Always Next Year

In this weeks Sports Illustrated, there is an article about the players from Louisiana and the Gulf Coast region. The NFL did very little to help (1 million USD) which happened to be the same amount the Joe Horn gave. One person gave the same as the entire NFL corporation. In the immediate aftermath of Katrina, Warrick Dunn wrote an open letter to all players in the NFL asking for their help. How many of them played in Louisiana or Mississippi or participated in the Sugar Bowl or played against LSU or Tulane or the Saints or...?, he asked. Again, the players do the work. The owners and NFL corporate powers that be did not feel it as important. Sure, they sponsored a telethon (which starred, you guessed it, players) during the rescheduled Saints-Giants game. The NFLPA is a great union. They know what they are doing. They see a need, a void, a vacuum and they take action.

To let the Saints leave New Orleans permanently seems ridiculous. What place on earth could use the uplift (or the infusion of money and jobs or the positive actions that having a professional team in your town) more. We have cheered for our team and celebrated good and bad seasons and mourned and shrugged and hmphed and tried to look away. Always we hold on to the idea that there is always next year. In the aftermath of Katrina and the devastation caused by years of ineptitude on every level, next year is a long way off for most people who call the city of New Orleans home. But, for most people, it's all we have. That and hopefully the Saints.