Sports & the hurricane - Page 2

Galaxy · 09-06-2005, 08:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Farrah Whitworth-Rahn

ASU - LSU game on Sept. 10 to be played in Tempe, AZ. The She-Rahn Bed and Breakfast has vacancies.

Linky

Will fun at sucking be provided?

Farrah Whitworth-Rahn · 09-06-2005, 08:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Galaxy

Will fun at sucking be provided?

I am never going to live that down, am I?

Farrah Whitworth-Rahn · 09-06-2005, 08:42 PM

Delayed dola -

More details on the LSU/ASU game on Saturday.

link

Quote:

6:15 kickoff set for LSU game

The Arizona Republic
Sept. 6, 2005

Officials have set a 6:15 p.m. kickoff for Saturday's Arizona State-Louisiana State game at Sun Devil Stadium.

The game was relocated to Tempe from Baton Rouge, La., because the LSU campus is being used for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. All proceeds after expenses will benefit the relief efforts.

Tickets, priced at $50 and $30, are being sold online at www.thesundevils.com to ASU season ticket holders and will be made available to the general public starting at 2 p.m. Wednesday

ice4277 · 09-06-2005, 08:50 PM

This thread is boring without personal insults.

JW · 09-06-2005, 10:01 PM

Picked this up from and LSU fan forum:

SI article from Rick Reilly for this week (LSU)

Sports? No, sports had absolutely nothing to do with the Gulf Coast's trying to survive Hurricane Katrina.

Except that while the fifth-ranked LSU football team practiced in Baton Rouge, about 80 miles northwest of New Orleans, the coaches were hollering above the drone of helicopters, 20 in all, dropping off evacuees.

Except the infield of the outdoor track was being used as a heliport 24 hours a day.

Except that the basketball arena, Pete Maravich Assembly Center, had been turned into a two-hooped hospital. Triage was where the band plays during games. Dialysis was where the scorekeepers sit. And pediatrics was where students usually wail. People still lined up outside to get in, though. It's just that they were all on stretchers.

No, sports weren't at all involved, except that the field house next door was a patient ward. And the baseball stadium was an evacuee processing center.

Katrina chaos was everywhere. In the LSU sports information office, student assistant Bill Martin couldn't sleep after volunteering at the Maravich Center, so he decided to urge his friends to help out by e-mailing them about what he'd seen.

Blackhawk helicopters were carrying in victims who'd been stranded on roofs. Buses rolled in from New Orleans.... A lady fell out of her wheelchair and we scrambled to help her up.... A man from New Orleans was badly injured on his head. Five minutes later he was dead. Mothers were giving birth in the locker rooms.... A man was rolled in on a stretcher [suffering from] gunshots. A paramedic said a looter needed his boat and he wouldn't give it to him.... The auxiliary gym was being used as a morgue. I couldn't take myself down there to see it.

Martin's friends should have heard the story of his colleague Jason Feirman. He was stranded on I-10, near the police roadblock 20 minutes outside New Orleans, when a displaced and distraught woman snapped and walked straight into traffic. Feirman jumped out of his car, sprinted down the highway, grabbed the woman and dragged her to the shoulder.

It was a week none will forget, much as they would like to. The Tigers' starting quarterback, sophomore JaMarcus Russell, had a lot on his mind too -- the team's game this Saturday night against Arizona State and the 22 displaced people in his three-bedroom apartment. The guy sleeping on his couch? Fats Domino.

Domino, the R&B icon who'd been listed in the papers as missing for two days, is the granddad of Russell's girlfriend, Chantel Brimmer. After the levees gave way in New Orleans, Domino was trapped on the second floor of his house. He was rescued by boat and taken to the makeshift hospital at the Maravich Center. Russell happened to be volunteering there that night -- as so many LSU athletes were -- bumped into Domino and took him home.

