After a two-week absence, the column is back.

In this week's column, I'm going to talk about a few topics I feel I should touch base on. First of all, I'm going to discuss politics and sports.

Secondly, I'm going to talk about an experience of being in the French Quarter the night the Saints won the Super Bowl.

Finally, I would like to share my own personal feelings of some e-mails I received from some readers.

The Political Agenda and Sporting Events

Sunday afternoon I was in the middle of watching the Super Bowl pre-game festivities. All of a sudden, to my amazement, President Barack O'Bama appeared on the television discussing his political agenda concerning the issue of a nationwide medical healthcare plan.

I've tried to stay out of most political issues, but since the President did decide to interrupt Super Bowl pre-game coverage, I figured I might as well give my opinion on the matter.

Mr. President, the state of Massachusetts spoke up to show you how it felt about nationwide healthcare when it elected Scott Brown to the Senate. 

During the biggest game of the year, I don't understand why you couldn't just give it a rest. The Super Bowl is supposed to bring Americans together. Its not supposed to tear them apart. Mr. President, I think it’s fine and dandy to discuss your political agenda, just not during the Super Bowl. C'mon man!

An Evening In The French Quarter

After the Saints beat the Colts 31-17 to claim their first ever Super Bowl, a few friends of mine and myself decided to drive down to New Orleans to catch some of the action. Well, I must tell you, it was the time of my life.

Walking down Bourbon Street after the Saints won their first-ever Super Bowl will be an experience I will carry with me the rest of my life. While walking down Bourbon, fans were yelling the famous "Who Dat?" cheer. 

Of course the cheer goes, "Who dat say they gonna beat dem Saints, Who Dat? Who Dat?" Well, last night fans were chanting Who Dat? Then they would respond with “We dat.” The meaning behind the cheer is simply the who dat cheer was a saying. We dat is a statement.

I've gotten a bunch of gifts in my lifetime, but I can tell you when the Saints won the Super Bowl, it was the biggest gift this ol' boy has ever gotten.

An Answer To An E-mail

Often the sports department at the Laurel Leader-Call gets e-mails from different people in the community, who often gives us information about local happenings and deer pictures. And then the ever so often complaint e-mail.

When a complaint e-mail is received, I often try to resolve the issue by trying to fix whatever problem the reader might have. However, I thought I might resolve this issue in my column.

Well, I may have mentioned my credentials before, but for one individual I'm going to re-list them.

I graduated from Northeast Jones High School in 2002. From Northeast Jones, I attended Jones County Junior College from 2003-2006 where I was part of "The Radionian" at JCJC, as a sports reporter. After finishing Jones, I then transferred to William Carey University from 2006-2008 where I received a Bachelor of Science in Speech Communication. Once I graduated from Carey, I then got some graduate work at Gonzaga University. Gonzaga is a private Catholic institution in Spokane, Wash.

One of the reasons I remind you all about this is because of an e-mail received from a reader concerning the Leader-Call's recent coverage of the Northeast Jones Girls soccer team's pep rally at the school.

The reader was angry with the Leader-Call because there was a picture of a cheerleader, and the other issue was there were teachers on the front page instead of the head coach and the soccer team.

To answer your questions, I'm not the regular sports photographer. As a matter of fact, the Leader-Call rarely puts pep-rally pictures in the paper. There were other issues in this classless and tasteless e-mail that was sent, but I will not get into those details.

As far as soccer coverage is concerned, the Leader-Call has given more coverage to the sport this year than in years past because the sport is rapidly growing in Jones County. It showed because Jones County was represented well in the State Soccer Championships this past weekend in Clinton.

There was equal coverage given to Laurel, South Jones, West Jones, and NE Jones throughout the season, or at least we tried to do our best. On the night of the South State Championships, there were four sporting events going on in the county, and we couldn't get to them all. However, we did have a game story of the NE Jones south state championship game in Greene County, but our photographer was busy shooting games in Jones County.

John Blackledge is a sports reporter for the Laurel Leader-Call. He maybe reached at 601-428-0551 ext. 22, or by e-mail at llcsportswriter@gmail.com