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Posted on Tue, Sep. 06, 2005
Saints left to wander
BY CHAREAN WILLIAMS
Knight Ridder Newspapers
SAN ANTONIO - (KRT) - This is home now: a hotel; a high school stadium; a locker room inside the Alamodome.
Displaced by Hurricane Katrina, the vagabond New Orleans Saints held their first practice in San Antonio on Monday. For at least the rest of this season, the Saints will hold meetings in the San Antonio Convention Center, dress in the Alamodome and practice at the San Antonio School District Spring Sports Complex.
It involves four bus rides.
They don't yet have a complete weight room and are making do without some basic field equipment.
The Saints head into their season opener at Carolina on Sunday with a lot of questions, the least important of which is how improved their 32nd-ranked defense is. They don't even yet know where they will play their final seven home games.
But no one is complaining.
``I can take you to a spot right now and show you more harsh conditions: People lying on cots, not knowing where their next meal is going to come from, not knowing where they're going to stay," Saints receiver Joe Horn said. ``(This) is nothing compared to what they're going through. . . . We're not looking for a pity party here."
Many players are separated from their families, and most are without their cars or their clothes.They have two weeks to find a new place to live in San Antonio.
Their two-hour practice session Monday, held in 100-degree heat after three days off, was sluggish.
Yet, the Saints are counting their blessings.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has predicted the death toll could reach 10,000. All of the Saints' 400-plus employees and their families are safe. On Sunday, Lester Vallet Jr., the team's assistant facilities manager, was reunited with his 82-year-old father, Lester Vallet Sr., who served as the Saints' grounds superintendent for 23 years.
``It's a big gorilla off my back," Vallet Jr. said.
Defensive backs coach Greg Brown's condominium issix feet under water, but it appears that most team employees' homes were spared. Everyone in the organization will keep their jobs.
``We feel fortunate," said offensive lineman Jermane Mayberry, who evacuated his family to Arlington before the storm. ``When we look at what's going on in New Orleans, our heart goes out to them. We're just inconvenienced more than anything. They're the ones really, really going through it. I think that's what the focus should be_on them and not on us."
Several Saints players spent Sunday visiting the more than 1,000 evacuees at KellyUSA in San Antonio, while Horn went to Houston to meet with those in the Astrodome.
Receiver Michael Lewis, the only New Orleans native on the team, saw the damage first-hand when he returned home over the weekend to take care of some 20-30 extended family members, some of whom have lost everything.
``We hold a whole state on our back right now," Lewis said. ``We've just got to go and represent the state of Louisiana and show them that we're going to give them everything we have, week in and week out, to try to make it to the Super Bowl this year."
As a team, the Saints officially are homeless.
Their 77,000-seat stadium, the LouisianaSuperdome, was badly damaged in the storm, and their headquarters in Metairie, La., are being used to house search- and- rescue teams. The Saints' first scheduled home game, against the New York Giants on Sept. 18, has been moved to Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands on Sept. 19 as part of a Monday night doubleheader, the NFL announced Monday.
It is the first regular-season game moved for a natural disaster since 2003, when the Chargers' home game against Miami was switched to Tempe, Ariz., because of wildfires in San Diego County.
``I was kind of surprised, to be honest, because I thought we would play here or in Baton Rouge," said Saints coach Jim Haslett, whose team is 24-16 on the road and 18-22 at the Superdome in his five seasons. ``I don't think any of us really understand why. If I was Dallas, Philadelphia or Washington (in the NFC East), I'd probably be more upset than I am, because that gives the Giants nine home games.
``But, again, everything that has gone on with the city and this football team the last two weeks, that's probably the least of our concerns."
The Saints do not know where they will play the rest of their home games, only that they will become the first team since the 2002 Chicago Bears to play all 16 games away from their home stadium.
Haslett said Monday his preference is to play at the Alamodome, ``because we're working here, but still having our ties to Louisiana, you'd like to probably go to Baton Rouge and play a game or two."
San Antonio officials quietly have been working to adopt the team, since Baton Rouge might not be feasible. Saints owner Tom Benson said he could ``know a lot more" today.
Rumors, fueled by a New Orleans Times-PicayuneWeb story that quotes a Louisiana state senator, persist that Benson wants to move the team permanently to San Antonio.
``I think that's the last thing on anybody's mind right now," Haslett said. ``If somebody would say that, obviously they don't have a good handle on what they're talking about. I don't think that's true by any means whatsoever. . . . I think that's something that would have to be determined when the season is over. Right now, we've got four months of football and, hopefully, we can get through those and get in the playoffs and then figure out where we're going to live. Hopefully, it's back where we came from."
