I have to say something about what’s happened in New Orleans. I’ll try to tie it into sports, but only as an afterthought.

My first thought is this: how can you have a city in which you know that if a levee breaks, it’s going to be flooded, and not be better prepared for it? I just don’t get it. Okay, maybe you think it’s unlikely. But why have that gamble? If you think about it, it’s not even really accurate to say that Hurricane Katrina caused the major damage. Yes it was the hurricane that broke the levee. But it was the flooding that caused the damage, which could have happened if there were a terrorist strike on the levee, or a plane crashing into it, or an asteroid hitting it – yes, a little farfetched, but the point is, the potential for such a flood has always been there even in ways for which you’d have no preparation at all!

Should the federal response have been better? Maybe, but is the president supposed to know every potential emergency management situation for each and every city in the entire United States? Isn’t that up to the city itself, and to a lesser degree, the state in which the city belongs? It’s unfathomable that they weren’t better prepared.

And now the New Orleans Saints are possibly going to be playing their home games in San Antonio, Texas, which means it will be like a free test run, because the owner Tom Benson has been considering moving the team there. Is it right to exploit this situation for that purpose? I think not. It certainly seems like it would be a good opportunity to try out that market, or for the NFL to bring a team to LA again and give that a go. But I don’t think we should be looking for any “good opportunities” here, apart from “opportunities” to learn from the tragic events and not make the same mistakes again.

Yes, of course the Saints should play this season. But keep them in the state of Louisiana, like LSU's Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge. It certainly won’t be any solace for those who have lost loved ones. But it won’t feel like one of the city’s staples, the Saints, are running away too.