Sometime before 6:25 this evening, Reggie Mathis will change into his favorite black-and-gold garb, recycle his game face and smear eyeblack across his cheeks.
"This is serious," Mathis said of tonight's Super Bowl matchup between the New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts. "I couldn't be more excited or nervous if I was still playing."
Of course, that's also what makes him different from the normal long-suffering Saints fan. Mathis actually played for New Orleans from 1979 to 1981. He describes that as "one of the most difficult stretches in Saints history," at least partly because the team went 13-35 over that time.
Yet if injuries cut short the former Notre Dame High School sensation and Oklahoma standout's NFL career, they never cut off his affection for the Saints and the city of New Orleans.
"I've never seen people love a team the way New Orleans loves the Saints," said Mathis, who now splits his work time between counseling troubled youth at Valley Hospital and coordinating the defense for Soddy-Daisy High School.
"No matter how bad we were, even when a few fans put bags over their heads and called us the Ain'ts, there were sellouts every year. I just never thought I'd see this, the Saints in the Super Bowl, because I thought there was a mojo against the franchise."
Bobby Scott can tell you about bad mojo with the Saints. The former Rossville High and Tennessee Volunteers quarterback was helping New Orleans QB Archie Manning warm up one afternoon before the start of a game against the Atlanta Falcons when Manning threw an errant pass.
Leaping to get it, Scott came down on a television cable, twisted his ankle and was lost for the afternoon.
"Went straight down," Scott said this past week from his Knoxville home. "Just a freak thing. But we had a lot of those."
The experts say it would be a freak thing for the Saints to beat the Colts and quarterback Peyton Manning, the oldest son of Archie, with whom Scott roomed on the road for most of his 12-year New Orleans career. The oddsmakers had Indy as a 5.5-point favorite as of Saturday evening.
"I know Archie wants Peyton to win," said Scott, who remains close to the Manning family. "But deep down, if the Saints win, I'm also sure he'll be happy for the city and those guys we played with through the years."
Scott also is torn between rooting for Peyton and rooting for the Saints. But he said if the Saints win, he'll be happiest for equipment manager Dan Simmons and assistant manager Silky Powell - "guys who have been there from the beginning."
Scott wasn't there from the beginning, when the Saints' inaugural 1967 season ended 3-11, but he never experienced a winning season from the time he arrived in 1971 until he left in 1982 - the 8-8 record in 1979 the high watermark of his career. The Saints have recorded 28 losing seasons in their 43 years of existence.
"On the field my highlight was probably going into Kansas City after Hank Stram became our coach and beating the Chiefs (whom Stram coached before heading to New Orleans)," Scott said. "Archie was hurt that day and I got the start. That was special."
And off the field?
"We were in training camp one year in Vero Beach, Florida, and (players) Steve Baumgartner and Andy Dorris had a refrigerator in their room filled with Rolling Rock beer," Scott recalled. "It was Rolling Rock because no one else would drink it. Well, we went out of town for an exhibition game, and when we got back someone had moved the refrigerator to the 50-yard line of the practice field with the beer still in it."
Mathis has memories, too, many of them painful. He remembers a fan hurling a brick through kicker Russell Erxleben's truck window one night after a loss. He also remembers coach Bum Phillips' first training camp in the early 1980s.
"He walked in the dining hall and began tapping a glass of water," Mathis said. "We thought he wanted the rookies to sing their school fight song or something. Instead, he looked at us and said, 'I don't want to ever see this again.'
"What he saw was segregated tables. The tables where the players were sitting were either all black or all white. We didn't even realize it. That was the first time anybody had ever addressed it, but it made a big difference."
Scott believes the big difference today will be determined by whether or not Saints quarterback Drew Brees can match Peyton on the scoreboard. Mathis feels the same way.
But while Scott says, "No matter who wins, I'll be pleased," Mathis is 100 percent behind the Saints.
"I'm just so proud of them," said Mathis, whose mother Mary will wear his No. 56 Saints jersey during the Super Bowl. "This is a very emotional time for me. I just feel like this is for everyone who's ever worn the black and gold."
Not to mention everyone who's ever cheered for them, paper bags over their heads or not.
E-mail Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com