It won't have gone unnoticed to football fans that the New Orleans Saints have not been having the best of seasons. In fact, last week they managed to suffer a loss against the Carolina Panthers, who are currently in last place in their division, giving the Saints their seventh consecutive loss.
With their current record this season amounting to just two wins and those seven sad losses, coach Dennis Allen was actually fired last Monday.
However, fans should not be dispirited, as they've inadvertently gained support from the most unlikely sources since November 1: the Vatican!
As you know, November 1 is All Saints Day. And thanks to the "automatic function on X, the team’s fleur-de-lis emoji is automatically added to the hashtag #Saints," as reported by AP News.
When the saints combine
Considering the feast day, the Pope was busy tweeting to his 18.4 million followers on his @Pontifex account with posts such as: "We cannot become #Saints with a frown. We must have joyful hearts that remain open to hope."
However, thanks to the hashtag mix-up, Pope Francis had no idea that his comments would be received by the football team's many fans! And in return, football fans came back with some brilliant comments on @pontifex, with @DaBears_26 sharing:
They need more than what you can do Pope Francis. They need to consult the big guy.”
With all the accidental support the pontiff was giving to the New Orleans Saints, other football fans reached out to the pope for a little help, too.
“Any chance the @HoustonTexans can catch a blessing too?” requested @DustyLeeCook.
"Remain open to hope"
While the glitch with the hashtag and the fleur-de-lis emoji provided a wonderful moment of banter on social media, it is an issue that Rev. Matthew Schneider has been trying to get the communication's team at the Vatican to resolve since a similar problem in 2019.
However, with Pope Francis being an ardent soccer fan -- supporting his native Buenos Aires club, San Lorenzo -- he no doubt appreciates the frustrations the fans of the New Orleans Saints are having at the moment, and just maybe his inadvertent support might have a positive impact.
As for the fans, if they look back at his saint tweets, particularly when he implored people to "remain open to hope," it's probably a message they should cling to!
