Watching and reading reports of the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina I realized that some of the simple luxuries I take for granted take a backseat to things that are truly important.
I am fortunate to lead a fairly “normal” life, which many people in the Gulf Coast lost more than two weeks ago.
I’ve wondered how the people affected can find some sense of normalcy in their lives.
I know watching sports is one of the things that takes a backseat during times of tragedy. But as a sports fan I also know that sports provide me with a means of escape and a feeling of enjoyment.
In the weeks following Sept. 11, 2001, watching sports provided me with escape from the national tragedy, that brief moment of enjoyment during a chaotic time and a sense that things were slowly returning to normal.
Sports are a form of entertainment that can bring people together, and last Sunday it did that for some New Orleans Saints fans.
As the team took the field against the Carolina Panthers to open their football season live television feeds showed evacuees in shelters watching the game and cheering their hometown team.
It gave Saints fans the same feeling I had after that tragic day four years earlier – an escape from their shattered lives, a moment of entertainment in a time of despair and a sense, albeit small, of normalcy.
When running back Deuce McAllister scored on the team’s opening drive the cameras flashed back to the shelters where many evacuees cheered and gave each other high-fives, something they probably hadn’t done in a while.
In the sports world the Saints have become a metaphor for the people of New Orleans.
The team was forced to abandon their headquarters and flee to San Antonio, Texas. They needed help from other teams to replace ruined equipment and find a field to practice on.
But the Saints struggled on as they had done in previous situations.
For the past few years the team’s owner Tom Benson has tried to get a publicly-funded stadium built to replace the outdated Superdome. Rumors circulated about the team moving to a new city if a deal could not be worked out.
Some people speculated that this would provide the National Football League the opportunity to move a team back to Los Angeles, which has not had a professional team since the Raiders and Rams relocated following the 1994 season. It is hard to imagine that the most popular American sport does not have a team in the nation’s second largest market.
Some logistical factors come into play. Louisiana is one of the poorest states in the country and the storm has devastated the region financially. And professional sports are a business.
Once people have gotten their necessities squared away, are people of New Orleans going to be able to afford to go to a football game or buy team merchandise? Can the team make enough money to be competitive?
The team does not bring in the amount of revenue most other teams produce and is worth a fraction of what the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Redskins are valued at.
Where will the Saints play? The Superdome may have to be demolished because of damage it sustained during the storm.
So what will happen to the team? Will they have to permanently relocate or will they return to the city the team has called home since its creation in 1966?
At least for this season, the team, the league and the governments of San Antonio and Baton Rouge, La. have worked out an agreement earlier this week to let the Saints play seven of their home games in those cities. The other game was moved to New York, which will be played Monday night.
In the long term it is hard to predict what will happen.
As a person who has family in Southern California I know they would be excited to get a football team. But I also know they would not want to take away one of the few enjoyments a football fan from the Gulf Coast may have left. It would not be right to have the Saints playing home games in L.A. It would only be right to have them playing home games in La.
As for last week’s game in Charlotte, the outcome was secondary to the fact that the team was able to play at all. And they played well.
After the Panthers tied the game at 20 with 1:04 to go, quarterback Aaron Brooks, a Virginia native, completed passes of 11 and 25 yards to Joe Horn to position John Carney for a game-winning 47-yard field goal attempt with three seconds remaining.
As Carney’s kick sailed through the uprights the team rushed the field to celebrate their 23-20 victory, I found myself cheering for the Saints.
But I was really rooting for the people of New Orleans.