Watch this video. It’s quite good.

I know it’s an over-covered storyline by now — THE SAINTS ARE SYMBOLIC OF NEW ORLEANS’ RISE — but it’s also incredibly gripping. It’s something you can’t help but root for, even for part-time cynics like me.

The Colts have gotten their Super Bowl in the Manning era … over the Bears of all teams. Do we really want this again? No. No, we don’t.

In closing, I say only this: Geaux Saints.

This picture amazed me when I first saw it. Super Bowls were played here. Three years prior, with about five percent of the world’s population watching, Ty Law ran a game-changing touchdown into the end zone. Right there, right around the spot where a kid is doodling in his coloring book.

A deal has been reached to keep the New Orleans Saints in the Superdome until 2025. This is happy news. New Orleans will be able to keep their football team. Beyond the sentiment, though, this story is a rare example of the sports industry making a responsible venue decision.

The stadium is nearly 35 years old; remarkably, many sports stadiums don’t last longer than this. The American sporting venue paradigm would have allowed the powers that be to take a wrecking ball to the Superdome and build a new stadium next door - after all, the dome suffered heavy hurricane damage in 2005. The city and the Saints opted against this, and whether the decision was made more out of necessity or responsibility, I applaud it.

They decided instead to spend $320 million on renovating the place. That’s a lot of money, but it’s about half as much money as the Indianapolis Colts and friends spent to build their stadium, and it’s about one fifth the cost of the new Yankee Stadium that I keep whining about.

This, I think, should be the new paradigm. Build a stadium, be prepared to renovate it periodically, and try to make it last a long time. Seriously, New Orleans. Well done.