Big Easy needs a big season

Anticipation isn't the most operative word here. I love the start of the football season and the change in weather.\nBut I'm not that excited. How can I be? \nMy New York Jets are headed toward the proverbial cellar. They are going to give me more headaches than seeing Roseanne Barr on karaoke night. In fact, I don't know what's more likely to happen: the Jets making the playoffs or the Colts actually making the Super Bowl. To me, both situations are just wishful thinking.\nI'm more eager to see how my fantasy teams turn out. And yes, teams -- I have a sickness. Unlike alcoholism, no 12-step program can save me from fantasy football. But despite looking forward to hockey and what draft pick Gang Green will get this year, there is just one story related to the start of the NFL season that interests me. And it starts at the mouth of the Mississippi.\nForget T.O., Ben Roethlisberger's love for the hospital and how Nick Saban got Ray Carruth out of jail in hopes of revitalizing him as a football player. Those are all irrelevant. I got N'Awlins on my mind.\nLast year, Hurricane Katrina tore through Louisiana and Mississippi en route to displacing hundreds of thousands of people, mostly poor blacks. It's unfortunate that this government hasn't been able to give New Orleans a new lease on life. Neighborhoods are still in ruin, and people are still jobless, homeless, and worse, hopeless. \nWe always talk about how teams represent the cities or the states in which they reside. But no team in any sport is playing for its city like the Saints are playing for the Big Easy. It's been a year since Katrina, and the Superdome is going to reopen for business Sept. 25 for the Saints' home-opener on Monday Night Football.\nThe Superdome is more than just a home to the Saints. It represents the recovery effort. Those that were seeking shelter in the impenetrable dome faced horrors my mind couldn't attempt to conjure. I'm talking dead bodies lying around, feces every which way, young men with guns raping young women. It was just awful. And now the NFL is ready to open up the Superdome for the commercially delicious football season? The horrors of those events will resonate as loudly as the fireworks and cheers that Monday night. \nBut we must look toward the future with the Saints and the city. Owner Tom Benson was more than likely going to move the Saints out of New Orleans prior to Hurricane Katrina. San Antonio looked very nice to him, though I don't know if natives of San Antonio can tell the difference between a football and an armadillo. \nThe most important thing is that the Saints did not get "Benson-ed," and the team added some life to its rather futile offense. The Saints signed quarterback Drew Brees to a lucrative contract and had Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush fall into its lap in the NFL Draft. \nWhether he likes it or not, Bush is now the poster boy of the recovery effort. Not that Bush -- I'm talking about Mr. Heisman. He's there to help the Saints rise from obscurity after struggling for years of mediocrity. He's there to give hope to fans still yearning for a reason to stay in New Orleans. And he can light a fire under a team that has only seen five playoff appearances in its 38 years of existence. \nThe world revels in feel-good sports stories. The Saints need to have a fairy tale season so the people of the great city of New Orleans can feel good about themselves. It's cliché and cheesy, but it's true. I will be splitting my energy this football season, focusing on my four fantasy sports teams, the Jets and the Saints. Nothing can help the city more than a playoff season by Bush and Co. And the fans need it as they continue to feel the effects of the worst natural disaster ever to hit the Big Easy.