Bucs/NFL

Fans celebrate bit of normalcy

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published September 26, 2006

NEW ORLEANS - Clara Donate lost her home and all her possessions to Hurricane Katrina. In the storm's aftermath, she fled to Atlanta and spent months staying with a son before returning to live in a government-issued trailer.

Donate, 58, tried to put those troubles behind her Monday night for at least a few hours, joining thousands of other New Orleans residents for a Mardi Gras-like celebration of the Saints' first home game since Katrina.

"This is exactly what the city needs," said Donate, a City Hall worker and season ticket holder. "We all need something else to think about."

Jubilant crowds swamped the area around the Louisiana Superdome in a human sea, creating a huge traffic jam for the team's emotional return and the reopening of the stadium, which underwent $185-million in repairs to erase damage done during and after Katrina.

The Saints and Falcons both came in 2-0 and the game received Super Bowl-style buildup. The Goo Goo Dolls played outside the dome. Green Day and U2 performed for more than 68,000 inside.

Harold Johnson couldn't get into the Superdome, but he planned to sit with his neighbors outside his government-issued trailer and watch on television.

"I don't want to talk about Katrina. I don't want to talk about insurance. I don't want to talk about anything but kicking Falcon butt," Johnson said as he stocked up on beer at a grocery store for a cookout with neighbors.

Even with its gleaming new cover, the Superdome remained a symbol of Katrina's misery. Tens of thousands of storm victims suffered there in withering heat after last summer's hurricane filled the city with stinking floodwaters.

After the storm, the Saints became the NFL's traveling show, establishing a base in San Antonio and playing every game on the road amid speculation that owner Tom Benson might not bring them back to New Orleans.

Even now, a high-rise hotel, an office tower and an upscale shopping center stand empty just a few hundred feet from the stadium, with white boards covering blown-out windows. A few miles away, entire neighborhoods are wastelands of decaying houses.

Johnson and his neighbors held their party outdoors because none had room inside their trailers.

Amid the desolation, some residents could not bring themselves to celebrate the team's return.

Irma Warner, 71, and her husband, Pascal Warner, 80, live in an apartment in suburban Metairie while working six days a week to restore a home flooded by 7 feet of water in New Orleans' Lakeview neighborhood.

"We rode around through the 9th Ward," Irma Warner said. "When I saw that, I thought, 'How can they spend $185-million on the Superdome. What about all these poor people?' "

But she appeared to be in the minority. Downtown offices and City Hall shut down early in anticipation of crowds at the Superdome. Teachers promised to assign little homework so students could watch on television.

Tanyha Brown of Metairie said her husband was leaving work early so they could attend the festivities outside the Superdome. With no game tickets, they planned to watch from a nearby bar.

"This is the best holiday since Mardi Gras," Brown said.

Late Sunday

Javon Walker had touchdown catches of 32 and 83 yards and Denver's defense did the rest in a 17-7 victory over host New England.

Walker scored just the second and third touchdowns this season for the Broncos on passes from Jake Plummer. But Denver is 2-1 largely because of a defense that hadn't allowed a touchdown all year until Tom Brady's 8-yard pass to Doug Gabriel in the fourth quarter.

"I hated it," Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey said. "I wanted the goose egg."

[Last modified September 26, 2006, 01:37:04]