What did the New Orleans Saints do in 2000 to end a 33 year, "curse" of no playoff wins?

In 1967, despite controversy over building the Superbowl Stadium on a cemetery, the Saints franchise was born and the Superdome plans were drawn up. The stadium was erected in 1971. For the next 33 years, the team failed to win a single playoff game, and many wondered if the displaced spirits of the cemetery were a curse.

In 2000, the team contracted Ava Kay Jones, a Voodoo priestess, to remove any ghostly impediments to the Saints' victory. Jones performed a series of rituals, calling upon the ancestors for their football support. The most public ritual took place before a playoff game against the St. Louis Rams. Jones draped a boa constrictor around her neck and performed the ceremony at midfield in the Superdome. That day, the Saints won their first-ever playoff win, defeating the Rams 31-28.

In 2001, the Saints called Jones back to perform again before another Rams showdown. This time, however, things did not go so well. Promoters billed the event as "Who dat gris-gris?" and handed out fliers, which referred to gris-gris, which Voodoo practitioners use as a protection against evil, as a hex or jinx. Jones felt the fliers were blasphemous, and that the team didn't appreciate her religion. Reportedly, she told one outlet, "I think the Saints cursed themselves."

In 2010, the Saints went on to win their first Super Bowl. After all the destruction that Hurricane Katrina brought on New Orleans, perhaps even the ghosts thought the city could use a championship.