Since then the quarterback has been attending to the people in his apartment. "I've been staying up real late getting medicine and stuff," a bleary-eyed Russell said. "Plus, I couldn't eat after what I saw [at the Maravich Center]."

Is he worried about losing the big game? "What's losing a game," he said, "when people are losing their kids, their parents, their houses? Nothing."

Just ask Russell's teammate, defensive end Donald Hains. As of Sunday he still hadn't heard from his parents, who live in Diamond Head, Miss., which took a direct hit from Katrina. "I'm glad I have football," Hains said. "It's my only escape."

The LSU equipment manager, Greg Stringfellow, was up to his clipboard in everything but football. "The Minnesota Vikings just called," he said, staring at his Blackberry during Saturday's practice. "They're sending two semis full of supplies." A Detroit Lions fan named Vince Soulsby was sending 25. Out in the parking lot LSU athletes had already filled up one tractor-trailer with stuff they had donated or collected on their own.

Everybody in the athletic department was in chin-deep. Driving to campus, the football team's trainer, Jack Marucci heard a plea from the hoop hospital over the radio: Vaseline, gauze and 20cc syringes were desperately needed. Hey, Marucci said to himself, I have all that. Fifteen minutes later, he delivered them.

So, no, sports had nothing to do with the Gulf Coast's surviving Katrina, except everything. And that's because you always forget what sports can provide -- can-do staff, fit and focused athletes, and huge, versatile arenas -- in times of trouble.

Inside the field house-hospital, half the patients wore LSU purple and gold because so many students had donated clothing. As I gazed out at that sea of beds, I thought it looked as if the school's booster club was fresh from a train pileup.

"I never used to root for LSU much," said one purple-shirted diabetic, who'd been rescued by boat from the flooded Charity Hospital in New Orleans, "but after this, I guess we're all fans."

Issue date: September 12, 2005

albionmoonlight · 09-08-2005, 03:23 PM

The Giants were supposed to open the phone lines earlier today for Saints season ticket holders to get first crack at tickets for the Saints home game in New York. Then the Giants season ticket holders would get the opportunity to buy tickets. Then, in the unlikely event that any were left, the general public would get some.

According to the Saints message boards, the phone lines have been down/busy all day. Now, the Giants fans are allowed to start buying, and any Giants season ticket holder can get tickets through ticketmaster. And they, of course, are.

I understand the realities that forced the Saints to play a home game on the road, but I am dissapointed that the Saints fans who were ready and able to go to the game will now not be able to based on the Giants ticket sales office (or whoever was in charge of selling those tickets).

This would have been a good opportunity for some people to lose themselves for three hours and begin healing.

Galaxy · 09-08-2005, 03:41 PM

Didn't the Saints season ticket holders already pay?

st.cronin · 09-08-2005, 03:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JW

Picked this up from and LSU fan forum:

SI article from Rick Reilly for this week (LSU)

Sports? No, sports had absolutely nothing to do with the Gulf Coast's trying to survive Hurricane Katrina.

Except that while the fifth-ranked LSU football team practiced in Baton Rouge, about 80 miles northwest of New Orleans, the coaches were hollering above the drone of helicopters, 20 in all, dropping off evacuees.

Except the infield of the outdoor track was being used as a heliport 24 hours a day.

Except that the basketball arena, Pete Maravich Assembly Center, had been turned into a two-hooped hospital. Triage was where the band plays during games. Dialysis was where the scorekeepers sit. And pediatrics was where students usually wail. People still lined up outside to get in, though. It's just that they were all on stretchers.

No, sports weren't at all involved, except that the field house next door was a patient ward. And the baseball stadium was an evacuee processing center.

Katrina chaos was everywhere. In the LSU sports information office, student assistant Bill Martin couldn't sleep after volunteering at the Maravich Center, so he decided to urge his friends to help out by e-mailing them about what he'd seen.

