September 12, 2005
Saints Offer a Piece of Home for Fans Without One
By LEE JENKINS
HOUSTON, Sept. 11 - Early in the second quarter, Bernard Youngblood got the call he had been waiting for all week.
The Veterans Administration was on the other line. They had found him a new apartment in Houston. He could finally escape the crowded shelter at the Reliant Center.
"I can't wait to see the place," Youngblood said, suitcase already in hand. "But I really don't want to leave the game."
On a day in which transplanted fans gathered in cities all over the country to watch their hometown football teams, perhaps the most enthusiastic group of all formed under a television in Hall C of the Reliant Center and revived the famous but fading New Orleans chant: "Who-Dat, Who-Dat, Who-Dat Say Dey Gonna Beat Dem Saints."
The cheer, one of few remnants left from New Orleans's old days, echoed through all ends of the shelter when the Saints beat the Carolina Panthers, 23-20. Survivors of Hurricane Katrina sprinted up and down a hallway filled with television sets, checking each as if to make sure they had seen the game-winning field goal correctly.
"All we're missing now is some crawfish, corn bread, crab and smoked sausage," said Steven Williams, hugging every stranger within reach. "I swear the Saints did this for us. Football is a game of fate also."
He had been too nervous to sit for the second half. When Carolina came back to tie the score late in the fourth quarter, the Reliant Center crowd started its own new cheer: "Gotta Have Faith. Gotta Have Faith." And when the Saints drove in the final minute, Christopher Forest leapt out of his chair in the front row and danced a jig for his fellow fans.
"We're worried about our team, and they're worried about us, too," Forest said. "I'm telling you, they're playing inspired today. They have us in mind. We're going to win. I know we're going to win."
The Orlando Magic point guard, Steve Francis, walked by one of the televisions and nobody even turned. The Louisiana lieutenant governor, Mitch Landrieu, paid a visit and saw that nobody was interested in chatting. They were too busy protesting questionable calls, shouting down opposing fans and instructing Coach Jim Haslett on what play to run next.
"Seeing the Saints is like seeing our family," said Clarence Marshall, who fled to Houston from New Orleans. "No matter what's happened, home is still where our heart is."
For one baby girl, it was the first Saints' game she had ever witnessed. For those at the Reliant Center, it had to be the most emotional. They screamed whenever the ball went to running back Deuce McAllister or receiver Joe Horn. They were quiet only when pictures of their devastated hometown were flashed on the television.
Until last week, Fox was going to broadcast the Chicago Bears-Washington Redskins game to viewers in Houston. Shortly after the evacuation of New Orleans, Fox decided to switch so that displaced Louisianans in Texas would be able to follow their team. At kickoff, most of the seats in Hall C were already full. As the game progressed and the crowd swelled to a couple hundred from 50, spectators dragged chairs from their bedsides, as if they were moving to their living room.
They will probably be watching from afar for some time. The National Football League has not decided where the Saints will play this season, but it is certain that they will not be returning to New Orleans in the near future.
"You know what, it doesn't even matter," said Aaron Williams, a longtime Saints fan. "Honestly, we're better on the road, anyway."
They celebrated Sunday in every corner of the Gulf Coast.
At a bar on Bourbon Street, several residents listened to the game on a battery-powered radio, and in another part of town, a group of police officers gathered around a cruiser to listen over the radio, according to The Associated Press. "Man, this is what we needed," James Porter, a patrol officer, said. "This almost makes you feel normal again."
At the River Center shelter in Baton Rouge, La., they gathered in an exhibition hall and ate hot dogs and chips in front of the TV. "This is a dark time, but the Saints are shedding some light on it," said Calvin Davis, watching in Baton Rouge because his house in New Orleans was underwater. "For us, these 60 minutes put all of New Orleans back together again as if nothing happened."
In at least one category - the N.F.C. South - New Orleans is in first place. Their fans are talking playoffs. And they have a rallying cry for the week ahead. As time ran out on the Saints and the Panthers, Reliant Center resident Roni Williams delivered a welcome announcement to the rest of the shelter:
"Hey everybody," Williams shouted. "We're 1-0!"
Jeremy Alford contributed reporting from Baton Rouge, La., for this article.
The fans of New Orleans deserve to get their team back as soon as possible.
San Antonio will always be my hometown, and it deserves an NFL team, but not like this. The Saints belong in New Orleans.
When New Orleans is habitable again, its stadium repaired or rebuilt, and its population has stabalized enough to support a team, the people of New Orleans deserve to have their team back.
You do know the NFL wants to move the team to LA.
The Saints will most likely have to relocate. So why not hope they relocate to SA?
they saints were already on their way out...
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