---
© 2005, Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Visit the Star-Telegram on the World Wide Web at http://www.star-telegram.com.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
Saints left to wander
BY CHAREAN WILLIAMS
Knight Ridder Newspapers
SAN ANTONIO - (KRT) - This is home now: a hotel; a high school stadium; a locker room inside the Alamodome.
Displaced by Hurricane Katrina, the vagabond New Orleans Saints held their first practice in San Antonio on Monday. For at least the rest of this season, the Saints will hold meetings in the San Antonio Convention Center, dress in the Alamodome and practice at the San Antonio School District Spring Sports Complex.
It involves four bus rides.
They don't yet have a complete weight room and are making do without some basic field equipment.
The Saints head into their season opener at Carolina on Sunday with a lot of questions, the least important of which is how improved their 32nd-ranked defense is. They don't even yet know where they will play their final seven home games.
But no one is complaining.
``I can take you to a spot right now and show you more harsh conditions: People lying on cots, not knowing where their next meal is going to come from, not knowing where they're going to stay," Saints receiver Joe Horn said. ``(This) is nothing compared to what they're going through. . . . We're not looking for a pity party here."
Many players are separated from their families, and most are without their cars or their clothes.They have two weeks to find a new place to live in San Antonio.
Their two-hour practice session Monday, held in 100-degree heat after three days off, was sluggish.
Yet, the Saints are counting their blessings.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has predicted the death toll could reach 10,000. All of the Saints' 400-plus employees and their families are safe. On Sunday, Lester Vallet Jr., the team's assistant facilities manager, was reunited with his 82-year-old father, Lester Vallet Sr., who served as the Saints' grounds superintendent for 23 years.
``It's a big gorilla off my back," Vallet Jr. said.
Defensive backs coach Greg Brown's condominium issix feet under water, but it appears that most team employees' homes were spared. Everyone in the organization will keep their jobs.
``We feel fortunate," said offensive lineman Jermane Mayberry, who evacuated his family to Arlington before the storm. ``When we look at what's going on in New Orleans, our heart goes out to them. We're just inconvenienced more than anything. They're the ones really, really going through it. I think that's what the focus should be_on them and not on us."
Several Saints players spent Sunday visiting the more than 1,000 evacuees at KellyUSA in San Antonio, while Horn went to Houston to meet with those in the Astrodome.
Receiver Michael Lewis, the only New Orleans native on the team, saw the damage first-hand when he returned home over the weekend to take care of some 20-30 extended family members, some of whom have lost everything.
``We hold a whole state on our back right now," Lewis said. ``We've just got to go and represent the state of Louisiana and show them that we're going to give them everything we have, week in and week out, to try to make it to the Super Bowl this year."
As a team, the Saints officially are homeless.
Their 77,000-seat stadium, the LouisianaSuperdome, was badly damaged in the storm, and their headquarters in Metairie, La., are being used to house search- and- rescue teams. The Saints' first scheduled home game, against the New York Giants on Sept. 18, has been moved to Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands on Sept. 19 as part of a Monday night doubleheader, the NFL announced Monday.
It is the first regular-season game moved for a natural disaster since 2003, when the Chargers' home game against Miami was switched to Tempe, Ariz., because of wildfires in San Diego County.
``I was kind of surprised, to be honest, because I thought we would play here or in Baton Rouge," said Saints coach Jim Haslett, whose team is 24-16 on the road and 18-22 at the Superdome in his five seasons. ``I don't think any of us really understand why. If I was Dallas, Philadelphia or Washington (in the NFC East), I'd probably be more upset than I am, because that gives the Giants nine home games.
``But, again, everything that has gone on with the city and this football team the last two weeks, that's probably the least of our concerns."
The Saints do not know where they will play the rest of their home games, only that they will become the first team since the 2002 Chicago Bears to play all 16 games away from their home stadium.
Haslett said Monday his preference is to play at the Alamodome, ``because we're working here, but still having our ties to Louisiana, you'd like to probably go to Baton Rouge and play a game or two."
San Antonio officials quietly have been working to adopt the team, since Baton Rouge might not be feasible. Saints owner Tom Benson said he could ``know a lot more" today.
Rumors, fueled by a New Orleans Times-PicayuneWeb story that quotes a Louisiana state senator, persist that Benson wants to move the team permanently to San Antonio.
``I think that's the last thing on anybody's mind right now," Haslett said. ``If somebody would say that, obviously they don't have a good handle on what they're talking about. I don't think that's true by any means whatsoever. . . . I think that's something that would have to be determined when the season is over. Right now, we've got four months of football and, hopefully, we can get through those and get in the playoffs and then figure out where we're going to live. Hopefully, it's back where we came from."
---
© 2005, Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Visit the Star-Telegram on the World Wide Web at http://www.star-telegram.com.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.