Blackhawk helicopters were carrying in victims who'd been stranded on roofs. Buses rolled in from New Orleans.... A lady fell out of her wheelchair and we scrambled to help her up.... A man from New Orleans was badly injured on his head. Five minutes later he was dead. Mothers were giving birth in the locker rooms.... A man was rolled in on a stretcher [suffering from] gunshots. A paramedic said a looter needed his boat and he wouldn't give it to him.... The auxiliary gym was being used as a morgue. I couldn't take myself down there to see it.

Martin's friends should have heard the story of his colleague Jason Feirman. He was stranded on I-10, near the police roadblock 20 minutes outside New Orleans, when a displaced and distraught woman snapped and walked straight into traffic. Feirman jumped out of his car, sprinted down the highway, grabbed the woman and dragged her to the shoulder.

It was a week none will forget, much as they would like to. The Tigers' starting quarterback, sophomore JaMarcus Russell, had a lot on his mind too -- the team's game this Saturday night against Arizona State and the 22 displaced people in his three-bedroom apartment. The guy sleeping on his couch? Fats Domino.

Domino, the R&B icon who'd been listed in the papers as missing for two days, is the granddad of Russell's girlfriend, Chantel Brimmer. After the levees gave way in New Orleans, Domino was trapped on the second floor of his house. He was rescued by boat and taken to the makeshift hospital at the Maravich Center. Russell happened to be volunteering there that night -- as so many LSU athletes were -- bumped into Domino and took him home.

Since then the quarterback has been attending to the people in his apartment. "I've been staying up real late getting medicine and stuff," a bleary-eyed Russell said. "Plus, I couldn't eat after what I saw [at the Maravich Center]."

Is he worried about losing the big game? "What's losing a game," he said, "when people are losing their kids, their parents, their houses? Nothing."

Just ask Russell's teammate, defensive end Donald Hains. As of Sunday he still hadn't heard from his parents, who live in Diamond Head, Miss., which took a direct hit from Katrina. "I'm glad I have football," Hains said. "It's my only escape."

The LSU equipment manager, Greg Stringfellow, was up to his clipboard in everything but football. "The Minnesota Vikings just called," he said, staring at his Blackberry during Saturday's practice. "They're sending two semis full of supplies." A Detroit Lions fan named Vince Soulsby was sending 25. Out in the parking lot LSU athletes had already filled up one tractor-trailer with stuff they had donated or collected on their own.

Everybody in the athletic department was in chin-deep. Driving to campus, the football team's trainer, Jack Marucci heard a plea from the hoop hospital over the radio: Vaseline, gauze and 20cc syringes were desperately needed. Hey, Marucci said to himself, I have all that. Fifteen minutes later, he delivered them.

So, no, sports had nothing to do with the Gulf Coast's surviving Katrina, except everything. And that's because you always forget what sports can provide -- can-do staff, fit and focused athletes, and huge, versatile arenas -- in times of trouble.

Inside the field house-hospital, half the patients wore LSU purple and gold because so many students had donated clothing. As I gazed out at that sea of beds, I thought it looked as if the school's booster club was fresh from a train pileup.

"I never used to root for LSU much," said one purple-shirted diabetic, who'd been rescued by boat from the flooded Charity Hospital in New Orleans, "but after this, I guess we're all fans."

Issue date: September 12, 2005

I am all verklemmpt after that. I guess I'll be pulling for the Tigers this weekend.

albionmoonlight · 09-08-2005, 03:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Galaxy

Didn't the Saints season ticket holders already pay?

I think that the deal was that they could either get tickets to the Giants game or get a refund.

Wolfpack · 09-09-2005, 09:59 AM

Latest word is that four games will be in San Antonio and the other three will be in Baton Rouge.

Link

As a Panthers fan, it's interesting to note that the only divisional home game in Baton Rouge (presumably where they'd have a larger, more vocal crowd) is against Carolina. The Falcons and Bucs both are proposed to play in San Antonio.

Cringer · 09-12-2005, 05:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wolfpack

Latest word is that four games will be in San Antonio and the other three will be in Baton Rouge.

