Spam!

We’ve started getting hit by spam comments, so I’ve had to turn on the “You must be registered and logged in to comment” feature.

If anyone can’t figure out how to register an account, go away. After dealing with Dave’s internet-phobic fantasy football league, I’ve used up all my tolerance for folks who won’t learn how to use the the interweb.

Back from New Orleans

What a week this has been.

As I mentioned earlier, Leslie, Paul, and I returned to New Orleans to clean up and salvage and maybe get some closure on our feelings about what’s happened there.

The trip began with a speeding ticket for me on I-20 in Atlanta. Yay.

It took us a long time to get down there, about 10 hours, since we stopped several times and decided to go through Jackson, rather than Hattiesburg or Montgomery. We weren’t sure about the road conditions on I-59 and knew that I-10 was a mess.

We came into the metro area from the west, from I-310 to Hwy 90 in Boutte. That area of the Westbank stunk. Trash was piled up everywhere, and was rotting away. There is a dump out there, but it must be filled to capacity. It was our first taste of the smell of the city, and it was overwhelming. Construction crews were buring piles of tree branches everywhere. The roads were packed, and every restaurant that was open has a line out the door.

We got in to Terrytown at around 7:30pm, a half hour before the Jefferson Parish curfew began. My dad had made gumbo and we chowed down, drank, and discussed what the next day’s plan was to be. Brent Joseph came down from Hammond and spent the night.

We stayed in my mother’s house, where my dad was staying. She had some minor roof, siding, and gutter damage from the wind, and Rita had sent the neighbor’s gutter cans through her kitchen window. There was a lot of evidence of rats around –poop everywhere, chairs and rugs chewed on– but we didn’t see or hear any the entire time we were there. The electricity was on, and the water was supposedly ok to drink, but we weren’t taking any chances. It smelled heavily of chlorine, and practically burned the soap right off you in the shower. We all had beds, and it was quite comfortable, even if you couldn’t go outside after 8pm. We spent most of the night smoking and drinking beer and bourbon in the backyard.

We woke up early and headed out to the city in Brent’s truck, on which he had marked “TV” on the side with masking tape. Very professional. He also had an official press pass as an independent filmmaker. We were worried that we may have trouble getting Leslie and I into the city with our out-of-state licenses, but we were just waved through the checkpoint at Gen. deGaulle and got on the GNO with no problem. There were soldiers with automatic rifles at the checkpoints to get on the bridge.

We headed downtown first to get our tetanus shots from the clinic set up at the entrance to the Canal Street ferry terminal. Driving down Convention Center Boulevard, we remarked how strange it was to have watched this very area on TV, full of refugees and dead bodies, now completely empty. They had swept up the trash outside, but inside, the Convention Center ws completely full of rubbish and garbage. An “RIP Joe” spraypainted on an abandoned truck was a reminder of just what went on here.

The clinic was not setup yet, so we headed up Canal to Claiborne and into the Treme. Canal Street was full of RVs, SUVs, Hummers, cop cars, and National Guard transports. The damage was not that bad downtown by the river, with some wind damage to signs and broken windows. Once we crossed to the north of Claiborne, the waterlines became visible and there was more obvious wind damage. Large live oak trees were down everywhere, and downed power lines were hanging into the street. Leslie asked Brent, “Should you be driving over those?” to which he replied, “Probably not, but I’ve been doing it all week. You can’t really avoid them.” He drove over the line and we all lifted up our arms from the metal body of the truck, as if that would help.

To be continued. More to come, stay tuned.

Haslett, not hurricane, responsible for Saints’ patheticness

For how much longer do Saints fans have to put up with Jim Haslett’s inability to consistently prepare his team? One last year, it appears. Wouldn’t it be nice to make a run at the playoffs before jumping ship to San Antonio? Wouldn’t it be nice NOT to fumble on the opening kick off?
But, as the injuries mount and the mistakes increase, it would be nice to find an allegiance in another team.

After the hurricane, the Saints had the opportunity to go in two different directions:

No. 1 — Play inspired, emotional football, actually getting the most out of their talent and allowing younger players to at least gain experience while making the same mistakes the veterans are making.

No. 2 — Use the tragedy as an excuse to squander another season away by committing the same type of foolish penalties, turnovers and poor preperation that has plagued the team since Haslett’s arrival.

Does anyone really think the Dolphins have more talent than the Saints? Maybe defensively, but who doesn’t have more talent than the Saints’ defense — Georgia Tech?
Poor, poor San Antonio. Hope the Saints’ patheticness doesn’t rub off on the Spurs, like it did on the Hornets.

