NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Saints veteran defensive end Cameron Jordan's first exposure to the epic displacement caused by Hurricane Katrina occurred when a group of new students from New Orleans arrived at his high school in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler, Arizona.
“Katrinians,” the 37-year-old Jordan said after a recent practice. “That’s what we called them."
Five years later, Jordan arrived in New Orleans as a 2011 first-round draft choice and participated in community service projects at properties still scarred by storm damage.
“I think about the city I came to,” Jordan said, “and how much we’ve grown since then.”
The Saints (1-2) had an extra day this past week to prepare for Monday night's game against the Atlanta Falcons (1-2). They used it to educate players — many of whom were toddlers in 2006 — about the Saints' Week 3 Monday night game against the Falcons 20 years ago.
The “Domecoming,” as it's known in New Orleans, is best remembered for Steve Gleason's block of the game's first punt. Curtis Deloatch recovered the ball in the end zone and reverse-dunked it over the goal post (which was permitted back then) as the crowd unleashed an explosive, cathartic roar — a moment Gleason would say felt like “infinite joy.”
The stadium, used as a shelter of last resort, was damaged by Katrina, contaminated by mold and left in foul-smelling squalor after thousands of evacuees were stuck there — surrounded by flooded streets — for days without power or plumbing. It was closed for 13 months and underwent extensive, fast-tracked repairs before it could welcome back fans, many of whom were still rebuilding their own homes.
Saints coach Kellen Moore gathered the team for a team-produced video about Katrina and the dome's reopening, hoping it would help players appreciate the “unique connection between our city and our football team."
"It’s very much one, very much tied together,” Moore said.
“You see the different videos and recognize streets that we all drive on nowadays and those different things," Moore continued. "They recognize and realize the impact that it had.”
Quarterback Tyler Shough said he teared up while seeing the images of devastation and listening to longtime team employees and former Saints players discuss their memories of Katrina's aftermath.
“It was emotional,” Shough said. “You really feel just how important the Saints are and how important our work is."
Gleason, who has been living ALS for more than a decade, is set to be an honored guest Monday night. So is Hall of Fame quarterback Drew Brees, who'd been acquired by the Saints as an injured free agent less than a year after the storm and was playing his first home game in New Orleans on that Monday night 20 years ago, leading the Saints to a 23-3 triumph.
Gleason's block is immortalized in a bronze statue named “Rebirth” on an exterior Superdome plaza. There also is a larger-than-life poster of Gleason's block on a wall inside the Saints' indoor practice field.
Longtime fans joke that the play might have set a record for simultaneously spilled beverages as fans jumped from their seats, yelled with everything they had, danced, hugged and even cried as the spray of whatever they were drinking rained down on them.
Then-"Monday Night Football" play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico says he's never experienced anything like it.
“It wasn’t just: ’Hey, our team is playing,'” Tirico said in a video posted on the Saints’ website.
Tirico recalled rehearsing how he would call the Saints' first touchdown, intent on exclaiming, “Touchdown, New Orleans,” to emphasize what it would mean to the city.
He did so as Deloatch recovered the blocked punt in the end zone, and then stopped talking while holding up his hands to fellow members of the broadcast team, urging everyone to remain silent and let the sights and sounds of celebrating fans speak for themselves.
“There was nothing any human alive could say that could be better,” Tirico said.
Saints safety Justin Reid was 8 years old and living near Baton Rouge when Katrina hit on Aug. 29, 2005.
While his community did not flood, power was out for about two weeks and evidence of wind damage was everywhere. He took cold showers by candlelight and recalls his father driving around their neighborhood with a trailer, helping neighbors pick up storm debris.
Later, his father took the family to witness storm damage in New Orleans. Reid remembers seeing waterlines left behind on homes after flooding — caused by multiple levee breaks — had receded.
About 80% of New Orleans experienced some flooding. In some neighborhoods, the water level climbed above front doors. Some homes closest to levee breaks had been swept off their foundations and torn apart. Estimates of storm-related deaths range from about 1,400 to 1,800.
For Reid (who does not recall watching the 2006 game live), the Saints' triumph over the Falcons on that Monday night was “poetic,” as was the NFL's decision to schedule another Monday night game with Atlanta at the Superdome within days of its 20th anniversary.
“I grew up in Louisiana, so I know how much football at all levels means to the state,” Reid said. “Football is something that people spend their whole week looking forward to. It’s a beacon of hope for the city. It’s something that brings people together. It’s something that transcends socioeconomic status. It transcends race. And it’s a big deal in the City of New Orleans.”
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