Link

As a Panthers fan, it's interesting to note that the only divisional home game in Baton Rouge (presumably where they'd have a larger, more vocal crowd) is against Carolina. The Falcons and Bucs both are proposed to play in San Antonio.

On PTI on ESPN, they just said the home schedule for the Saints was released.

-The game at New York for their first home game. (Stupid crap IMO)
-Then 2 game at San Antonio
-Then 4 games in a row in Baton Rouge
-Then the last 1 in San Antonio

Nice that they try to give this team some stability, like having all or most of their games in one city.

EDIT: I guess I had this te order of the San Antonio games wrong a little according to the ESPN story below.

Cringer · 09-12-2005, 05:06 PM

dola- http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2159595

NEW YORK -- The New Orleans Saints will play four home games at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La., and three in the Alamodome in San Antonio this season.

Saints 2005 home schedule
• Week 2 (Sept. 19): New York Giants at East Rutherford, N.J.
• Week 4 (Oct. 2): Buffalo at San Antonio
• Week 6 (Oct. 16): Atlanta at San Antonio
• Week 8 (Oct. 30): Miami at Baton Rouge, La.
• Week 9 (Nov. 6): Chicago at Baton Rouge, La.
• Week 13 (Dec. 4): Tampa Bay at Baton Rouge, La.
• Week 15 (Dec. 18): Carolina at Baton Rouge, La.
• Week 16 (Dec. 24): Detroit at San Antonio

--The Associated Press

The Saints, displaced when Hurricane Katrina devastated the New Orleans area and their Superdome home, will play the weekends of Oct. 30-31, Nov. 6-7, Dec. 4-5 and Dec. 17-19 on the campus of LSU in Baton Rouge. The San Antonio games will be on the weekends of Oct. 2-3, Oct. 16-17 and Dec. 24-26.

Specific days and starting times for those games have not been determined.

Wolfpack · 09-12-2005, 07:35 PM

Bet they'd have preferred to played Vick and the Falcons in Baton Rouge, where it'd be outdoors (and I think on real grass, or does LSU have FieldTurf now?). Then again, they're used to indoor contests against the Falcons seeing as both Atlanta and NO play in domes.

That begs a question. Does anyone know what Vick's stats and record are in an indoor/outdoor split? I'm curious as to whether he's Favre's mirror image (Favre being great outdoors but lousy in domes).

JonInMiddleGA · 09-12-2005, 07:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wolfpack

That begs a question. Does anyone know what Vick's stats and record are in an indoor/outdoor split?

I didn't see a split for his record, but here's last season by surface.
http://www.nfl.com/players/playerpag...53/splits/2004

Code:

CAT 	G 	Att 	Comp 	Pct 	Yds 	YPA 	Lg 	TD 	Int 	1st 	1rst % 	20+ 	Sac 	Rate
ON ARTIFICIAL 	8	182	102	56.0	1366	7.51	62	8	7	59	57.8	21	28	78.7
ON GRASS FIELDS	7	139	79	56.8	947	6.81	56	6	5	44	55.7	14	18	77.2
INDOOR GAMES	8	182	102	56.0	1366	7.51	62	8	7	59	57.8	21	28	78.7
OUTDOOR GAMES	7	139	79	56.8	947	6.81	56	6	5	44	55.7	14	18	77.2
HOME GAMES	8	182	102	56.0	1366	7.51	62	8	7	59	57.8	21	28	78.7
ROAD GAMES	7	139	79	56.8	947	6.81	56	6	5	44	55.7	14	18	77.2

Wolfpack · 09-12-2005, 07:44 PM

Thanks. Also looked over his rush numbers and he does seem to perform the same regardless of place or surface. I would have thought his quickness would lend itself to greater numbers on turf.

