SUPER HEREAUX DELHOMME HAS HOMETOWN CAJUNS RAGIN'.

Byline: BILLY WITZ

BREAUX BRIDGE, La. - During the depression, Louisiana's famous governor, Huey Long, promised the people of his state a car in every garage and a chicken in every pot. This small Acadiana town's mayor, Jack Dale Delhomme, is giving that pledge a contemporary spin.

``I want to put a Delhomme in every home,'' he said, flashing a smile.

To that end, the mayor is succeeding fabulously. If you walk out of his city hall office, head around the corner past the drive-through daiquiri shack and onto the three-block downtown, there's a Jake Delhomme in every window.

Some are hand-painted signs like you'd see at a homecoming dance. Some are cloth banners and others are posters like the life-sized one in the mayor's office. Businessmen pin ``Geaux Jake'' buttons to their coat lapels, other homes on Main Street have ``We Love Jake'' signs in their front yards as if he were running for office, and virtually every place that has a marquee - whether it's his old St. Bernard's elementary school or the roadhouse bars that dot these rural roads - is wishing Jake good luck.

Soon, Jake will be on a billboard out on the interstate, a few miles out of town.

In a town whose claim to fame is its annual crawfish festival, news that one of their own - Carolina quarterback Jake Delhomme - will be starring in the Super Bowl might be the biggest thing to happen to this town since Firmin Breaux built his bridge over the Bayou Teche.

In fact, the locals say, this is even bigger than when local girl Ali Landry won the Miss USA title back in 1996.

``It's overwhelming,'' said the mayor, who is a cousin of Jake's father. ``I got a call from a reporter in Florida who asked if we were prepared for this and I started to chuckle. We've had camera crews from CBS, Fox and some local stations. We've had newspaper reporters come here from all over. Some people say Ali was big, but it was nothing like this.''

The connection many in this town (population: 7,163) feel with Delhomme is more than local-boy-done-good. In Delhomme, the people see a little of themselves and in this area that often means a true, mud-between-his-toes Cajun - whether his nails are clipped or not.

To Dickie Breaux, a former state legislator who runs a restaurant and bed-and-breakfast in town, ``Jake is one of the best examples of a good- hearted, hard-working Cajun that you can find. If god had to pick one person that all Cajuns could emulate, it would be Jake Delhomme.''

Finding a face to put on Acadian culture hasn't been easy. While the Creoles arrived in Louisiana from France with money, education and class, the Cajuns - who had been kicked out of Nova Scotia - came with none of the above. They've spent much of the past 200 years being reminded of it.

The drive to assimilate them into the mainstream in the mid-20th century wasn't always pleasant. Children who didn't speak English in their home were slapped by their teachers if they spoke French in class.

When Interstate 10 was built in the early '70s, it brought many small towns in southwest Louisiana out of relative isolation. In the following decades, the world was introduced to Cajun food and zydeco music.

But when put through the grinder of popular culture, out comes things like Cajun pizza or Bobby Boucher, the caricature from the movie ``The Waterboy.''

It's not Cajun culture as much as it is Cajun commodified. Not that they can't laugh about it, just the same.

``People are too affected by what they see on TV,'' Kyle Bernis, of nearby St. Martinville, said as he fished fishing from the banks of cypress-lined Lake Martin with his friend, Shane Vallot. ``They think we all go to school in pirogues (dugout canoes) and have alligators in the backyard.''

``Hey, I went to school in a pirogue,'' Vallot said.

``Or they think we all eat neutra rats,'' Bernis said.

``Hey, those are good,'' Vallot said.

As Vallot's sense of humor might suggest, pride among Acadians in their culture is thriving. The street signs downtown are bilingual but the French names are larger, and more than 6,000 students across the region are enrolled in a French-language immersion program.

As people like Delhomme, newly elected Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (the state's first woman governor from neighboring Lafayette), the co-national champion LSU football team or even Landry rise to a national stage, they become icons.

