How Katrina kept the team in New Orleans ... for now

	Saints running back Deuce McAllister surveys the field at the Superdome, which hasn't been used since the 2004 season. AP
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NEW YORK -- A very sad day in MMQB-land, as you'll read a few hundred words south of here. For now, here we go with one of the most interesting football weeks in a long time. We'll start at the end of Week 3, tonight in New Orleans.

In April I went to New Orleans to write about the Saints' draft for Sports Illustrated and met the city's mayor, Ray Nagin, standing next to a dirt pile on an eight-acre site in the Upper Ninth Ward of the city, where Habitat for Humanity was building homes for displaced musicians in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. I asked Nagin how important the Saints were to the battered city.

"Psychologically, the Saints mean everything to this community right now," Nagin said. "We need them now more than ever -- at least until we get back on our feet,'' so that the psyche of the city doesn't crumble. He went on to say the city needed the Saints, who were rumored to be relocating to San Antonio or Los Angeles, to stay "for at least two years. Two years minimum. We'll have enough of our infrastructure and people back by then.''

Then some amazing things happened. The federal and state governments poured $180 million into a new roof and massive rehab at the Superdome. Drew Brees, the new star quarterback, bought a house in the Garden District of the city, showing how much he wanted to be part of the city's revival. Megastar Reggie Bush, not some anonymous lineman, got drafted and began caring immediately, throwing money at major problems in the city.

Every ticket to every one of the eight home games this season was sold, the first time in team history that had happened. Owner Tom Benson, who had flirted with San Antonio openly last year, told friends he absolutely was not selling the team, nor was he thinking of moving it. (He even turned down -- and it is mind-boggling that this has not gotten more play -- a $1 billion feeler from a Canadian consortium that wanted to buy the team with no strings attached. In other words, to move it somewhere.)

"It is amazing,'' Nagin said Saturday afternoon. "This even has propelled New Orleans so far forward. We're America's city.''

And the Saints, tonight, will be America's Team. The team, in the wake of Katrina, went from irrelevant to inspiring, from an afterthought to the lead story some days on sports and news channels.

"The Saints are the salve for our city,'' Nagin said Saturday afternoon. "Katrina might have blown the roof off the Superdome last year, but watch this first game back and you may see the fans blow the roof off it with their noise. This team, in its entire history, has never been more important to the city.''

And so I asked Nagin about his words in April: Did he still think the Saints might move, and as soon as two years from now?

"I remember that,'' he said, recalling his words. "But this whole thing has changed. I'm seeing a very different approach by the Saints. They're much more involved in the community. The city has thrown its arms around them, and they have responded so positively. Mr. Benson has been very sincere, and our relationship [once very, very frosty] is much better. I sincerely believe this team will stay in New Orleans. They will not move. I am sure of it.''