JonInMiddleGA · 09-12-2005, 09:19 PM

http://sports.myway.com/news/09122005/v0041.html

AUBURN, Ala. (AP) - An Auburn football player who spent days believing his two younger brothers were killed in Hurricane Katrina and not knowing his father's whereabouts has discovered that all three are alive and staying in Houston.

Alonzo Horton, a New Orleans native, said he learned Sunday night that his family members were alive after calling a cousin to tell them of the boys' deaths.

"He said, 'Man, that didn't happen because your daddy's right here with me. I was like, 'What?"' Horton said Monday.

"I heard their voice and the phone died out, so I knew that they were OK."

Horton said another cousin had told him 6-year-old Delorean and Jerry, who just turned 8, died after taking refuge in the Abramson High School gymnasium in New Orleans. Horton had said Saturday that his father remained unaccounted for.

He said that was the only confirmation he had received of their deaths. Horton's mother and other family members are staying in Atlanta.

His reaction to the good news?

"Just a sigh of relief," he said. "I can't really explain how I felt when I heard that. I just can't wait to see them. I can't wait to talk to them again.

"I still kept hope in the back of my mind," Horton said. "I prayed every night that they were all right."

Horton said he didn't know whether the youngsters ever took shelter in the gym.

"I don't know and I don't really care about it, as long as they're OK," he said.

JonInMiddleGA · 09-14-2005, 12:00 PM

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/spor...trinancaa.html

Published on: 09/14/05

KINGSTON, R.I. — Division I basketball and football players from schools closed by Hurricane Katrina will still have to sit out for a year if they transfer to one of the many colleges that have offered admission, NCAA president Myles Brand said Tuesday.

The NCAA said last month that it would bend some rules to help students and schools deal with the hurricane, including letting students compete without attending classes.

But during an appearance at the University of Rhode Island, Brand said the only rule the NCAA would not bend was the one that requires Division I basketball, football and hockey players to sit a one year if they transfer to another Division I school. In other sports, Division I athletes can transfer and play immediately at another Division I school if they receive a release from the original university.

Brand said the decision was made because the members of some teams, including at least one from Tulane, planned to transfer together to one school. That could lead to the new school taking the entire team as its own, Brand said.

"Let me call that athletic looting, to be provocative, and we won't stand for that," he said.

Some coaches at hurricane-affected schools in and around New Orleans had complained to the NCAA that coaches at other schools had tried to raid their teams and recruit their players, NCAA spokesman Wally Renfro said.

Renfro said the NCAA expects many hurricane-affected schools to continue to compete this year — even if they don't have classes.

Other schools affected by the hurricane include LSU and New Orleans.

The NCAA has eased some other rules, including those prohibiting athletes from taking financial assistance from outside sources, and those that require students to be enrolled full-time at their college and university.

JonInMiddleGA · 09-20-2005, 09:57 PM

Pretty good read by Ric Bucher from ESPN The Magazine, about the NBA stars visit to storm ravaged Mississippi.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/column...ric&id=2165241

Crapshoot · 09-20-2005, 10:04 PM

One more eason the NCAA is full of shit. Jeaporadize a kid's shot at big time because you want to keep your serfdom alive ? what a miserable system.

Galaxy · 09-20-2005, 10:29 PM

The Sugar Bowl will likely be played in either Atlanta or Baton Rogue. I think Atlanta will get it (due to lack of experience and space to host such a big event, plus Atlanta is a "sexier" reward-though not as thrilling as Miami or Phoenix). I wonder if the Superdome is torn down, what will happen with the game?

