Imitating a Saint

It couldn't happen. \nHell -- no one could even ask for it to happen. \nAfter everything the New Orleans Saints had gone through, they couldn't be expected to win their opening game of the season, not after what Hurricane Katrina had done to their city. Oh yeah, and facing a Super Bowl-caliber team in the Carolina Panthers wasn't supposed to help either.\nBut as we all watched the game or flipped to our box scores in the newspapers yesterday, there it was -- Saints 23, Panthers 20.\nWhile watching the game from the newsroom Sunday, I couldn't help but smile as John Carney's 47-yard, game-winning field goal sailed through the uprights with only three seconds left in the game. Heck, even some Panthers' fans were probably smiling. And as the Saints' holder Todd Bouman ran to embrace Carney, my smile turned to goose bumps.\nBut last night, while watching the Colts-Ravens game, I lost a little of that love, not for New Orleans, but for the Saints. My smile faded to a look of disgust.\nDuring a break for SportsCenter, the camera focused on Joe Horn, the Saints' wide receiver who has been seen at every charitable event since the hurricane. If you even followed the news the past couple of weeks, you would have seen the Saints giving high fives, handing out autographs or just encouraging people. And every time they were pictured, Horn was there. But last night, all that charity seemed like a public relations stunt.\nThe interview with Horn pictured him in front of his locker, talking about the win that meant so much to his team and his city. And there, in all of his humility, Horn sat in an elaborate, three-piece black suit and equally-as-excessive hat -- a suit and hat that probably cost enough to get some family in New Orleans well on its way back to a normal life.\nThe scene turned my goose bumps to head shaking, and reminded me why there are no longer any role models in professional athletics.\nDespite spending all week being charitable and doing what he could to help the citizens of his destroyed city, Horn seemed to forget that not everyone has millions of dollars to fall back on.\nIt's true that in the wake of certain disasters like Katrina, sports can serve as some form of hope for those who have nothing. But while sitting there discussing the plight of thousands and thousands of people with such an excessive display of wealth, Horn essentially smacked those citizens right in the face.\nHe reminded me that no matter what sympathetic lines come out of his mouth, he has no idea what the people in New Orleans are going through. His excessive salary distances him from actually giving a damn about anything other than a few handshakes, autographs or anything else for some good publicity. \nHopefully, those who have been following the coverage don't lump Horn in with athletes who actually care. \nSo thanks, Mr. Horn, for being so concerned about dressing to a "T" after a win that could have meant so much. Maybe you should have thought of the New Orleans fan, sitting on a cot in the Astrodome, with nothing but a little hope, with no home to go home to. A fan who thought you actually cared.