MIAMI — They don’t call former Saints quarterback Bobby Hebert the “Cajun Cannon” for offering up soothing, erudite, philosophical observations on the current electrified state of the Who Dat Nation. No, as Hebert likes to say in his staccato, stream-of-consciousness, bayou-rap delivery, he is the anti-James Lipton.
Hebert, 49, is a proud Cajun whose mouth usually is a half-bowl of gumbo ahead of the filter in his brain. But that’s what makes the boy from the lyrically named hometown of Cut Off, La. — 50 miles south of New Orleans — such a compelling, authentic voice for a fan base trying to climb the final 100 feet of sheer rock face to the NFL summit.
At a hastily arranged parade in New Orleans last Sunday, thousands of men, led by Hebert, wore dresses to honor a promise made by legendary sportscaster Buddy Diliberto to dress in drag if the Saints ever made the Super Bowl. Hebert said he was brought to tears watching the 50,000 fans who lined the streets.
“I think I’ve been as crazy as all of them,” said Hebert, who hosts a sports talk show for WWL (870 AM) in New Orleans. “Even in that parade, the fans were already in the Super Bowl. I couldn’t look at them because I get too emotional and I wear my heart on my sleeve. But we were marching and the sun was bright and they were looking up to the sky. It’s not like, ‘The freakin’ Saints are going to the Super Bowl.’ It was like, ‘The freakin’ Saints are in the Super Bowl.
“Even calling the radio show, people were getting choked up. People around the country don’t understand this, but the Saints are a way of life. The freakin’ Saints are not only going to the Super Bowl — we’re going to win it.”
So close is Hebert’s attachment to the fans that he will do his final broadcast from Miami today, then fly home to watch the Super Bowl in New Orleans. He also will be stationed in the French Quarter when — if the Saints win — a parade bigger than anything Mardi Gras ever has witnessed will break out.
“We had a chance to stay here and watch the game, but we want to be in New Orleans for the game,” Hebert said. “We want to be with the fans who deserve this. Fans want to be in New Orleans. They can’t get a hotel room there this weekend. They’re telling me, ‘When the Saints win,’ not ‘If the Saints win.’ I don’t know if it happens in too many places like this.”
Hebert has been wearing a black-and-gold T-shirt this week that proclaims: “Home of the Who Dat Nation.” The shirt almost certainly is not an NFL-approved item. “We have so many black-market things like this in Louisiana you can’t keep up with all of it,” he said, mentioning the “Brees-us” shirt (apologies to the Jesus trademark).
Like most Cajuns, Hebert is a man of principle. He played quarterback for the Saints from 1985 to 1992, but sat out the entire 1990 season in a salary dispute with former general manager Jim Finks, who thought he might cave in. It never happened. “You had a hard-headed Cajun versus a hard-headed, old-school GM,” Hebert said.
But just as Hebert believes his testimony in the Reggie White lawsuit against the NFL led to the liberalized free agency system now used in the league, he also believes he is responsible for creating the term “Who Dat Nation.”
It happened on Dec. 10, 2006, when the Saints went into Texas Stadium and obliterated the Cowboys 42-17 to go to 9-4 and position themselves for the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs. That night, during a four-hour postgame show, fans from across the country who could hear the 50,000-watt clear channel signal called in to congratulate the team.
“A lot of callers had been displaced because of [Hurricane] Katrina, and they had to move because of their jobs,” Hebert said. “A lot of people just liked the Saints story. It’s the underdog syndrome, a feel-good story. I said, ‘Hell, there’s a Who Dat Nation out there.’
“Now the nation is worldwide. We get calls from Australia, Japan and England. The strangest call we got last week was from Mongolia. I don’t know if they were pulling our leg or not about being from Mongolia, but I said, ‘Whoa, that’s Genghis Khan territory.’ That fits in well with Gregg Williams’ attack defense. Even the Mongolians are part of the Who Dat Nation.”