New Orleans has set a new World Record for consecutive days of partying and they’re just getting warmed up.

On Sunday night the Saints gave their fans an excuse to party, beating the Colts 31-17 in Super Bowl XLIV. As if the folks in New Orleans needed another excuse to party. Today, fans celebrated with their team at the Super Bowl parade in downtown New Orleans, but the party doesn’t end there…

Tomorrow there are two more parades in NOLA. The first is “Mystic Krewe of Druids” at 6:30pm in Uptown. Soon thereafter “Krewe of Thor” begins at 7:00pm in Metairie. I have no fucking idea what these parades mean, but a party is a party, even if it sounds like a game of Magic the Gathering.

But those two parades are only the beginning…

There are at least three parades every single day in New Orleans until Mardi Gras next Tuesday. Don’t believe me? Check it out for yourself (2010 Mardi Gras Parade Schedule).

The truth is that these people started partying after the Saints beat the Vikings in the NFC Championship Game, which was on Sunday January 24th. That means the fine residents of New Orleans have been partying now for 17 straight days. By the time Mardi Gras happens next week, New Orleans will have been in a perpetual state of partying for a grand total of 23 days of consecutive days.

At this point, I have to imagine there are people in New Orleans right now who don’t even know what planet they’re currently residing on. Can you even imagine partying 24 days in a row? I’ve been on some mean benders, but they last 4-5 days tops, then I spend 48 hours in a cold sweat, shaking and wondering why. I don’t know what the official world record for partying is, but New Orleans has to be giving the record a run for its money.

Oh, and to be clear about the record, I’m not talking about non-alcoholic, festivities type partying, no sir. I’m talking about drink-till-you-piss-your-pants-and-don’t-even-care-that-you-just-passed-out-on-the-street-next-to-a-steaming-pile-of-horse-shit-partying. The real kind, French Quarter style. If you’re wondering what I mean, just take a gander at this guy and you’ll get a sense of what partying French Quarter style actually means.

Congratulations to the Saints for winning Super Bowl XLIV, and congratulations to the residents of New Orleans who have been rocking out with their cocks out since January. Simply amazing.

The Super Bowl is upon us, and we wanted to appease fans on both sides, so we’re going to do the Top 5 reasons to root for each team. Saints are first, we’ll do the Colts tomorrow…

1. Hurricane Katrina – New Orleans was decimated in 2005 and a Super Bowl win would help bring NOLA all the way back

2. Saints Fans – these people are fucking crazy for their saints, nobody loves their team more than them

3. Bourbon Street – Without question the most fun, entertaining and wild bar scene in the entire country, period

4. Drew Brees - great quarterback, even better person

5. The “Aints” – The Saints were once the laughing stock of the NFL and this is their 1st Super Bowl appearance

The J-E-T-S, JETS, JETS, JETS, pulled off an improbable win in San Diego that left Chargers fans in shock (haha… get it?). The Jets were supposed to be lucky just to be in the tournament (stealing Rex Ryan terminology), but they weren’t supposed to advance. Now, after a cold win in Cincinnati, and another in sunny San Diego, the New York Jets are heading to the AFC Championship game in Indianapolis to face the the heavily favored Colts.

The “other” game, a much anticipated NFC match-up between Minnesota and Dallas, was supposed to be a barn burner. It was supposed to be the red-hot Dallas defense battling against Favre & Co.’s triple-threat offense. In reality it turned out to be the Brett Favre, Sidney Rice pitch-and-catch show. And on the other side of the ball, the only thing Tony Romo accomplished during his trip to Minnesota was walking off the field under his own power. Romo spent the majority of the afternoon getting thrown around in the backfield like a WWE stage-prop.

So the stage is set and the Final Four of the NFL looks like this…

AFC Championship Game
New York Jets @ Indianapolis Colts
Sunday, January 24th, 3:00pm EST on CBS
Indianapolis favored by 7.5

NFC Championship Game
Minnesota Vikings @ New Orleans Saints
Sunday, January 24th, 6:40pm EST on FOX
New Orleans favored by 4.5

We’ll have a complete run-down and predictions this week so check back in!

Last night in Indianapolis, the AFC’s top seeded Colts dominated the Ravens, 20-3. Earlier yesterday in New Orleans, the NFC’s top seeded Saints, dismantled the Cardinals, 45-14. This is the first year since 1994 that both #1 seeds made it to the AFC and NFC Championship games, respectively.

Indianapolis vs. Baltimore Recap
Peyton Manning dissected the Ravens secondary all night, throwing for 246 yards on 30 of 44 passing. Manning threw 2 touchdowns and a pick and had a passer rating of only 87.9. However, that rating doesn’t factor in level of difficulty and the Ravens defense shut down the Colts running game (only 42 total yards) and didn’t give the Colts receivers any space all night. In other words, an 87.9 passer rating against that defense under those circumstances is other-worldly.

What separates Peyton Manning from every other quarterback in the NFL is that he can complete passes even when receivers are covered. Keep in mind that Peyton’s starting receivers last night were Reggie Wayne, Pierre Garcon and Austin Collie. Wayne is a legitimate star, but Garcon was a 6th round pick out of Mount Union and Collie was a 4th round pick out of BYU. Manning is so good he makes guys like Pierre Garcon and Austin Collie household names. If those two receivers were on any other team, commentators would be making excuses for the quarterback like they did for Flacco last night. Bottom-line? Peyton Manning can win with anybody at receiver. Give him Flacco’s guys and he still get the win. That’s why he’s by far the best quarterback in the NFL today.

New Orleans vs. Arizona Recap
Another quarterback who’s not playing too bad these days is Drew Brees. Brees led a Saints offensive onslaught yesterday against the Cardinals, putting up 38 points. The Saints were slumping at the end of the regular season, highlighted by a loss to Tampa Bay, but things got turned around in a heartbeat yesterday. Brees threw for 247 yards (1 yard better than Manning) on 23 of 32 passing. He also tallied 3 touchdowns and had a passer rating of 125.4.

Brees played very well, but he wasn’t the headline story for the Saints yesterday because Reggie Bush stole the show. Bush looked like the old #5 from Southern Cal against the Cards, dazzling fans with his quickness and speed. Bush had 5 offensive carries for 84 yards and 1 touchdown. He also caught 4 passes and has 3 punt returns for 103 yards and a 2nd touchdown. The only thing odd about Bush’s performance is that is seemingly came out of nowhere. Bush has been a non-factor since entering the NFL in 2006, but yesterday he had a one-man coming out party. We’ll see if he can have a repeat performance next week in the NFC Championship game.