And thanks to Dave the Falconer for helping out.

My first trip to NOLA was for a Saints/Falcons game. We had just checked into our hotel on Canal Street when the Atlanta bus pulled up and a ton of Falcons fans got off and swarmed the hotel. I was going for ice and got mobbed in the elevator and I mean packed to capacity. Not to put a racial tone to it (only because it helps illustrate the scene), but here is this creamy white boy from Kansas in the middle of a rowdy African-American crowd all wearing red and black. One looks at me and says “Who you with?” and then 4 more say it in a demanding sort of way. I’ve got a college T-shirt on (their colors are also black and gold) and I quickly put my hand over my heart where the college insignia is. They’re all looking at me, waiting for an answer, and still asking “Who you with? Who you with?” I said “Hey man, I’m wearing black. I’m with EVERYBODY!” They all started laughing and patting me on the back while I’m looking to see if I’m at my floor yet. The door opens and I’m the only one who gets out. The door starts closing and I look back and see a few of them are still looking at me, so I yell “Geaux SAINTS!” The doors shut and I could still hear them yelling and hollering in the elevator as I went back to my room.

Always good to have the Falcons in town. I’ve seen several of these games since and it’s a good spirited rivalry, but I’ve never seen it get ugly. Wish I could make it this year. I think the Falcons will be better than expected, Matt Ryan is pretty good.

I guess so. Looking for the roster as soon as possible. Where do you think it is going to come out of first?

You’re just a closeted Saints fan.

This is interesting to have Dave the so-called “Sworn Enemy” leading the charge for a while. It’s like we temporarily have Bizarro Dave while Super Dave (Saintsational) is dealing with the terrible, unwanted situation brewing in the Gulf. I welcome you Dave the Falconer and thanks for helping out. Although the Saints and Falcons are division rivals, I secretly also like the Falcons, except for those two times a year when they are playing the Saints and those occasional years when the two teams are battling for the division title. As you can see from my bio, the Braves are my favorite MLB team. It’s too bad this year has already gone into the crapper for them. I hope Bobby Cox stays around for one more season at least. He’s a great guy and a future Hall of Fame manger. I love it when he pisses off the umps and gets himself thrown out.

To Saintsational: All my positive hopes and thoughts are going into diverting Gustav away from Nawlins’. I know from the years I lived in Pensacola that preparing for a hurricane can be demanding and stressful. It looks inevitable that it will grow and hit somewhere along the Gulf next week. I truly feel for any residents in it’s path. Please Gustav, stay away from New Orleans! I just hope the city and the levees are better prepared to take it if the worst happens. There’s still hope. It’s not officially determined that it will hit NO, so maybe all of your preparations and evacuation will have been unnecessary. It’s times like this that make people realize that football isn’t really that important in the grand scheme of things.

this is a pretty sick term of events… Saint good luck staying dry my man.. I’m praying the storm heads far far West (is a 180 possible?) for obvious reasons…

and Dave, oh my goodness the fun you could have with this site.. Saint should let you throw a little splash of red here and there!!! It’s your digs for a little while right? You should be able to bring a sack lunch and sleeping bag

I just wanted to say i love this SBNation kinship and that i was as jealous as could be. Here’s to the Saints coming to Tampa and Gustav hitting a speed bump and killing off or at the very least bypassing NO

From your AFC South brothers.