re: If Benson would have moved the Saints to San Antonio permanently...

quote:

---

I honestly wonder if the city would've come back.



It's an eerie thought. I'd imagine there'd be this faction of Saints diehards who'd be pulling for the team in San Antonio, and then a smattering of Texans fans throughout. But the city as a whole may have really never gotten back. Even non-football fans in the city rallied around them. Still, I think there would have been this urge to put a team back here. True that LA doesn't have a team yet, but that's based on economics. There would have been a pretty public clamoring here for a team.

---

the only people who wonder if the city of NOLA would have come back if the Saints had not are obsessive NFL fans or Saints fans. The city was coming back one way or the other. And who do we have to thank? George Bush. His colossal screw up in the first days after the storm assured that he had to go above and beyond what he would have done otherwise. He was the one who pushed $125 billion through Congress for the rebuilding of the city.

The Saints were a rallying point and offered relief, but don't for a second delude yourself with some sentimental saccharin story about the Saints saving the city. The $125 billion from the US govt did that.