Crowd Noise, not 6 turnovers, reason for Saints loss

That’s right Saints: It’s not your fault.

ESPN: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2167506&CMP=OTC-DT9705204233

SAN ANTONIO — Now that he’s been through the experience of playing a “home” game on the road, and came away a loser, New Orleans Saints coach Jim Haslett is furious about it all.
Back at the team’s temporary home in San Antonio, Haslett said Tuesday the Saints were at a competitive disadvantage in their 27-10 loss to the New York Giants at Giants Stadium on Monday night — even if they were wearing their home jerseys and saw their nickname painted in one of the end zones.

“They could have done that anywhere,” Haslett said. “They could have played that game in Baton Rouge. They could have played it in San Antonio and could have done the same thing.

“To play it in Giants Stadium, to give them another home game and to put us in a situation where we couldn’t hear … It wasn’t why we lost that game, but …”

When the league told the Saints they had to play in New Jersey, Haslett would only say it put his team behind the 8-ball. Yet after seeing his team commit six turnovers and 13 penalties, he let loose.

“It wasn’t a home game,” he said. “I look up at the scoreboard and there are signs, ‘Let’s Go Giants’. The referees, when they flipped the coin, they asked us if we wanted heads or tails. They had no idea who the home team was and who was away. The crowd noise we had to deal with, we never had to do a silent count at home.”

Saints quarterback Aaron Brooks had some strong comments about all the hoopla surrounding the game.

“They made this seem like the Super Bowl,” Brooks said after the loss. “We played a team that outplayed us today, but it was way overdone. Setting up a stage, traveling out here, was uncalled for.

“Try not to patronize us next time, traveling us to New York, saying we’re playing a home game.”

Haslett tempered his remarks with appreciation for the in-game telethon that featured current and former NFL star answering telephones in the effort to support those affected by Hurricane Katrina. The league said Tuesday that $5 million was raised for the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund in about 6½ hours.

“The whole thing was a great cause and the NFL did a great job of raising money for the Gulf Coast,” Haslett said.

The Saints won’t have any more home games in an opponents’ stadium. The remaining seven games initially scheduled for the Superdome will be played at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La., and the Alamodome in San Antonio, where the team has its practice site and headquarters.

“I don’t think [an NFL team] has done that many games traveling,” he said. “I think that’s something that will be answered in January or February because I really don’t know. Hopefully we handle it better than what we did yesterday.”

The Saints were attempting to maintain the league’s longest winning streak dating to last season. New Orleans won four straight to end last season and defeated the Carolina Panthers in their season-opener.

During their roll, the Saints had eight more turnovers than their opponents. On Monday night, it was the Giants that came away with five more.

The edge began eroding when Fred McAfee fumbled on the opening kickoff on an attempted reverse. New York scored three plays later.

Many of the penalties came on special teams. One possession started on the 14-yard line instead of the 28 because of a Mike McKenzie roughness penalty on a kickoff return. Another was backed up to the 5 when Fred Thomas was called for blocking above the waist on a punt return. And another drive started on the 15 when Terrence Melton was called for holding on a kickoff return.

“The penalties were our fault and the turnovers were bad decisions,” Haslett said. “You’ve got to hold onto the ball. We had poor field position all day because of our own doing. Special teams were ragged all day on our return units.”

Even if McAfee would have held on to the ball, the Saints would have started their first drive of the night from their own 16 on the failed reverse.

“That’s not the great way to start the game — a turnover and seven quick ones,” Haslett said.

Now the Saints (1-1) are getting ready for another road game, this time in Minnesota. It will be the fourth straight week they fly to a game, counting the preseason.

“We lost one game and this team’s overcome a lot in the last month, so that one game is nothing compared to what we’ve had to overcome,” Haslett said. “It’s just the way it was played out — a Monday night and all the things that were going on. We didn’t deal with the situation very well.

“We’ll forget it and we’ll move on and try to play better this week.”

Notes
Multi-game tickets for games played in Baton Rouge, La., will be sold on the Internet starting Friday and walk-up sales start Monday at Tiger Stadium. Capacity at Tiger Stadium will be 79,000 — down from 91,600 for LSU games — because of staffing concerns on the part of LSU officials. … Kickoff and punt returner Michael Lewis suffered what Haslett called a serious knee injury and could miss extensive action.

You gotta have faith

I can’t wait for this week’s Saints-Giants game.

Some 600 displaced New Orleans residents will be flown to the New York-New Jersey area by relief agencies; the city’s police chief, Eddie Compass, will be involved with former president George Bush in the coin toss; and Saints gold and black will be displayed along the blue walls of the stadium and in one of the end zones.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2161602&CMP=OTC-DT9705204233