Displaced by Hurricane Ida, the New Orleans Saints went back to work Monday about 500 miles away in the home of another NFL team.
Saints players and staff, along with about 120 family members, relocated to North Texas in advance of the storm that made landfall south of New Orleans on Sunday as a powerful Category 4 hurricane with winds of 150 mph, and left that entire area without power.
Coach Sean Payton said the team will practice through Wednesday at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys. That comes before a previously planned break leading into the start of the regular season.
“Left behind are obviously apartments, condominiums, homes. Those are all physical things. Nonetheless, they’re still home for so many people,” Payton said Monday. “We had a team meeting this morning, kind of hit on some topics. And then, you know, I think to some degree that going out and being able to practice today is going to be good for everyone, because from afar, there’s only so much you can do.”
The Saints are then scheduled to resume practice next Monday, though Payton said that it would be unrealistic to believe that would be at their headquarters in Metairie, Louisiana, even though initial reports from people there indicated that the facility handled the storm “overall pretty well.”
Payton said he had heard nothing about the scheduled Sept. 12 season opener at home against the Green Bay Packers that is to be played in the Superdome.
“Obviously we’ll have a plan B. And, you know, there are a lot of other things probably from a priority standpoint that are more important for our city,” Payton said. “But that all being said, you know, we fully anticipate starting the regular season with Green Bay and then the question would be where that game’s at.”
The office of Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards has described damage to the area’s power grid appeared “catastrophic,” and officials warned it could be weeks before power is fully restored.
When Ida was in the Gulf of Mexico with a projected path toward the Gulf Coast region, the Saints’ third and final pregame game that was supposed to be played in the Superdome last Saturday was canceled.
So they played only two preseason games, and had to relocate for the final practices before the final roster reduction to 53 players has to be made Tuesday.
The arrival of Ida came 16 years to the day after Katrina devastated New Orleans. The Saints were forced to move for the entire 2005 season, setting up operations in San Antonio while playing home games there and in Baton Rouge at LSU. New Orleans also played one “home” game at Giants Stadium.
That was before the current regime led by Payton joined the franchise. The Saints went 3-13 in 2005, but spurred on by the quick restoration of the Louisiana Superdome, they went 10-6 and won the NFC South the next year.
In 2012, the Saints evacuated to Cincinnati when Hurricane Isaac, a much less powerful storm, approached New Orleans and made landfall with winds of about 80 mph.
“We were there for a couple of days and came back. Our area had not been truly affected, so we were back to normal,” said six-time Pro Bowl defensive end Cam Jordan, who was a second-year Saints player then and is still with the team.
“Now, we wake up this morning and it’s a lot more damage than there was in 2012 for sure. I’ve got friends, I’ve got connections, I’ve got a family based in New Orleans. So we’re catching the aftermath, … From 2012 to now, it’s completely different.”
After seeing pictures of his house, Jordan said it will need some immediate attention, including a new roof.
“The greatest thing that I can hold is that my family is safe. They came with us to Dallas,” he said. “As long as they’re OK, for me, whatever happened to our house, whatever has happened to our property in New Orleans, that’s just materialistic.”