``There's an expression the bigger the front, the bigger the back,'' said Robert Smith, an internationally known antiques dealer who lives near Lake Martin. ``It means the more unpleasant the suppression, the more attractive the success. If you have a suppressed, marginalized culture as (has been) described, the more it is attracted to getting out of that and hooking on to achievement, adulation and emulation. That is a very powerful principle.''

Another powerful principle in Cajun culture is family. ``That's just the way it is down where we live,'' Delhomme said. ``Family comes first.''

There's an old joke/litmus test to determine whether you're a real Cajun: Are you related to your neighbors?

In Delhomme's case it is a considerably easier test, seeing that he has 21 first cousins, many of whom live in Breaux Bridge. In fact, in the offseason he lives with his grade-school sweetheart, Keri, and their 1-year-old daughter in his grandparents' old house, which was moved, refurbished and planted less than a hundred yards from his parents' house on their farm down a country road. A little farther down the road is his brother Jeff's house.

When Delhomme is home, the best place to find him is out in the well- worn barn behind his parents' house, tending to the horses he races with his brother and father, Jerry. His father used to race on bush tracks as young boy and one of his biggest thrills was learning Jake had been asked to be a presenter at Monday's Eclipse Awards - the Oscars of horse racing.

``I'm not Bob Baffert,'' Jerry said. ``You won't see Jake buying prize horses now. He'll try to spend as little as possible.''

The modest two-bedroom house is not what one would expect from someone who last year signed a two-year, $4 million contract and appears headed for a raise.

``It's just what they need for now,'' said his mother, Marcia. ``It's comfortable but not showy.''

Delhomme says he'll build a bigger house before long but it will be on the same property. His parents say he never had much of a desire to stray far from home - not then or now.

``He was a homebody,'' his father said. ``Jake never slept out at friend's houses. When he was a boy, his room was his thing.''

Delhomme, who married his grade-school sweetheart, turned down offers from Duke, Tulane and Navy to attend Southwestern Louisiana (now Louisiana-Lafayette), about 10 miles from home. Until this season and two stints in NFL Europe, he'd spent his pro career with New Orleans.

``Jake grew up in Breaux Bridge and he never left,'' Jerry said. ``He's still touchable and I think people relate to that.''

Breaux Bridge, like much of the Deep South, still is separated along color lines. It's rare to see blacks on either side of the counter in downtown businesses. Blacks generally attend public schools, while whites go to parochial schools. They each have their own churches and live on their own side of town.

They also have their own football heroes.

As proud as whites are of Delhomme, blacks are as pleased with one of their own, Houston Texans running back Domanick Davis, runner-up as NFL rookie of the year. When the teams played this season, the town's allegiances were split.

Interviews with several blacks indicated no animus toward Delhomme. In fact, two women never had heard of him. Each knew of Davis.

``It would be a little different (if Davis were in the Super Bowl), but it's good to have somebody from Breaux Bridge get all this attention,'' said Douglas Pete, a 15-year-old black, as he walked home from school. ``It's a nice place to live but everybody stays their separate ways. We don't get involved with each other too much.''

To that end, Mayor Delhomme wants to salute both Davis and his second cousin - along with three Breaux Bridge natives playing for LSU - by making them grand marshals at the Crawfish Festival this spring. He also wants to put them both on a billboard.

Delhomme made a point of mentioning Davis when he spoke to reporters Monday about his hometown and the pride it has in him.

As Delhomme spoke, it was calmly and methodically with a slight Cajun twang - but nothing like what he hears at home, where H's disappear and R's fall off the end of words.

Or like his teammates hear in the huddle. His language, as fiery as cayenne, was picked up by NFL Films while he was on the sidelines with the Saints yelling at officials. There were more bleeps than bon mots.

``That's the Cajun coming out,'' said Teurlings Catholic High football coach Sonny Charpentier, who first coached Delhomme in eighth grade. ``He's probably cussing. He's the most competitive athlete I've coached in 24 years. You could see it from Day One.''