09-12-2005, 05:06 PM	#62
Cringer Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Edinburg,TX	dola- http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2159595 NEW YORK -- The New Orleans Saints will play four home games at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La., and three in the Alamodome in San Antonio this season. Saints 2005 home schedule • Week 2 (Sept. 19): New York Giants at East Rutherford, N.J. • Week 4 (Oct. 2): Buffalo at San Antonio • Week 6 (Oct. 16): Atlanta at San Antonio • Week 8 (Oct. 30): Miami at Baton Rouge, La. • Week 9 (Nov. 6): Chicago at Baton Rouge, La. • Week 13 (Dec. 4): Tampa Bay at Baton Rouge, La. • Week 15 (Dec. 18): Carolina at Baton Rouge, La. • Week 16 (Dec. 24): Detroit at San Antonio --The Associated Press The Saints, displaced when Hurricane Katrina devastated the New Orleans area and their Superdome home, will play the weekends of Oct. 30-31, Nov. 6-7, Dec. 4-5 and Dec. 17-19 on the campus of LSU in Baton Rouge. The San Antonio games will be on the weekends of Oct. 2-3, Oct. 16-17 and Dec. 24-26. Specific days and starting times for those games have not been determined. __________________ You Stole Fizzy Lifting drinks! You bumped into the ceiling which now has to be washed and steralized, so you get NOTHING! You lose!

09-12-2005, 09:19 PM	#66
JonInMiddleGA Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Behind Enemy Lines in Athens, GA	http://sports.myway.com/news/09122005/v0041.html AUBURN, Ala. (AP) - An Auburn football player who spent days believing his two younger brothers were killed in Hurricane Katrina and not knowing his father's whereabouts has discovered that all three are alive and staying in Houston. Alonzo Horton, a New Orleans native, said he learned Sunday night that his family members were alive after calling a cousin to tell them of the boys' deaths. "He said, 'Man, that didn't happen because your daddy's right here with me. I was like, 'What?"' Horton said Monday. "I heard their voice and the phone died out, so I knew that they were OK." Horton said another cousin had told him 6-year-old Delorean and Jerry, who just turned 8, died after taking refuge in the Abramson High School gymnasium in New Orleans. Horton had said Saturday that his father remained unaccounted for. He said that was the only confirmation he had received of their deaths. Horton's mother and other family members are staying in Atlanta. His reaction to the good news? "Just a sigh of relief," he said. "I can't really explain how I felt when I heard that. I just can't wait to see them. I can't wait to talk to them again. "I still kept hope in the back of my mind," Horton said. "I prayed every night that they were all right." Horton said he didn't know whether the youngsters ever took shelter in the gym. "I don't know and I don't really care about it, as long as they're OK," he said. __________________ "I lit another cigarette. Unless I specifically inform you to the contrary, I am always lighting another cigarette." - from a novel by Martin Amis

09-14-2005, 12:00 PM	#67
JonInMiddleGA Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Behind Enemy Lines in Athens, GA	http://www.ajc.com/news/content/spor...trinancaa.html Published on: 09/14/05 KINGSTON, R.I. — Division I basketball and football players from schools closed by Hurricane Katrina will still have to sit out for a year if they transfer to one of the many colleges that have offered admission, NCAA president Myles Brand said Tuesday. The NCAA said last month that it would bend some rules to help students and schools deal with the hurricane, including letting students compete without attending classes. But during an appearance at the University of Rhode Island, Brand said the only rule the NCAA would not bend was the one that requires Division I basketball, football and hockey players to sit a one year if they transfer to another Division I school. In other sports, Division I athletes can transfer and play immediately at another Division I school if they receive a release from the original university. Brand said the decision was made because the members of some teams, including at least one from Tulane, planned to transfer together to one school. That could lead to the new school taking the entire team as its own, Brand said. "Let me call that athletic looting, to be provocative, and we won't stand for that," he said. Some coaches at hurricane-affected schools in and around New Orleans had complained to the NCAA that coaches at other schools had tried to raid their teams and recruit their players, NCAA spokesman Wally Renfro said. Renfro said the NCAA expects many hurricane-affected schools to continue to compete this year — even if they don't have classes. Other schools affected by the hurricane include LSU and New Orleans. The NCAA has eased some other rules, including those prohibiting athletes from taking financial assistance from outside sources, and those that require students to be enrolled full-time at their college and university. __________________ "I lit another cigarette. Unless I specifically inform you to the contrary, I am always lighting another cigarette." - from a novel by Martin Amis

