The Essence of Black and Gold or How the New Orleans Saints Got Their Colors

November 28, 2011; New Orleans, LA, USA; A detailed view of a New Orleans Saints helmet prior to kickoff of a game against the New York Giants at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-US PRESSWIRE

Recently Tide and NFL Films got together and made many short team snip it’s of team color origins. The New Orleans Saints colors of black and gold are such an honorary one that I felt entitled to share.

Originally New Orleans wanted the colors of their professional football team to be something influenced by Mardi Gras, so this was the birth of the Saints popular gold coloration.

Previous Saints owner John Mecom actually wanted to add blue to the team’s uniform. Because it resembled the Chargers colors, the choice of blue was put aside. Funny enough decades later, the present day Saints received a former charger of their own, leading to their first Super Bowl victory.

Due to Mecom’s oil ties in New Orleans, the color black was chosen to represent oil. Hence the term “Black Gold” or better yet “Black and Gold.” The colors formed their own yin and yang. The choice of oil representing the team was not just that of the team, but as the city in a whole. So as it was, gold was the color of royalty and black represented a city, the symbol of “rebirth.” What we have left is the symbol, the Fleur de Lis.

A French symbol that was hung in all parts of New Orleans, the Fleur de Lis was a great “influence.” It evoked New Orleans in so many degrees. The most influential part was as stated in the short film, that fans in the 60’s could witness the same symbol worn with pride in to the 21st century and beyond.

So as New Orleans once rose “from the ashes”, those colors keep battling beyond all the skeptsism, enduring battles week by week.