A few months after Hurricane Katrina, I was walking the streets of New Orleans with friends who were committed to helping in the rebuilding effort. We drove past the Superdome, walked in empty neighborhoods racked with garbage, debris, and broken down homes, previously flooded by activity and people. Hundreds of thousands of people left the city in search of something new.

The prophet Jeremiah, instructs us in both his self-titled book as well as his book of Lamentations that we should care for the city. He puts it clearly in two distinctly related phrases: “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare,” (Jeremiah 29:7). Later in Lamentations 1, we read these words:  “How lonely sits the city that was full of people.”  And so images of New Orleans come to mind, both in its beauty and potential as well as in its dealing with its own current loneliness that was once ‘full of people.”

Let me suggest then, that we begin to alter our sports mentality a bit. Instead of cheering for the same team year after year, what if those of us who call ourselves Christians, who tend to advertise our solidarity with the poor and downtrodden, what if we drove a stake in the ground and said, ‘we’re going to be sports fans, but we’re not going to cheer for teams, rather we’re going to cheer for cities instead!” What this means is that we will cheer and hope that the Saints continue to go undefeated, win the Super Bowl, and in doing so, rebuild a city that once ‘was full of people.’ Think of how we could also tie our love for sports with advocacy for the oppressed and poor.

Instead of cheering for the Yankees, we will build a campaign to rebuild Detroit through rallying behind the Tigers, the Pistons, or Lions. Instead of joining the Tar Heel Nation or the Duke University Cameron Crazies, we will walk in solidarity with the unemployed and high illiteracy neighborhoods in Memphis. Instead of cheering on the Lakers or Celtics to win another championship, what would it look like to get behind the citizens of New Orleans in full force and say that we will cheer for the Saints, not because we’re fair-weather fans, but because the City is bigger than sports and we’d do well to remember the benefits the vendor, parking attendant, and concession worker, walking past their broken down neighborhoods on their way to their minimum wage job, receive when their team is the best in the NFL.

Let’s try this. Let’s throw out our list of favorite teams (fat chance I know) and start creating a list of Cities that need a fan base, that need advocacy, hope, and a good old fashioned pep rally. Then, let’s begin to create a movement that seeks the ‘welfare of cities’ more so than the wins of certain teams. When someone asks, ‘why are you wearing that Saints shirt?” You can simply reply, “Because it reminds of me of the people who still need a helping hand, who used to sleep in the same Superdome, where the Saints blew out the Patriots.” I bet the response you get will be different than, ‘oh, that team’s no good.’

You may even wear a Detroit Tigers baseball cap and be approached by an arrogant Yankee fan who says, ‘how’s your team doing?’ You can then reply, “Given the fact that Detroit has the highest unemployment rate in the United States and has suffered in ways most cities only have nightmares about, we’re hoping to make the playoffs. Thanks for asking.”

After a few seasons of cheering on cities who need us, maybe people will get the point that we’ve put sports in its proper place, that is in a community of people who understand the difference between life and death; games and work. So, this year, I am a New Orleans Saints fan and as they play Washington, Atlanta, Dallas, Tampa Bay, and Carolina to finish this season, no offense to any other fan base, I simply hope New Orleans wins every single time and their city recovers and we will all share in something bigger than ourselves.