Travesty in Jersey

Sometimes I shake my head and wonder how the hell the National Football League became the most popular and powerful sports league in the world?

Don't get me wrong, I'm one of the most avid fans of professional football alive. It's just that more and more these days I see the "Powers That Be" making head-scratching decisions.

By now, you all know about Hurricane Katrina and what it has done to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. You also know that the Superdome was used as a shelter for thousands who suddenly found themselves homeless in the aftermath of the hurricane.

Due to the sudden overpopulation, the conditions at the Superdome quickly deteriorated. Floodwaters surrounded the area and eventually flooded the ground-floor locker rooms. Toilets backed up and overflowed. The Dome Cafe and some offices were looted and trash was left behind as evacuees abandoned property. And that's not even mentioning the dead bodies that quickly piled up.

Making matters worse, the roof sustained large gashes during the hurricane and the rubber coating that covered the huge dome was blown off. State officials are already saying that once all of the water, junk and other debris is eventually removed, the building will still have to be decontaminated.

To make a long story short, the New Orleans Saints will not be playing at the Superdome any time soon. In fact, they may never play there again. That meant changes had to be made to their schedule and the NFL knew it had to handle an already difficult situation delicately. So naturally, like Philadelphia receiver Todd Pinkston trying to make a catch across the middle, the NFL dropped the ball. They utterly and completely blew it.

Like many of the displaced citizens of the Gulf Coast, the Saints organization headed for refuge in Texas - specifically to San Antonio. The players are living out of a hotel and practicing at the Alamodome. Although Texas has two other NFL teams - the Houston Texans and the Dallas Cowboys - San Antonio was relatively close and more importantly, it was available.

So the league's office could have had the Saints play their home game there. If the Alamodome had a concert, circus or something else already on the books, then the Saints other option was Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La.

And that's what the NFL did - rescheduling seven out of the eight home games between those two venues. But it's the one that they didn't that I'm going to focus on. That's because week two the NFL inexplicably decided to give the Saints a "home game" in New Jersey, which conveniently happened to be the home of that week's opponent - the New York Giants.

Who thought this was a good idea?!? Seriously, I don't care how you spin the story, sending the Saints to play a home game against the Giants at Giants Stadium is unfair. Let me put it this way - I can pick up dog shit and put it in a ice cream cone and call it dessert. But at the end of the day, it's still dog shit. Winning in the NFL is hard enough as it is - stacking the deck against a team already in a fragile mindset is plain and simply a dick move.

And the Saints weren't the only losers in this ordeal. How about the rest of the NFC East? Although officials from the Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins would never publicly say it - they were less than thrilled with the fact that their division rival, Giants, were given a ninth home game.

So there the Saints were, Monday, Sept. 19th, getting ready for their newly rescheduled game on primetime television. The Saints got dressed in the visitor's locker room. The referee asked the Saints to call heads or tails during the coin toss. Tens of thousands of rowdy New Yorkers were wearing blue and white jerseys, carrying signs and cheering on the Giants. And this is supposed to be a home game for the Saints?

It shouldn't come as a surprise that the game was over before it ever started, as the Saints lost 27-10. Forget the fumble on the opening kick-off by the Saints' Fred McAfee. The biggest fumble was by NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and friends who cared more about making money than doing the right thing and playing the game in a place where the crowd might actually care about a team that calls New Orleans home. This whole situation stinks much worse than any sewage in the Superdome.

Brian Murphy is an 80-year-old man trapped in a twenty-something body. Get off his lawn. Contact him at: murf@the5holes.com