rcade, I am quite aware that this is a sport site but, do you honestly think that the people of New Orleans are READY FOR FOOTBALL?????? Da! These people have lost family members,friends, homes, pets etc. I also am sure that there are some players who are concerned about their loved ones as well. Give me a damn break, how can anyone be ready for football with such a disaster going on. One week is not going to cut it, New Orleans has a long hardship in front of them.
We are looking at the football angle of this. It does need to be addressed. I understand that San Antonio is happy to have them, but if they can work out the logistics of playing at one of the college stadiums in Louisiana for a while, especially at reduced ticket prices so that people can come see, it would really help the morale of the entire region. One of the purposes of sport in society is to give you something else to focus on, an idealized version of the world where there's always a winner and a loser, and if you lose this week there's always next week where you can win. Don't misunderestimate the power of such a thing, especially when the situation gets real bad. The worse things get, the more important each fleeting piece of escape becomes. If I were the NFL, I'd not only divert funds to get a stadium in the area into playing condition, but I'd subsidize the tickets so that some of these refugees can get to the games and have something to cheer for. It may not be food & shelter, but it's still awful important to the people of the area, whether they're football fans or not.
I'd subsidize the tickets so that some of these refugees can get to the games and have something to cheer for. It may not be food & shelter, but it's still awful important to the people of the area, whether they're football fans or not. That's a really interesting idea; it'd be a good PR move in addition to a genuinely nice thing to do. And add me to the list of people who think it makes sense to think about this, keeping in mind that it's a way lower priority than anything involving human lives. People care about sports; some of them quite a bit. I don't know what the sports culture in New Orleans was like, really, but I know that if a supervolcano erupted underneath Green Bay, it'd be about twelve hours before people started asking which venue in Milwaukee should be prepped for the Packers.
I don't know what the sports culture in New Orleans was like It must have been huge. Did you see all of the jerseys they were stealing out of those stores? Hell, I don't know, maybe you can filter water through jerseys now.
I'd subsidize tickets after food and water were taken care of. Us NFL fans survive six months plus every year without football, but you can only go three days without water. Priorities...
do you honestly think that the people of New Orleans are READY FOR FOOTBALL? Of course not. As we write this, people are being attacked and raped in the Superdome, and the police trying to retake the building have been beaten back by an angry mob. Dead people are all over the place. I wouldn't be surprised if the NFL cancelled the first week of the season. But people are resilient, and when New Orleans no longer resembles Mad Max, the refugees and the rest of the Gulf Coast will take heart in the return of the Saints.
I would never, ever endorse putting sports ahead of basic human needs like food, water and shelter. But I am saying that things like moral and civic pride go a long way toward restoring a sense of place, civility and togetherness that will help keep the region from degenerating into some kind of Lord of the Flies style dystopia, which is happening right now. Giving people something outside of themselves that they can all pull for (especially if the League contributes to food, shelter and hospital care as well) would go a long way toward making the area worth living in again.
Civilization is a thin veneer over the dark hearts beating inside us. Any commonality which brings people together, distracting them from looking out for #1, is a good thing.
I gotta admit, "The San Antonio Saints" has a nice ring to it.
chico, I agree -- I just think that the timing could be tricky. If people go to a restored Superdome (or somewhere else) and see electric lights, air conditioning, hot showers, tasty hot food and clean drinking water, and then have to go back to a situation where they're missing some or all of those things, the result might well be a heightened degree of anger rather than a sense of civility and togetherness.
This in: it'll be in Giant sStadium, date TBA. That's gonna be a tricky bit of scheduling...
I agree with a story I read earlier. They should demolish the Superdome. It's damaged and will always be a reminder of horrible suffering for many, many people. I can't even imagine it there last week. Rapes, deaths, suicides, feces, urine; horrible. Level the place.
