NEW ORLEANS — This is not meant to disparage the good people of New Orleans:

Monday Night is not the Super Bowl.

Is it a big game? Of course.

But in this city, Monday Night’s game between the hometown Saints and the New England Patriots is being billed as the biggest in New Orleans’ franchise history. Granted, it’s a history of mediocrity, but they did go to the NFC title game four years ago, and being a step away from a Super Bowl should be bigger than a Week 12 regular-season game.

It promises to be a heck of a game.

While New Orleans sees this as a huge game, New England played in a “huge game” just two weeks ago, against the Colts. The Pats have been to the playoffs — deep in the playoffs — and if win or go home isn’t huge, nothing in sports is.

One local columnist here wrote this week that a win for the Saints would validate Sean Payton as a top NFL head coach, could enhance the chances of defensive coordinator Gregg Williams of getting another head coaching gig if his unit does a good job against Tom Brady & Co., and would validate New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees as a notch above Brady and on the same level with Peyton Manning.

Points one and two — nothing wrong with those.

Point three takes things too far.

Drew Brees is a tremendous quarterback: accurate, good decision-maker, has thrown for a lot of yards in his career. But winning Monday would in no way, shape or form put him “a notch above” Brady and on the same plane as Manning.

Ok, maybe he can be considered a notch above for this season. But overall? Not a chance.

Now in his eighth season as the Patriots’ starting quarterback (tossing out his 2000 rookie season and the one lost to injury last year), Brady has a record of 107-30. He has played in four Super Bowls, owns three championship rings, twice being named most valuable player in those title-winning games.

And those rings came before 2007, when he became the first quarterback in league history to throw for 50 touchdowns and won the league MVP award.

Manning has a Super Bowl title as well and is one of the winningest signal-callers in the NFL.

Brees is 65-51 as a starter with the Chargers and Saints, and has been to the playoffs three times, with that NFC title game appearance on his resume. He came close to breaking Dan Marino’s single-season passing yardage mark last year, when New Orleans’ run game wasn’t the asset it is now.

But perhaps this is to be expected. On fan boards, Brees is sometimes referred to as “Breesus” (like Jesus, get it?), complete with “Breesus Saves” and “What would Breesus do?” t-shirts. One wonders if the denizens of this party city expect him to turn the Mississippi into wine.

The excitement is understood: all Monday Night games come with some hype, being played under the brightest lights and with the entire football-loving nation watching since every other game that week is in the books.

And through it all, through the days when they were the ’Aints and fans wore paper bags on their heads, New Orleans has supported the team, and the Saints returned the favor in 2006, their underdog run to the Super Bowl’s doorstep providing a much-needed lift in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

So Saints fans aren’t used to being in this position. This is the first time that they’ve been 10-0. In fact, they have just six 10-win seasons in their 43-year history; New England has seven this decade.

The Patriots, however, know hype.

They know the pressure of completing an undefeated regular season. They know how to deal with having that giant target on their collective back, with every team trying to knock them from a lofty perch. For all the roster turnover they’ve had, there are 25 players who have Super Bowl experience, and understand what it means to deal with the circus-like atmosphere that comes with games of a certain magnitude.

The Saints have eight such players, and four of them are former Pats.

This is undoubtedly a big game — New Orleans, which hasn’t beat a top-tier team on its way to 10-0, can stake a claim to being one of the best in the league this year; New England needs a signature win as well, as well as proving that it can win a legitimate road game.

But the Saints should learn from the mistake the Jets made in Week Two. This isn’t the Super Bowl.

smnza@projo.com