Saints welcome their relatively anonymous status in San Antonio
Web Posted: 10/28/2005 12:00 AM CDT
John Whisler
Express-News Staff Writer
Once, in the ballyhoo days of the Big Easy, New Orleans Saints quarterback Aaron Brooks could pass and run. But he couldn't hide.
Season Out of Sync
* Editor's note: For the New Orleans Saints, the 2005 season will be remembered, at least in part, as a test of perseverance against adversity unprecedented in NFL history. Forced out of their home stadium by the Hurricane Katrina disaster — forced out of their hometown and even their homes — Saints players, coaches, staff members and their families have endured displacement and despair in what has become a "Season Out of Sync." Staff writer John Whisler chronicles the behind-the-scenes story of the Saints in this season-long series.
In San Antonio, he can do all three.
"It's refreshing," Brooks says. "Here, I can go places and people don't know who you are."
Once, the Saints enjoyed hometown celebrity status, a stream of recognition — from radio and television shows to commercial deals and charity involvement. That was when the Saints had a hometown. In San Antonio, their adopted home in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, Brooks and his teammates are little more than faces in the crowd.
Strangers in a strange city. And loving every minute of it.
At the same time, they are taking the time to cultivate new fans. And loving every minute of that, too.
Since their arrival two months ago, Saints players have faced one challenge, one frustration, after another — on the field and off.
But it's all come under the veil of anonymity, a luxury many Saints never experienced in New Orleans. For them, it's been a welcome change in a season severely out of sync.
"I love it," says wide receiver Joe Horn, one of the most popular and easily recognized Saints in the Big Easy. "It's so cool. I feel like a regular person again."
Horn said the only way he isn't able to fly under the radar in San Antonio is when he's spotted driving his car.
"If you're African-American," he says, "and you show up in a two-seater Benz, they know you're either a football player, a drug dealer or a professional athlete of some sort. But that's all they know."
No player is benefiting more from his current incognito status than Brooks.
A target of fan and media criticism in New Orleans throughout his professional career, Brooks said he has heard and seen it all.
The boos. The second-guessing. The hate mail.
He has endured signs that read, "Trade Brooks. Draft Eli," referring to New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning.
Often he would attend New Orleans Hornets games, only to be greeted with boos when his face appeared on the arena Jumbotron.
And he has weathered the talk show attacks that come with being the quarterback of an inconsistent team that has failed to meet expectations.
"The only thing I hate about it," Brooks says, "is it's always one or two knuckleheads taking away from a lot of good people."
In San Antonio, he says, he has met only good people so far.
"They allow you to be you," he said. "You don't have to try to be somebody you're not."
Happy to help
As part of his job as the Saints' director of community relations, Paul Corliss corrals Saints coaches and players to participate in outreach endeavors — everything from the team's off-season bus tours along the Gulf Coast to appearances at charity functions.
Typically, Corliss says, the first volunteer in line is Charles Grant, the Saints' 6-foot-3, 290-pound defensive end.
"The guy's awesome," Corliss says. "He always has his arm around somebody. And he's especially good with kids. He likes to hang out with them. He's a very warm person. People like that."
Corliss said he accompanied Grant to a New Orleans hospital one time, and Grant toured the floor with a doctor's stethoscope, pretending to examine patients. It's that type of playfulness that helped Grant become one of the Saints' most-recognized players in New Orleans.
"The people have shown me a lot of love," Grant says. "We have been blessed to be able to play this game. It's good to be able to give back."
Eager to do the same in San Antonio, Grant agreed to participate in the NFL's "Take a Player to School" program. On Nov. 29 — his day off — Grant will share a limousine ride to school with the local contest winner and hang out in the classroom.
For Grant and other Saints players, their celebrity status is earned — not by the position they play but by their visibility in the community.
Fullback Mike Karney spent an hour on his day off this week talking to more than 500 students at St. George Episcopal School.
Before his visit, few if any students would have recognized him if it weren't for his No. 44 Saints jersey. Although a starter, Karney is used mostly as a blocking back.
Now, Karney's face and name likely will be etched in their minds forever.
"We all have something special to give," says Karney, in his second season in the NFL. "When you're just starting out, you don't have a name behind you. So it's important to get out in the community and let people get to know you."
Friendly interactions
"Only a true friend would recognize me," Kendyl Jacox says.
Offensive linemen generally are among the least recognized of NFL players. They're the let's-get-down-and-dirty guys who toil in the trenches so others — people like Brooks and Horn — can be free to operate in the spotlight.
For the most part, they go unrecognized — unless they are called for holding or another penalty.
Jacox, oddly enough, says he has been recognized more in San Antonio than he was in New Orleans, where he played for three seasons.
"People may not know my name," he says. "But when they see a 330-pound black man with braids walking down the street, they know it's somebody different. They'll say, 'Hey, I just saw you on TV.'"
Jacox said it's rare when he doesn't get approached by people in area restaurants.
"You get all types," he says. "Some stare. Some just say o. Some want to come over to your table but don't. You can see the fear in their eyes. They're all nervous. A couple people I've actually had nice conversations with. Everyone in San Antonio has been pretty friendly."
Brooks says he has had the same experience.
In New Orleans, critics cry that he's not a leader, he's prone to mistakes, and even that he smiles on the sideline too much.
All this for a man whose foundation has become a leader in helping to fight illiteracy in New Orleans-area schools — who was honored as the Saints' "Man of the Year" in 2004.
Here, Brooks says, he's treated as a regular guy.
"My wife and I went to a Spurs game the other night," he said. "A couple of kids asked me for my autograph. But that was it. People are just themselves here. I felt very comfortable in that environment. I told my wife, 'Wow, this is pretty nice.'"
In San Antonio, Brooks can pass. He can run.
And there's no need to hide.
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lol.. yea we dumb San Antonians.. "Hey look a brother with a benz he must be a dealer"... Come on.. give us more credit than that..."If you're African-American," he says, "and you show up in a two-seater Benz, they know you're either a football player, a drug dealer or a professional athlete of some sort. But that's all they know."
I think he's used to New Orleans.
I think he meant in a general USA kind of way, not a diss at SA but just the entire culture of the nation really.
Although I believe he's narrowmindedly wrong.
Well maybe it's the model and accessories on the benz.. low with phat wheels would look dealer.
Looks like Brooks is an NBA fan as well being he was at one of the Spurs preseason games...MMMM, wonder if he'll become a spurs fan???
I'm glad Aaron is away from all the negativity he puts up with in New Orleans. They really do trash him over there. Hard to believe those boos are from fans. Really difficult for me to hear those boos. Just doesn't make sense. I'd like to see those yahoos booing suit up and play a set of downs. That would be hilarious.
at least most of the boos were directed forward.
I get the joke there. But, what I'm saying is that the boos are confusing. Few teams in the NFL are booed by their own fans. Screaming and yelling and clapping for the good stuff, instantly booing for a bad set of downs. That's almost exclusively a NOLA thing. I've been to so many games there I can't count. It's always the same. Here, when we are watching our teams play, whoever they are because each of us sport's fans have teams we go see, we boo the lousy officials. Not the players.
OMG. A SanAntony who gets a joke. Praise the Lord
Even the 'Aints fans don't have enough voice for that. We would be continually hoarse.
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