Life in the Red Group

After three days of celebration, obligations and a parade in New Orleans, ex-Husker and St. Edward native Scott Shanle took some time to talk with The Columbus Telegram about what it is like to be a Super Bowl champion.

Nate Carey does a nice job with this interview.

Shanle tells Carey the Super Bowl triumph was a triumph for the City of New Orleans.

"For the citizens of New Orleans who grew up here and have supported the team, they never thought this day would come. From a living perspective, after the year we had, it gave hope. It put the city back on the map, and the biggest thing is that it united the whole city. You see people celebrating and enjoying the moment who don’t know each other and would maybe never get together. Just uniting the city was fun to see."

Here's the entire Q&A:

CT: How was the parade Tuesday?

SS: The parade was unbelievable. The city brought out the Mardi Gras floats, and all the players got on them by position. We started at 5 p.m. and weaved in and out of downtown and didn’t get done until 9 p.m. There are 1.1 million people in the greater New Orleans area, including suburbs. They estimated 800,000 people were there for the parade.

CT: Sounds like the whole city shut down for the parade.

SS: I think so. I said that during the parade. I video recorded it just so I would never forget what that scene was like. I said to the rest of the guys ‘I wonder what the rest of the town looks like now?’ I could have sworn the entire city was there.

CT: Going off that, what does this Super Bowl win mean for the city of New Orleans?

SS: For the citizens of New Orleans who grew up here and have supported the team, they never thought this day would come. From a living perspective, after the year we had, it gave hope. It put the city back on the map, and the biggest thing is that it united the whole city. You see people celebrating and enjoying the moment who don’t know each other and would maybe never get together. Just uniting the city was fun to see.

CT: As far as the game itself, what were your thoughts going into halftime?

SS: We kind of had a few different game plans of what we wanted to do. Peyton Manning is so good at figuring out what you are going to do on defense and then exploiting it in the second half, so we changed up everything. We tried to set him up in the first half, and there was never any panic. We were just trying to do what we knew we needed to get done.

CT: At what point did Coach (Sean) Payton tell you guys about the onside kick?

SS: Two days before the Super Bowl in practice we ran that kick. We all thought we would never run it in the Super Bowl anyway. He said later that if we were up by two scores in the game he was going to run that play. Well, he came into halftime and right before we ran out onto the field he said we were going to run this onside kick. You could just see everyone’s look on their face of ‘Wow. We are in this thing to win it.’ Everyone was excited about it.

CT:Sounds like it was a huge rush for you guys?

SS: All season long, on offense and defense, we took chances. And now, in the biggest game ever for a lot of us, for him to come in and say ‘I trust you guys to do this and we are going to take control of this game right now’ was huge.

CT: Last week we talked about one of the defenses having to step up, and you guys did just that.

SS: I think the onside kick was the biggest thing. There were so many dynamics of the game that changed with the onside kick and our offense scoring. I think a little bit of panic set in for the Colts. Defensively, we blitzed a lot more in the second half and didn’t give Manning a halftime to adjust. But as a team, (Garrett Hartley) was 3-for-3 on field goals over 40-plus yards, and our offense scored when they had to. We played complementary team football, and it was truly a team victory.

CT: Seems fitting since the entire city had so much invested in the organization.

SS: All week long we were the underdogs, and all the media outlets were asking why we were there. We always look to prove people wrong. We didn’t say anything and just left that chip rest on our shoulder. When it came game time, we had something to prove. It was a huge deal, and New Orleans is proud of the championship, but I think it is even better because it is putting the city in a positive light.

CT: This really is the epitome of a “feel good” story.

SS: Talking with fans at the game, there were people around who had been Saints’ fans for 30 or 40 years, and once they realized we were going to win, were crying because they were so happy. It was a dream come true for the players, but the fans as well.

CT: When Tracy Porter intercepted Manning’s pass and returned it, you were running down the field behind him. What was going through your head during that 74-yard sprint?

SS: At that point, I knew we were going to win this thing. When Tracy made that play, I could just feel it. After that, it was all a matter of stopping them one more time.

CT: You now join your brother, Andrew, who won a Super Bowl with the Giants. What is that going to be like at the next family get-together?

SS: It is great. We are going to have to get them out and compare.

CT: How much time did you get to spend with the Vince Lombardi Trophy?

SS: We each got about 20 minutes. We passed it around, and everyone got to touch it. Coach Payton is actually going to send it around to all the guys on the team, so we all get a few days with it. It is pretty unique.

CT: Looking forward to next year, it is obviously hard for teams to repeat. But it looks like you guys are built to have a good amount of success down the road.

SS: Winning the Super Bowl once is exciting, and winning it again is very hard to do at this level. But I think we have a good group of guys, and we just have to bottle this feeling we have right now and try to get it again.

CT: It doesn’t sound like that will be a hard thing to do.

SS: No. All we care about is winning. I like our chances.