Fans quickly took their joy to Easy's streets

By Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff, 2/5/2002

EW ORLEANS - What was this strange calm on Bourbon Street?

A hoarse, giddy mob of Patriots fans had rolled in, as expected, for a victory lap Sunday night. But here it was, an hour past the winning field goal, and the party street of the universe felt unexpectedly subdued. Despite the underdog swagger of the week gone by, the insistence that the Patriots would pull it off, the mood among the fans was, for the most part, disbelief.

''Finally, Loserville is over,'' said Mark Newton, 37, of Framingham, Mass., sounding surprised - and looking shocked when a kid grabbed his shoulder and said, ''New England, baby. That's what I'm talking about.''

This is how it feels to take home the ring. And to some New Englanders - mere tots in the Celtics' and Bruins' glory days, reared on Red Sox and Patriots almost-theres - it was an odd sensation.

Good, but odd.

So as he hulked down the street in a Patriots cape, looking like a lost superhero from the north, Tim O'Brien, 25, wasn't in the rule-the-world mode you might expect of a champion's fan.

''Someone's gotta pinch us and wake us up,'' he said.

Pinch them, punch them, do something to knock them out of this victory stupor. The best antidote turned out to be a crowd of like minds, an underdog-turned-overdog convention. So hordes of Patriots fans made their way to the Corner Oyster Bar and Grill, the unassuming spot, a few blocks from Bourbon, that had established itself as the Patriots bar.

Here, at last, New Englanders were spilling out the doors, and the celebratory tap was flowing. Co-owner Brad Darr, the self-professed top Patriots fan of New Orleans, was standing on a ladder and leading the room in chants of ''Defense! Defense!''

''It's beautiful, man,'' one guy said.

That it was. Darr, in a Drew Bledsoe jersey, spritzed the room with champagne. Strangers hugged. Someone accidentally smashed a lamp. Dan and Josh Klein, twin 30-year-old brothers smoking twin cigars, talked over and under each other like they've probably done for 30 years.

''We shocked the world!'' said Josh.

''We shocked the world!'' said Dan.

And mixed in with that joy was relief. Finally, it happened to us. ''We're not used to it. We're from Boston,'' said Caroline Sheffield, 25, of Milton. ''So it's nice to be on the winning end of things.''

Rams and their fans notwithstanding, relief was the prevailing postgame mood across New Orleans, after the highly guarded game, inside the highly guarded city, came and went with no surprises.

In fact, there were only a couple of arrests inside the Superdome, New Orleans police said - for drugs, pickpocketing, trespassing, and public intoxication. Outside, where the revelry happened, the city collected 346 tons of trash, and police made 436 arrests between Wednesday and Sunday, nearly half for lewd conduct and drunkenness.

There was also, of course, a game. A very good game. Take it from the people at the Corner on Sunday, who watched the highlights on TV as if they were seeing them for the first time. They cheered Ty Law's interception return, and booed the Rams' successful field goal with such fervor that a woman was moved to yell out, ''It's OK, because they win!''

But the fans wanted to see it all again. Just to make sure it was true.