The Future Is Now

On a break from their preparations for the NFL draft last Thursday, New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton and general manager Mickey Loomis toured the Lower Ninth Ward, the 2.3-square-mile neighborhood destroyed by Hurricane Katrina last August. Escorted by a Habitat for Humanity guide past houses lifted off foundations onto cars, Payton and Loomis were visibly stunned as they surveyed the desolation. Neither had been through the Lower Ninth since Katrina--the club only relocated its headquarters from San Antonio back to the New Orleans area in January--and when they stopped at debris-strewn intersections, they were struck by the eerie silence. No demolition was going on, no construction taking place. The area that was once a vital part of the Saints' fan base was a ghost town. � In one way the tour made Payton realize the insignificance of his 16-hour-a-day predraft cramming. In another, though, it reinforced for him how important this team and this draft were to the city. "The devastation is just numbing," said Payton, who was hired to replace Jim Haslett in January. "I was in New York with the Giants [as an offensive coordinator] for 9/11, and I thought I'd seen serious damage before, but the scope of this--no one can describe it. You have to see it. The months and the years ahead are going to be so stressful for this town. If we have a good [draft on] Saturday, and we win on Sundays this fall, I know we can help this community heal. It's part of our duty."

They're off to a very good start. The football gods first smiled on New Orleans in March when free-agent quarterback Drew Brees surprisingly signed with the Saints. And just before 11:30 a.m. Central time last Saturday, the early-drinking crowd on Bourbon Street (or was it a late-drinking crowd from Friday night?) found another reason to raise its glasses. After the Houston Texans formalized their decision to take North Carolina State defensive end Mario Williams with the No. 1 pick, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue announced that the Saints had chosen 2005 Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush, the electric running back from USC. A roar erupted from French Quarter bars and from the 3,000 fans watching in the giant tent set up outside Saints headquarters. The joy spread as far as Milwaukee, where Detroit Pistons honcho Joe Dumars, a native of Natchitoches, La., and a proud Saints fan, interrupted his NBA postseason to pick up his cellphone and call friends who work for the team. "Now we're on the NFL map," Dumars said. " Saints fans really needed this day. For us, Mardi Gras came early."

Since Katrina, the question surrounding the Saints' franchise has been whether the ravaged city of New Orleans has the means to support an NFL team. Even before the hurricane, low ticket sales and feeble corporate backing had led to talk of a move. More than half of the population of 480,000 has yet to return to New Orleans (the league's fourth smallest market before Katrina), and the Big Easy's economy is in shambles--of 80,000 businesses affected in 10 parishes, some 30,000 remain closed. But the NFL has said it is committed to giving the Gulf Coast region a chance to save the franchise. "Psychologically," New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin said last week, "the Saints mean everything to this community right now. We need them now more than ever, at least until we get back on our feet."

Fan support will be critical to the Saints' fate, and for that reason the club is on an all-out blitz to sell every one of the 64,900 Superdome seats to all eight home games this season, a monumental task given that the Saints sold only 34,000 season-ticket for the 2005 season and that the highest total in the team's 40-year history was 54,000 in 2001. "It's hand-to-hand combat, but we're on pace to sell more season tickets than the franchise ever has," said Mike Stanfield, vice president of ticket and suite sales. "You might see the situation as doomsday. We see it as a chance to shock the world."

The Saints wouldn't reveal sales figures as of last weekend, less than five months before the late September home opener at a rehabbed Superdome, but indications are that they have already surpassed last year. "We are determined to not lose the Saints," said musician Joey Mangiapane, 34, who joined six friends in paying $520 apiece for a block of seven choice sideline seats. "Money's tight. My wife just had a baby, and the hurricane blew the fence down on our property. But I bleed black and gold. [The Saints] need us more than ever. I'm hoping Reggie will put a few more butts in seats."

Minutes after the Bush pick was announced, all eight phone lines in the ticket office, one floor above the Saints' draft room, were blinking. "Ma'am, these are perfect seats for you," account executive Allison Sharfman told one caller. "We go to the playoffs, and your husband is going to be really happy.... We can work out a payment schedule for you.... Great!" She pumped her fist. Two club sideline seats were in the bag, a $2,400 sale.

Said Stanfield, surveying the room, "This is the craziest I've seen the phones in my seven years with the Saints."

Last season, after Katrina had made the Superdome unusable for football, the Saints played home games in New Jersey, San Antonio and Baton Rouge, suffering through a 3-13 season. Out went Haslett and quarterback Aaron Brooks. In came Payton from the Dallas Cowboys, where he ran Bill Parcells's offense, and then the 27-year-old Brees, the league's fifth-rated passer over the past two seasons with the San Diego Chargers. Brees has spent the off-season rehabbing a fully torn labrum and partially torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder, and last Saturday he said by phone from the West Coast that he's a month ahead of schedule. As if to prove it, he went out with his personal trainer that evening and threw 80 passes of up to 25 yards, his third such session in a week. "My goal," he said, "is to be ready for the start of camp."

If so, he'll be joined by one of the most exciting players to come out of college football in years. Once Payton and Loomis realized they had the chance to draft Bush, the top-rated player on New Orleans's board, they never seriously considered any of the three offers they received for the No. 2 pick. "It was going to have to be a Ricky Williams--type offer, something insane," Payton said, referring to the Saints' decision to trade six picks in the '99 draft to move up and select the Texas running back at No. 5. The New York Jets' offer of the fourth and 29th picks plus a fourth-rounder was the best--and it hardly gave the Saints pause.

New Orleans wasn't overly concerned about reports last week that linked Bush with possible NCAA eligibility violations while at USC, reasoning that the story won't deeply affect his NFL future. And his NFL future was what Payton was already envisioning last weekend--schemes in which the 5'11", 201-pound Bush will be used as a single back, a receiver split wide, in tandem with 232-pound running back Deuce McAllister and (judiciously) as a return man. Payton thinks Bush can handle the ball more often than the 13.5 rushes and receptions per game he averaged in three seasons as a Trojan.