San Antonio – In the end, Joe Horn says, hopefully it will simply come down to playing football, but right now, it’s hard to imagine that happening.
On Monday, the New Orleans Saints learned that the second game of what will undoubtedly be a nomadic 2005 season, their “home opener,” will be played against the New York Giants – at Giants Stadium in the New Jersey Meadowlands.
The NFL’s decision to make the game part of a Sept. 19 Monday night doubleheader was billed by the league as part of fundraising efforts for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, but it was all Saints players and coaches could do to bite their tongues at an act they perceived to be something less than charitable.
While having the New York- area spotlight on a prime-time stage may certainly bring attention – and much-needed dollars – to those in need, some players and officials felt the team was not only being sacrificed to the Giants, but, even worse, being propped up as an object of pity.
“I could sit here for hours telling you how much I like it or didn’t like it, but it wouldn’t matter – the game must go on, and we must play where they tell us to play,” Saints wide receiver Horn said after the team’s first practice in San Antonio.
On Monday, the players awoke in a downtown hotel, met for breakfast, then went to the Convention Center about a block away for team meetings. They returned to the hotel to get taped for practice, then boarded buses to go to the nearby Alamodome. There they donned the rest of their equipment and got onto the buses again to go to the practice field.
If anyone was confused about where they were supposed to be, there was a huge sign in the hotel lobby – right there for Shriners, conventioneers and Aunt May and Uncle Ben to see – listing the day’s itinerary.
“It’s totally different,” wide receiver Michael Lewis said.
But try as the Saints might to make it strictly about the game, it seems nearly impossible. Besides learning of their fate in Week 2, New Orleans opens the season Sunday at Carolina, and there was also much buzz about where the team would play its seven other home games.
Coach Jim Haslett said he would prefer to use the Alamodome, but there are numerous scheduling conflicts.
Haslett added he felt the league owed it to its fans in Louisiana and the entire Gulf Coast to play at least a couple of games nearby, perhaps in Baton Rouge, La., but he also was aware the team could play all its games outside Louisiana.
“If we have to play 16 games on the road, if that’s what the NFL wants us to do, so be it, we’ll play 16 games on the road,” he said.
With officials in New Orleans saying it may take years to restore the city, there was talk about the long-term prospects. Would the franchise try to make a temporary home in the area – say, Baton Rouge – or would it be relocated altogether? Saints owner Tom Benson owns property in San Antonio, and the city has been shopping for an NFL team.
There’s also the specter of Los Angeles, where the league has been desperate to return.
“I wouldn’t want to leave – I love the fans of Louisiana – but Mr. Benson has to do what he has to do; it’s his football team,” Horn said.
Benson made a brief appearance at practice Monday, but declined to comment.
“I’ve got a big family and people have lost some stuff, but I’ve no choice but to concentrate on football,” said Lewis, a New Orleans native. “What I do this year – I’m going to have to take care of a lot of stuff with my family.”
Between him and his wife, Lewis said he probably has more than 30 family members in the New Orleans area. While he expressed relief that everyone was safe, he still found himself sobered by what he witnessed in his hometown.
“I went to my house, but I didn’t pick up too much stuff – you can’t grab too much, because there wasn’t too much (there),” he said. “It was totally different from what I’d seen when we were back in Oakland. It looked like a ghost town.
“It was heartbreaking … Being there one day, and seeing a house, and coming back and seeing it collapsed to the ground, it’s hurtful.”
Horn spent some of his free time at the Astrodome in Houston, visiting evacuees. Initially saddened at the bleakness, Horn said his mood was decidedly lighter by the time he left.
“There were all smiles. They were happy to see someone there, rubbing shoulders and picking up the kids and sitting down on the cots and listening to some of their stories,” Horn said. “I didn’t realize until I was there that the people wanted us to play, wanted us to be close, so they could come see us play.
“I didn’t think they would care, that they would be more interested in finding somewhere to go. But one guy came to me crying, saying, ‘Joe, please, you guys have to win for us.’ They were looking for us to give them something to hope for.”
Staff writer Anthony Cotton can be reached at 303-820-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com.
