for the great things she had done for us and for the city.  Tanya replied, what else but Champagne?  What a brilliant idea it was, so my quest began for the special bottle.  I wanted a big one that no one had and my rep from Republic searched the country, finding a nine-liter bottle of Perrier-Jouet in New York.  I said, “Ship it this very instant,” and the bottle began its journey to New Orleans.

We thanked Rita once again for something that was greater than life and asked her where would be the best place for me to get tickets for Miami.  She told me not to worry, that she would help me with the task and my mind was near explosion from excitement.

You have to understand that I grew up in Lake Charles, Louisiana, born in 1961.  I have been a Saints’ fan for as long as I can remember.  I watched Archie Manning as a child and the many others who filled the decades in between.  There were so many people who came and went until this moment with Sean Peyton, Drew Brees and Reggie Bush.  The list is much longer, as this team is the one that we’ve waited all of our lives to have assembled.  I said as a young child that my life would never be complete without a New Orleans Saints’ Super Bowl win.  It was the only thing on my “bucket list” over which I had no control, but our moment had finally arrived.

We put up signs on both restaurants, announcing that we would be closed to celebrate the history that was upon us.  I promised my executive management staff that we were going, and I chartered a private jet. The planning of our trip had fully started.  Shopping for tickets was totally insane, with the prices of admission, but I knew this was important.  I secured my staff’s seats one week prior to the game to scratch one thing off the list of stressful duties.  We’d never been to such an event and didn’t know what to expect.  Surely it couldn’t get any better than before.

I consider myself a master planner and generally enjoy the journey, but this one came with a magnitude of stress.  What would we wear, where were our seats, the same questions we asked before, and I reminded myself, “O ye, of little faith.”  It was going to be perfect, as it already had and I needed to relax and let it happen.  It simply had to be perfect.

The bottle of Champagne took longer than expected, and Rita had already departed for Miami.  I told her I had a special surprise that I had to get to her before the game because of its importance. I told her it was on the way and please confirm when it had arrived so that would be one less thing that I had to worry about.  She had a friend that flew with us and two more for the return and the intensity of the planning was getting exciting.  The two weeks between the games flew by.  I had Champagne for our plane ride and a limo for the day, still not having any idea of what was in store for us.

Early the next morning my executive team and our guest arrived at our house, where Tanya and I were waiting.  We started driving toward our plane, which turned out to be a new Hawker XP 850–we had been upgraded!  So the magical day had begun as we boarded on our bird, and our captains greeted us graciously.  We took off toward Miami, drinking our Champagne. Look out Miami… here comes the Who Dat Nation!