Human Flower Project

Flag Football

For tomorrow’s Superbowl, we’re going with the Saints and their ancient floral insignia.

Emblazoned with a spiky “flower,” the fleur-de-lis, a helmet of the New Orleans Saints

Photo: Getty

We’re backing to Saints in tomorrow’s Superbowl for any number of reasons – but let’s keep it floral. The New Orleans NFL team’s insignia is the fleur-de-lis, a stylized flower with ancient roots and many manifestations around this city, the sensual capital of the U.S.A.

“It does not just represent the Saints,” running back Reggie Bush told The New York Times. “It’s amazing. You see it everywhere. You see it on churches and in restaurants.” The Times’ Joe LaPointe has a good synopsis of the emblem’s history, and we’ve run one here, too (sans pigskin).

Iris pseudacorus, a bog plant considered the inspiration for the fleur-de-lis emblem

Image: Eugene Viollet-le-Duc

The fleur-de-lis is usually taken to be the “flag” Iris pseudacorus, long associated with the French monarchy, but with a history dating back to Charlemagne and even earlier, to Syria and ancient Judaism (more on that subject soon, we hope). New Orleans with its Vieux Carre and Bourbon Street, beignets and shrimp etouffee, Nevilles and Bechets, wears its French heritage proudly (as does our home town of Louisville, Kentucky – check out the city flag.) The fleur-de-lis is emblazoned everywhere, and with its prominent spike, this floral emblem has pierced even the ultra-macho subculture of pro football.

While we’re talking Superbowl, how about a Bronx cheer for Telaflora, which will be running an ad during the game (according to wiki, a 30-second spot costs $3.01 million). We understand that Don Rickles will be the voice behind Teleflora’s Superbowl ad this year, as last—i.e. guaranteed to be ghastly. The online florist seems to be on a mission of bad taste: its recent ad campaign showed a Dalmatian urinating on a box of flowers that had been left on a frosty doorstep. “We think it’s a really bad experience when you send flowers in a box to consumers,” said Teleflora president Shawn Weidmann. “We have a lot of evidence that consumers just really don’t like that.”

350 – Fleur de Lis: Students and teachers in New Orleans form a human Fleur-de-lis by the riverside. “350 signifies the maximum parts per million of carbon we can have in our atmosphere if we are going to survive global warming.”

Photo: via Sky Gallery

Really? We missed that focus group. Receiving a box of fresh blooms and having the pleasure of arranging them ourselves is actually a joy, and a great compliment as well. Why would a florist ever want to suggest that consumers “really don’t like” receiving flowers in any form? Call it the $3.01 million question.

On a Saintlier note, football fans and non-fans alike may enjoy seeing the 40 fleur-de-lis recently installed throughout the city as a fund-raiser for the New Orleans Fore!Kids Foundation.

And how about this? Shades of “the card section,” 200 New Orleans students and teachers team up to form a giant fleur-de-lis.

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