It was also evident in college when he led the Ragin' Cajuns to an upset of fifth-ranked Texas A&M. And in Europe when he led Frankfurt to the World Bowl title. And in New Orleans, when he threw three touchdown passes in his first NFL start, a victory over Dallas. And virtually all of this season.

In the season opener, Carolina trailed Jacksonville 17-0 at halftime when Delhomme replaced starter Rodney Peete. He rallied the Panthers to a 24-23 victory, completing a fourth-and-11 pass to Ricky Proehl for the winning score.

Eight times this season, Delhomme has led the Panthers on game-winning drives late in regulation or in overtime, including the playoff win over St. Louis, when he found Steve Smith for a 69-yard score in overtime.

Those in town have been able to keep up every step of the way since a local radio station chose to carry all the Panthers games. Delhomme also has changed the viewing dynamic.

``You used to be able to watch the games and say to the women, 'Darling, would ya get me another beer?' '' Crip Broussard said. ``Now they say, 'Get it yourself. I'm watching Jake.' ''

Others joke that they go to church on Saturday, what with other things now to worship on Sunday.

Bars and restaurants that usually close down on Super Bowl Sunday will be open for business this year. One has ordered a pair of big screens.

``Everybody in this town would give anything to be in Jake's place right now,'' the mayor said. ``Do you know how many times I've won the national championship in my backyard? That's why people wear these (Carolina) jerseys. Everybody can identify with Jake.''

Billy Witz, [phone]

billy.witz(at)dailynews.com

E-mail from the Super Bowl

TO: Daily News readers

FROM: Billy Witz <billy.witz(at)dailynews.com>

SUBJECT: Unexpected beginning

DATE: January 26, 2003

There are concrete barriers surrounding the main media hotel. I'm not sure whether they're supposed to protect reporters from terrorists or from Texan drivers. I noticed this Monday night when I went for a walk, eager to get out of the hotel and adjoining convention center so I could breathe brisk, unfiltered air for the first time in 24 hours.

I stopped at the corner and struck up a conversation with a couple of security guards, one on duty and one off. As I was about to set off on my walk, the off-duty guard, Curtis, asked if he could join me. Boy, what they say about Texas hospitality must be true.

We chatted about my job, his studying pre-med at the University of Houston, all the money that's being thrown at the Super Bowl and the sorry state of public schools in the city. Then he asked if I had been saved.

No, I wasn't (and I had no intention of it - unless he could promise me World Series tickets at Wrigley Field in my lifetime). I am agnostic (atheist is more like it), I told him, only because he was a nice kid.

We spoke about religion for a couple of blocks. When he wasn't getting any traction he bid adieu, saying he had to hit the books. I into the hotel. No longer feeling hustled, I felt saved inside.

CAPTION(S):

5 photo, box, map

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Breaux Bridge, La., in the heart of Cajun Country, shows its support of hometown hero Jake Delhomme with countless signs of encouragement.

(3) Rhonda Dore finishes up computer work at Curves fitness center in Breaux Bridge, La., another example of a local business where support for hometown hero Jake Delhomme is proudly displayed for visitors and townsfolk alike.

(4) Jake Delhomme's brother, Jeff, cousins T-Boy Hamelton, Jack Dale Delhomme (Breaux Bridge mayor) and Paul Hamilton and childhood coach Crip Cormier, left to right, will be rooting for their hometown quarterback in the Super Bowl.

Ted Jackson/Associated Press

(5) Breaux Bridge resident Jake Delhomme will represent his hometown of 7,163 when he leads the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl XXXVIII. Some in the town believe Delhomme has brought more fame to the town than 1996 Miss USA Ali Landry.

Michael Conroy/Associated Press

Box:

E-mail from the Super Bowl (see text)

Map:

Breaux Bridge

Daily News