09-20-2005, 09:57 PM	#68
JonInMiddleGA Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Behind Enemy Lines in Athens, GA	Pretty good read by Ric Bucher from ESPN The Magazine, about the NBA stars visit to storm ravaged Mississippi. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/column...ric&id=2165241 __________________ "I lit another cigarette. Unless I specifically inform you to the contrary, I am always lighting another cigarette." - from a novel by Martin Amis

09-06-2005, 08:50 PM	#54
ice4277 Pro Rookie Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Berkley, MI: The Hotbed of FOFC!	This thread is boring without personal insults.

09-06-2005, 10:01 PM	#55
JW College Prospect Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Monroe, LA, USA	Picked this up from and LSU fan forum: SI article from Rick Reilly for this week (LSU) Sports? No, sports had absolutely nothing to do with the Gulf Coast's trying to survive Hurricane Katrina. Except that while the fifth-ranked LSU football team practiced in Baton Rouge, about 80 miles northwest of New Orleans, the coaches were hollering above the drone of helicopters, 20 in all, dropping off evacuees. Except the infield of the outdoor track was being used as a heliport 24 hours a day. Except that the basketball arena, Pete Maravich Assembly Center, had been turned into a two-hooped hospital. Triage was where the band plays during games. Dialysis was where the scorekeepers sit. And pediatrics was where students usually wail. People still lined up outside to get in, though. It's just that they were all on stretchers. No, sports weren't at all involved, except that the field house next door was a patient ward. And the baseball stadium was an evacuee processing center. Katrina chaos was everywhere. In the LSU sports information office, student assistant Bill Martin couldn't sleep after volunteering at the Maravich Center, so he decided to urge his friends to help out by e-mailing them about what he'd seen. Blackhawk helicopters were carrying in victims who'd been stranded on roofs. Buses rolled in from New Orleans.... A lady fell out of her wheelchair and we scrambled to help her up.... A man from New Orleans was badly injured on his head. Five minutes later he was dead. Mothers were giving birth in the locker rooms.... A man was rolled in on a stretcher [suffering from] gunshots. A paramedic said a looter needed his boat and he wouldn't give it to him.... The auxiliary gym was being used as a morgue. I couldn't take myself down there to see it. Martin's friends should have heard the story of his colleague Jason Feirman. He was stranded on I-10, near the police roadblock 20 minutes outside New Orleans, when a displaced and distraught woman snapped and walked straight into traffic. Feirman jumped out of his car, sprinted down the highway, grabbed the woman and dragged her to the shoulder. It was a week none will forget, much as they would like to. The Tigers' starting quarterback, sophomore JaMarcus Russell, had a lot on his mind too -- the team's game this Saturday night against Arizona State and the 22 displaced people in his three-bedroom apartment. The guy sleeping on his couch? Fats Domino. Domino, the R&B icon who'd been listed in the papers as missing for two days, is the granddad of Russell's girlfriend, Chantel Brimmer. After the levees gave way in New Orleans, Domino was trapped on the second floor of his house. He was rescued by boat and taken to the makeshift hospital at the Maravich Center. Russell happened to be volunteering there that night -- as so many LSU athletes were -- bumped into Domino and took him home. Since then the quarterback has been attending to the people in his apartment. "I've been staying up real late getting medicine and stuff," a bleary-eyed Russell said. "Plus, I couldn't eat after what I saw [at the Maravich Center]." Is he worried about losing the big game? "What's losing a game," he said, "when people are losing their kids, their parents, their houses? Nothing." Just ask Russell's teammate, defensive end Donald Hains. As of Sunday he still hadn't heard from his parents, who live in Diamond Head, Miss., which took a direct hit from Katrina. "I'm glad I have football," Hains said. "It's my only escape." The LSU equipment manager, Greg Stringfellow, was up to his clipboard in everything but football. "The Minnesota Vikings just called," he said, staring at his Blackberry during Saturday's practice. "They're sending two semis full of supplies." A Detroit Lions fan named Vince Soulsby was sending 25. Out in the parking lot LSU athletes had already filled up one tractor-trailer with stuff they had donated or collected on their own. Everybody in the athletic department was in chin-deep. Driving to campus, the football team's trainer, Jack Marucci heard a plea from the hoop hospital over the radio: Vaseline, gauze and 20cc syringes were desperately needed. Hey, Marucci said to himself, I have all that. Fifteen minutes later, he delivered them. So, no, sports had nothing to do with the Gulf Coast's surviving Katrina, except everything. And that's because you always forget what sports can provide -- can-do staff, fit and focused athletes, and huge, versatile arenas -- in times of trouble. Inside the field house-hospital, half the patients wore LSU purple and gold because so many students had donated clothing. As I gazed out at that sea of beds, I thought it looked as if the school's booster club was fresh from a train pileup. "I never used to root for LSU much," said one purple-shirted diabetic, who'd been rescued by boat from the flooded Charity Hospital in New Orleans, "but after this, I guess we're all fans." Issue date: September 12, 2005

