There were tears of joy as one after another, friends filled George's Produce with hugs and kisses.

"Some of my sisters and brothers used to tell me I was crazy," he said. "I used to go in the back yard and throw beads at myself and throw stuff up in the air. I always believed that I would ride and become members in one of these parade venues."

The normally gregarious man said he's at a loss for words.

"I'm speechless about this," he said. "Besides God, I got to be the luckiest man on Earth. This is like hitting the lottery."

The 610 Stompers are having their "Sweet 610 Debutante Ball 2, Electric Boogaloo," and proceeds will benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

The men are at it again with their baby blue shorts, tube socks and of course, their mustaches.

The 610 Stompers are a group of men with the age group range from their 20's to their 60's. A group of men from students to professionals. A group of men with "moves." 

The group was started in 2009 by founder, Brett Patron, also known as "Slab." Slab, a real estate appraiser wanted a to have a mens dance group march in the carnival parades. Never, did he think his idea would become such a big thing.

That year Slab told friends and family of his idea which led to the first tryout of about 40 men. All of them made it.

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After the lights were turned off at other storefronts near the intersection of Magazine and State streets on a recent evening, Patricia Steere stood inside the bright glow of her boutique picking out retro evening gloves to match a customer's 1930s-era opera coat.

"I'm always on the prowl for something that's going to spark up what I've already got," said the customer, laying a pair of purple velvet gloves on the counter.

Steere, a former radio DJ, smiled as the customer paid for her gloves and walked out of the store.

The rest of the nation may be cutting back on spending, but there is always someone looking for unique clothing in New Orleans, she said.

Steere invested $100,000 to open A Girl is a Gun, her vintage-inspired boutique, in December.

"People are buying an old opera coat and fixing it up here. People go to boutiques more here, and they'll take the chance on something they haven't seen anywhere else," Steere said.

Small businesses nationwide are struggling as credit remains tight and sales are slow to return to pre-recession levels. It's a climate that would seem to be a lethal cocktail for a retail startup.

The relationship that exists between the New Orleans Saints and their fans is like none other in sports. To me, being a Saints fan is magical. When the Saints win, the electricity in New Orleans is palpable and fans come together throughout the entire Who Dat Nation.

Born and bred in New Orleans, I would be a Saints fan regardless of how great my team is. However, there are many reasons why being a Saints fan transcends the typical fan experience. Take a closer look at five reasons why I love being a New Orleans Saints fan.

5. Saints players are great citizens

I'm glad I'm not a fan of Michael Vick's or Sam Hurd's team. The Cincinnati Bengals could nickname their locker room "the jail cell." Saints players are great people who help the New Orleans community. I have a friend whose nephew is named McAllister because when his parents met Deuce McAllister, he was so nice they named their son after him.

4. Dome field advantage

Even unbiased NFL experts and players say there is nothing like being in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome for a New Orleans Saints game. Every game in New Orleans has been sold out for six years in a row. Other fans can whine about New Orleans playing indoors. They don't understand what Saints football in the Superdome is all about.

3. We appreciate winning

I was born in 1972 and I didn't see New Orleans win a playoff game until I was 28 years old. New Orleans actually began play in the NFL in 1967 so most fans endured the losing longer than I did. Still, I never missed a game and I never lost the faith. The fact that fans endured decades of heartbreaking losses makes the winning so much sweeter.

2. Saints and the city's rebirth

I don't mean to imply the Saints struggles in 2005 even remotely compare to the loss of life in New Orleans and the entire Gulf Coast region when Katrina struck. However, there is no denying that the Saints incredible 2006 season inspired grief-stricken New Orleans fans. Now in 2012, New Orleans and the Saints are both better than ever.

1. We throw a real Super Bowl parade!

When the Indianapolis Colts got off the plane following Super Bowl 44, they were greeted by 11 fans at the airport. The Saints were greeted by thousands of fans throughout the season, but that was nothing compared to what followed. Conservative estimates indicate that 800,000 fans showed up for the Super Bowl parade in New Orleans.

I'll never forget that day. The entire city was shut down. In a city famous for Mardi Gras, New Orleans had a real parade. They used real Mardi Gras floats and the players actually threw stuff to fans.
 

It was the greatest victory parade in history for the greatest fans in the NFL in the greatest city in the world!

