Tag Archives: highly-regarded

MIAMI — Unless something weird happens, such as Peyton Manning falling through a sinkhole in the home locker room at Sun Life Stadium, the New Orleans Saints won’t win the Super Bowl on Sunday. Still, they’ve already topped the Indianapolis Colts in one thing: Great stories. In fact, there are a slew of them in the ongoing miracle book for the Who Dat folks, and here is one of the chapters. Boy, is it, because Devery Henderson’s 70-something-year-old grandfather has a ticket to the Super Bowl. The same goes for his grandmother, Lena Taylor, but this is more about George Taylor, that grandfather whose love affair with mostly the Aints through the decades in Opelousas, La., influenced his grandson. Devery often lived with George and Lena back then in what is known as The Spice Capital of the World. Between Grandpa Taylor operating the semi-truck that he still uses to haul a variety of stuff across the country — wearing one of his many Saints caps, of course — he watched every centimeter of Devery’s journey as an athlete. The grandson went from starring on the highly regarded track team of Opelousas High School to a scholarship at LSU, where he was part of a national championship track team. He eventually joined the Tigers’ football squad as a walk-on wide receiver. Then, after Devery helped push LSU to another national championship, but only in football, he became a second-round draft pick in 2004 of the Saints. Yeah, the Saints. His grandfather’s Saints. His Saints.