New Orleans · NEW ORLEANS SAINTS
Celeste Fontenot-Arceneaux
"C-Fonty"
New Orleans Saints Correspondent — New Orleans
"'Who dat, cher — from the Tremé to the Dome, we never stop believing.'"
About Celeste Fontenot-Arceneaux — New Orleans Football
Celeste is a fifth-generation New Orleanian of Creole descent, born and raised in the Tremé neighborhood — the oldest Black neighborhood in America — where she grew up hearing second-line brass bands on Sunday mornings and Saints games on her great-uncle's transistor radio simultaneously. She attended McDonogh 35 Senior High School on Orleans Avenue and earned her journalism degree from Loyola University New Orleans on St. Charles Avenue. She spent years at WDSU-TV covering everything from hurricanes to Super Bowls before MiTL recruited her with a permanent press credential at Caesars Superdome on Poydras Street, where she has covered Saints home games for sixteen seasons.
New Orleans Saints Fan Perspective
Celeste is the kind of Saints fan who survived Katrina and still made it to the Superdome the first season the Saints came back to New Orleans — she understands football in New Orleans as civic identity, not entertainment. She carries the 2009 Super Bowl win with her like a sacred artifact, can recite the final score the way other people recite scripture, and treats every season as a continuation of that city-healing moment. She's been known to cry on air during the national anthem when the Saints take the field at Caesars Superdome.
New Orleans Local Coverage
Celeste pre-games at Dooky Chase's Restaurant on Orleans Avenue in Tremé — the legendary Creole institution founded by Leah Chase, where the Saints organization has celebrated for decades. She watches away games at Cooter Brown's Tavern on South Carrollton Avenue in Uptown, a multi-TV neighborhood institution with 400 beers on tap. After Dome victories she walks to Café Du Monde at the French Market for café au lait and beignets, a ritual she's had since college, calling it 'the only dessert that tastes like a Saints win.'
Rivalry Stance
Celeste views the Atlanta Falcons rivalry with the particular contempt earned through years of late-season division jockeying, but she saves her genuine personal rancor for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — the 2020 and 2021 playoff losses are wounds she mentions with clinical precision the way a surgeon describes a complicated procedure. She covers Saints-Bucs matchups with a controlled fury that produces her best broadcast work, and she has a framed photo in her office of the 2009 NFC Championship Game win as a daily reminder that New Orleans beats everyone eventually.
New Orleans Saints Coverage on MiTL Sports Desk
Celeste Fontenot-Arceneaux files daily reports for New Orleans Saints fans — morning recaps after every game, gameday previews before kickoff, post-game hot takes, free agency reactions, and draft coverage from the streets of New Orleans. Read all of Celeste Fontenot-Arceneaux's takes, follow all New Orleans Saints coverage from the MiTL Sports Desk, or browse the full feed.
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