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As the business of sports continues to grow, endorsement contracts increasingly impact players, teams, and the industry. These contracts take into consideration many of the same factors as the Power 100 ranking - performance, name awareness, appeal, influence, trustworthiness and overall popularity, among other things. Social media, for example, played a role in boosting the rankings of such athletes as LeBron James (No. 4) and Shaquille O'Neal (No.7). The Power 100 rankings are based 50 percent on these on "off-field" measurements, and 50 percent on "on-field" performance using a variety of industry statistics.

The most notable drops this year include injury-plagued Peyton Manning dropping from No. 1 to No. 51 and golfer Phil Mickelson dropping from No. 4 to No. 18. Due to the individual dominance of its top athletes, tennis commands ten percent of the spots on this year's list, with the top female athlete on the list being American tennis stalwart Serena Williams (No. 25).

In addition, this year's Power 100 rankings also emphasize the importance of team sports, with the NFL dominating the list with 26 players ranked in the top 100. The National Basketball Association came in second with the most athletes on the Power 100, with 20, followed by MLB baseball (16), tennis (10), golf (8), motorsports (6), Olympics (4), soccer (4), hockey (3), boxing/MMA (2), and action sports (1).

"This is the third year of the Power 100, and it continues to be a cutting-edge tool to measure the power and value of athletes," says Horrow, who will devote an entire "Sportfolio" episode to the special report on January 25. "CSE's consistent methodology provides the industry's only analytics to provide integrated on field and off field attributes."

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But as a months-long selection process winds down, concerns are growing that Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration is applying pressure on a search committee to eliminate Williams from the competition.

That perception is being fueled, in part, by the withdrawal two weeks ago of a fifth candidate, who said he was convinced that the fix was in for Vic Richard, the interim recreation director hand-picked by Landrieu 18 months ago.

Late last week, City Hall insiders speculated that while Richard, a New Orleans native and former Philadelphia recreation director, likely will be retained in some capacity, he didn't appear to have an inside track on the top job.

Which means the administration might be favoring one of the two other contenders: Charlene Braud, an ex-NORD director who now heads the Atlanta recreation department, and Wanda Durden, a technology executive who formerly ran the Recreation and Parks Department in Baltimore.

Williams supporters say they are mystified by the lack of enthusiasm among Landrieu staffers for Williams, a Dartmouth graduate who won awards for citizenship and sportsmanship while playing in two Super Bowls in the 1980s and oversaw the birth of the $100 million Disney Wide World of Sports Complex in the 1990s.

While administration officials -- and the mayor in particular -- have regularly praised Richard for his performance, mayoral spokesman Ryan Berni has said Landrieu isn't advocating for a candidate.

The six-member search panel has interviewed all four finalists and intends to narrow the list to three when it meets Wednesday. Plans call for the survivors to be summoned to a later session, where all commissioners and the public will get to question them.

The commission hopes to pick a winner in February.

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The last defensive coordinator to leave New Orleans on good terms might have been Monte Kiffin in 1995. Or Steve Sidwell before him.

The position hasn't exactly been a launching pad for head coaching gigs. But if Spagnuolo can work his magic in New Orleans, he'll almost surely receive a second seat in the big chair after a failed three-year run as head coach in St. Louis.

The good news for Saints fans is Spagnuolo appears up for the job. He certainly won't be intimidated. The man cut his teeth coaching in the chain-link octagons of Philadelphia and New York.

It remains to be seen what Spagnuolo's plan will be in New Orleans. We probably won't hear from the new defensive chief until next week at the Senior Bowl in Mobile. His track record suggests a tweaking of the Saints' defense rather than an overhaul will be in order.

Indeed, in many ways, Spagnuolo is a shorter, thinner, less vitriolic version of Williams. Schematically and philosophically, his defenses are quite similar. Rooted in the 4-3 alignment, they feature a lot of press-man coverage by the cornerbacks and attack the quarterback aggressively from all positions and alignments, including the secondary. Sound familiar?

Spagnuolo made his mark during a two-year run as defensive coordinator of the New York Giants. Two games stand out in his tenure. In Week 4 of the 2007 season, his Giants defense tied an NFL record with 12 sacks in a 16-3 seal-clubbing of the Philadelphia Eagles. He capped the season by stymieing the high-powered New England Patriots' offense with a brilliant game plan in Super Bowl XLII. Spagnuolo's defense sacked Tom Brady five times and held the Patriots to 45 rushing yards in the Giants' stunning 17-14 win.

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