The Year of the Phoenix Rising

The Year of the Saints. For Saints fans that's every year. Every year we gear up for a season. The Saints may start 6-0 then it goes downhill from there. Only year that was magical was 2006. The offseason was our best to date. We hired an offensive minded firecracker in Sean Payton. We took a chance on Drew Brees after his shoulder injury. The Houston Texans drafted Mario Williams, and we could draft Reggie Bush, the most explosive college player in recent history. Unbeknownst to most we drafted with our final pick Marques Colston which would prove to be the best steal of the game.

September 25, 2006 we knew it would be a magical year. It was the first game in the Louisiana Superdome since Hurricane Katrina. The Saints were playing our arch rivals Atlanta Falcons at home. It was Monday Night Football on prime time television. On the fourth play of the game backup safety Steve Gleason blocked the punt and defensive back Curtis Deloacth fell on the ball in the endzone for the Saints' first score. The Superdome erupted. As I watched on television I could remember a year before when I was in the Superdome sitting uncertain, scared, and powerless. Yes, I went to the Superdome as Hurricane Katrina approached. My grandmother (bed ridden), mother and brother and I fled to the Superdome. While walking in the mass hysteria I met a couple who was vacationing in New Orleans from New York. They couldn't get a flight out of New Orleans. The pain of their eyes haunts me today.

As I watched the game I thought about telling my mother to leave my brother and me. God would protect us. She left with my grandmother on an ambulance. That's when I broke down. My brother and I were looking for the family we made friends with just a day before. In that chaos I wanted something familiar. I searched and searched. I got frustrated. My brother heard it in my voice. My vulnerability reared its ugly head. I kept thinking not now. I had to be strong if not only for myself but for my little brother who was 16 at the time. My frustration led me to sit in the sea of people and cry. My brother told me he needed to use the restroom. Desperately, I told him that he'd better come back. He did with the good news of finding our 'new family.' That day I saw my brother becoming a man not just the little boy I once knew. He was my protector as much I was his. Not only we found that family after a few mishaps with FEMA (long story) at the New Orleans Arena we decided to walk out of there and go home on the Westbank.

I never thought I would walk across the Mississippi River Bridge, but I did at least halfway. When we got to the final entrance to get the Westbank a couple of guys in a truck told us that he would take us to DeGaulle. We got in with our 'new family.' We walked back to my grandmother's house unaware how much devastation had taken place to our wonderful city, New Orleans. It was there that my aunt called my grandmother's house by mistake and I answered. At least my family was connected at least by phone. Once they knew everyone called my grandmother's houe to check on us. Then my estranged uncle called and said that someone was picking us to bring us to Houston to be with him.

Houston would become my home for two years. New Jersey would become my brother's home for two years as he finished and graduated from high school. But all of those memories came rushing back as I watched Green Day and U2 played 'The Saints are Coming.' As I think about those memories even today some are painful, I know that I can get through anything. I've accomplished many things since Hurricane Katrina. I've become a better person since then. I'm becoming more patient with myself, for I know that I can and will. Now Saints it's 2009. We've picked up some key players in the offseason on defense. It's time to shine not just for winning sake. We have to show that we can and will overcome anything. I know I will.