Saints RB shooting for 1,400 yards despite ACL injury

	Deuce McAllister returns to the field after suffering a knee injury last October. Chris Graythen/Getty Images
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Deuce McAllister was trapped, and if he didn't escape soon, I was the one who'd end up in the doghouse.

McAllister, the New Orleans Saints' exceedingly responsible 27-year-old halfback, texted me last Monday to let me know a team meeting had run long and that he'd rush to the lobby of the New Orleans Airport Hilton as soon as he could. The problem was, having already pushed back my flight, I was in danger of not getting back to California that night. The next morning was the first day of school, and if I wasn't around to help my second- and fifth-graders get through the morning madness, my wife would be about as happy as Kyle Turley when he ripped off an opponent's helmet in the Superdome a few years back.

Fortunately, Saints coach Sean Payton finally stopped talking, Deuce drove fast, and we snuck in a quality half-hour of conversation on a bench in the lobby before I had to fly. It was the interviewer's equivalent of an afternoon quickie, only with far more performance anxiety on my part. Ever polite, Deuce drove me across the street to the terminal, too.

Coming off reconstructive knee surgery and the drafting of Reggie Bush, McAllister could be feeling a tad nervous these days -- especially given that he was chosen to kick off this weekly feature.

Michael Silver: When you and I visited New Orleans last September, five days after the levees were breached, we both regarded football as trivial. Yet we kept getting blown away by how many people wanted to talk about the Saints. Are you still experiencing that?

Deuce McAllister: Yes, and here's what I think is happening: It's something that people can actually touch, something that they remember from the way things used to be. The Saints have only won one playoff game in their history, and then to sell 58,000 or 60,000 season tickets? That's unheard of. You would say, "Where are your priorities?" But you realize that this is their priority, because along with their city being rebuilt, they want the team to stay. They don't want to say, "I had a chance to keep the Saints here, but I didn't buy tickets, and because of that I was one of the reasons they left."