09-08-2005, 03:23 PM	#56
albionmoonlight Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: North Carolina	The Giants were supposed to open the phone lines earlier today for Saints season ticket holders to get first crack at tickets for the Saints home game in New York. Then the Giants season ticket holders would get the opportunity to buy tickets. Then, in the unlikely event that any were left, the general public would get some. According to the Saints message boards, the phone lines have been down/busy all day. Now, the Giants fans are allowed to start buying, and any Giants season ticket holder can get tickets through ticketmaster. And they, of course, are. I understand the realities that forced the Saints to play a home game on the road, but I am dissapointed that the Saints fans who were ready and able to go to the game will now not be able to based on the Giants ticket sales office (or whoever was in charge of selling those tickets). This would have been a good opportunity for some people to lose themselves for three hours and begin healing.

09-08-2005, 03:41 PM	#57
Galaxy Coordinator Join Date: Apr 2005	Didn't the Saints season ticket holders already pay?

09-09-2005, 09:59 AM	#60
Wolfpack Pro Rookie Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Raleigh, NC	Latest word is that four games will be in San Antonio and the other three will be in Baton Rouge. Link As a Panthers fan, it's interesting to note that the only divisional home game in Baton Rouge (presumably where they'd have a larger, more vocal crowd) is against Carolina. The Falcons and Bucs both are proposed to play in San Antonio.

09-12-2005, 07:35 PM	#63
Wolfpack Pro Rookie Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Raleigh, NC	Bet they'd have preferred to played Vick and the Falcons in Baton Rouge, where it'd be outdoors (and I think on real grass, or does LSU have FieldTurf now?). Then again, they're used to indoor contests against the Falcons seeing as both Atlanta and NO play in domes. That begs a question. Does anyone know what Vick's stats and record are in an indoor/outdoor split? I'm curious as to whether he's Favre's mirror image (Favre being great outdoors but lousy in domes).

09-12-2005, 07:44 PM	#65
Wolfpack Pro Rookie Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Raleigh, NC	Thanks. Also looked over his rush numbers and he does seem to perform the same regardless of place or surface. I would have thought his quickness would lend itself to greater numbers on turf.

09-20-2005, 10:04 PM	#69
Crapshoot Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Dec 2003	One more eason the NCAA is full of shit. Jeaporadize a kid's shot at big time because you want to keep your serfdom alive ? what a miserable system.

09-20-2005, 10:29 PM	#70
Galaxy Coordinator Join Date: Apr 2005	The Sugar Bowl will likely be played in either Atlanta or Baton Rogue. I think Atlanta will get it (due to lack of experience and space to host such a big event, plus Atlanta is a "sexier" reward-though not as thrilling as Miami or Phoenix). I wonder if the Superdome is torn down, what will happen with the game?

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