NATCHEZ — Tonja Butler has never been one to hide her love for the New Orleans Saints.

She was a fan during the many years the Saints were one of the worst teams in the NFL, and now that the team is one victory away from the Super Bowl, she wants the whole city to know how big of a fan she is.

And anyone that drives past her house on Melrose Avenue can see the evidence.

Butler is showing her love for the Saints by spray painting a black bed sheet with the words “We Believe” above a large Saints logo and putting it on the roof of her house.

“I just felt the need to make a statement,” Butler said of her new home décor. “I started working on it as soon as the Dallas Cowboys lost to the Vikings (last Sunday), and I put it up Monday.”

Butler said she doesn’t know how she got the idea, it’s just something she felt like doing.

“I thought about it as I was driving down the road one day,” Butler said. “I’m just creative and wanted to use it in the proper manner.”

One of the reasons for Butler’s statement is the excitement she, and Saints fans all over the Miss-Lou, are feeling with their team playing the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Championship Game today.

But it hasn’t been easy being a Saints fan through the years, as New Orleans is historically one of the NFL’s losingest franchises.

“As long as I can remember, I’ve been pulling for the Saints,” Butler said. “They’ve been like an abusive spouse. You want to try to love them and they just won’t let you.”

But this year has been different.

New Orleans got off to a 13-0 start, and despite losing its final three games, the Saints blew out Arizona in the NFC Divisional Playoffs last week to set up their showdown with the Vikings.

“Saints fans everywhere have been pretty much an emotional wreck,” Butler said. “They’ve done an excellent job this year and everybody is pulling hard for them to win.”

And Butler, like all Saints fans around the area, will be pacing the floor in front of a television set this evening when the game kicks off in the Superdome.

“I’m an emotional wreck,” Butler said. “You’d think I was playing in the game.”

And what does Butler have in store should the Saints win today and advance to the Super Bowl?

“If they win it, I don’t know what I’ll put in the front yard,” she said. “But there will probably be something.”