Tag: 2006 season

Reggie Bush’s 61-yard TD is the Saints Play of the Day

Here’s your New Orleans Saints Play of the Day: Reggie Bush’s 61-yard game-breaking touchdown against the Dallas Cowboys back in 2006.

We’ve got 61 days left until the New Orleans Saints kick off their 2024 regular season, which makes Reggie Bush’s 61-yard touchdown against the Dallas Cowboys our Saints Play of the Day.

This was a game-breaker. The Saints were already up 21-10 early in the third quarter, having made the trip to old Texas Stadium (where the Cowboys played from 1971 to 2008, until they moved into Jerry Jones’ shiny new AT&T Stadium). But Sean Payton was determined to keep pouring it on his mentor Bill Parcells. Each team hit the field with an 8-4 record and Payton intended on leaving no doubt about which was the better squad.

So he dialed up a screen play for Bush, the rookie Heisman Trophy winner who had excited all of Louisiana. Drew Brees looked left and looped a pass to Bush in the flat. With several blockers in front of him it was all too easy for Bush to  cut through the Cowboys defense and extend New Orleans’ lead.

It’s a classic game now (watch the broadcast sometime if you can find it; John Madden and Al Michaels were great in prime time), but for many NFL fans this was the moment when the Saints truly arrived and proved they were more than a feel-good story in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The Cowboys were favored by a touchdown and the over/under was set at 48 points, but the Saints wound up winning it 42-17, stunning the league in the process. Brees threw five touchdown passes and was only sacked once, while Bush totaled 162 scrimmage yards off of just a dozen touches. How’s that for a “welcome to the NFL” moment?

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Cole Kmet cried when Bears lost Super Bowl in 2006

Growing up a Bears fan, Chicago’s new TE Cole Kmet knows the pain that comes with this franchise, including the Super Bowl XLI loss in 2006.

Growing up a Chicago Bears fan, tight end Cole Kmet certainly knows the pain and disappointment that has come with this franchise for the last few decades.

Their last shining moment was an impressive 2006 season that culminated with a Super Bowl appearance — their first since the legendary 1985 season — but it ultimately ended in disappointment. The Bears lost to the Indianapolis Colts 29-17 followed by — what else — a disappointing offensive showing.

While Kmet was just eight years old at the time, he remembers his reaction to the Super Bowl loss. And it might’ve been similar to that of many Bears fans — he cried.

It’s been 13 years since that Super Bowl appearance, and Chicago has made the playoffs just twice since. More frustration for a franchise that has 100 years of history — both good and bad.

As someone that never got to see the 1985 Bears win a Super Bowl, I can’t help but wonder if that 2006 team was as close as I’ll get to seeing them win it all. For Kmet, he has a chance to do something about it — to contribute to this offense in a way that they were severely lacking last season.

The truth is, you don’t know if you’ll ever make it back to that championship stage. The 2007 Bears certainly didn’t achieve the same heights that the 2006 squad did, due to poor quarterback play they couldn’t overcome. The 2009 Bears could say the same following a magical season in 2018, where they fell a missed field goal short of advancing in what could’ve been a special postseason run.

It’s something that the 2020 Bears are looking to rewrite the narrative on — that the chance for achieving greatness does come again. And Kmet will certainly have a say, as the life-long Bears fan gets to play tight end for his hometown Bears. Hopefully the next time he’s crying at a Super Bowl, it’ll be because the Bears won a Super Bowl. Hey, a Bears fan can dream, right?

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