woodbuck27
09-17-2006, 12:53 AM
Posted September 16, 2006
Mike McCarthy column: As Saints approach, memories flood back
As we get ready to play the New Orleans Saints, it's hard not to have memories of my five years there as offensive coordinator, starting in 2000, surface.
On a personal level, I'm fortunate to have a lot of friends down there. I met some really great people, friends and neighbors, and it's such a unique place to live. I didn't know much about it until I lived there, but the geographic location, living below sea level, the Gulf Coast, the sugar cane, all that stuff  it's the most different place I have lived.
The culture down there, there's nothing like it. Some of the best times I remember involved going downtown during the offseason. We'd go down on a Saturday. There'd be a festival, you'd go to dinner at one of the great restaurants and go to church at St. Louis Cathedral by the big statue of Gen. Jackson on his horse, located at Jackson Square.
They're blue-collar, passionate people. They know how to have a great time, and they're passionate about everything they do. They're very emotional, strong, spiritual people.
That strength and spirit certainly has been tested since Hurricane Katrina. Having lived there for five years, I can't tell you how devastating that was to see. People lost everything. I was just sick about it.
My last two years in New Orleans, we had storms come in. They always talked about the big storm, and the year before Katrina, we evacuated to San Antonio for a week to get ready for a game and came back and played. In 2002, we had tropical storms come in back-to-back weeks during the season.
I don't think I ever watched The Weather Channel in my life until I moved to New Orleans. And now, still, I don't watch a lot of TV, but if I have three or four channels I click on, I watch The Weather Channel, particularly during hurricane season, because it's a part of your everyday life down there.
One time on a Tuesday night, really late, we were game-planning, and about five of us on the coaching staff decided to drive home. I don't know why. We got home about 2 a.m. and were going to carpool back at 5 a.m., but we couldn't get back because the streets had flooded. We had to wait until they turned on the pumps to get the water lowered in the streets.
But those storms were nothing like Katrina.
Some of my assistant coaches here  (linebackers coach) Winston Moss, (receivers coach) Jimmy Robinson and (strength and conditioning coach) Rock Gullickson  they were there during Katrina, working for the Saints. They had homes there. I know it was very hard on their families to go through that.
In hiring Winston, Jimmy and Rock, I was conscious of their time off in the spring, because they hadn't fully recovered from living away from their home, away from their family, living in San Antonio last season. If they needed extra time to go home, I thought it was important for them to be there. They probably didn't take advantage of it like they should have, but it puts an unusual amount of stress on your personal life.
Professionally speaking, New Orleans was a very positive experience for me. I got an opportunity to be an offensive coordinator for the first time, and for a defensive head coach. It was a 3-13 football team we took over, but we had success. I'll always be thankful for that opportunity Jim Haslett gave me.
The Saints had not had a lot of success, but we went to the playoffs that first year in 2000 and won a playoff game, knocking off the defending world champion St. Louis Rams. They had just beaten us the previous week in the last regular-season game to get into the playoffs, but we won the division, so we had to play them again.
I always held higher standards and felt bad we never went further than that, but that was such a big deal because the Saints hadn't won a playoff game before. The next four years, three times we were the last team knocked out of the playoff race, so, professionally, it was frustrating.
You also remember the players you went to battle with. Joe Horn and Deuce McAllister are two guys I'm very fond of.
Joe was with me in Kansas City and all five years in New Orleans. He wasn't a starter for long with the Chiefs, and when the Saints signed him, everybody said, "What are you giving him that kind of money for?" But Joe is a special player. He put up big numbers.
Deuce is another great guy and very talented. Both of those guys have a big heart, really a heart of gold. They're good guys who are hard not to root for.
Like anything, when you take a job, one thing I've always looked at is whether you leave it better than you receive it, and I know I can say that of my time in New Orleans. I just wish we had won a lot more games.
Mike McCarthy is the coach of the Green Bay Packers. His column appears in Packers Preview each week.
GO PACK GO !
Mike McCarthy column: As Saints approach, memories flood back
As we get ready to play the New Orleans Saints, it's hard not to have memories of my five years there as offensive coordinator, starting in 2000, surface.
On a personal level, I'm fortunate to have a lot of friends down there. I met some really great people, friends and neighbors, and it's such a unique place to live. I didn't know much about it until I lived there, but the geographic location, living below sea level, the Gulf Coast, the sugar cane, all that stuff  it's the most different place I have lived.
The culture down there, there's nothing like it. Some of the best times I remember involved going downtown during the offseason. We'd go down on a Saturday. There'd be a festival, you'd go to dinner at one of the great restaurants and go to church at St. Louis Cathedral by the big statue of Gen. Jackson on his horse, located at Jackson Square.
They're blue-collar, passionate people. They know how to have a great time, and they're passionate about everything they do. They're very emotional, strong, spiritual people.
That strength and spirit certainly has been tested since Hurricane Katrina. Having lived there for five years, I can't tell you how devastating that was to see. People lost everything. I was just sick about it.
My last two years in New Orleans, we had storms come in. They always talked about the big storm, and the year before Katrina, we evacuated to San Antonio for a week to get ready for a game and came back and played. In 2002, we had tropical storms come in back-to-back weeks during the season.
I don't think I ever watched The Weather Channel in my life until I moved to New Orleans. And now, still, I don't watch a lot of TV, but if I have three or four channels I click on, I watch The Weather Channel, particularly during hurricane season, because it's a part of your everyday life down there.
One time on a Tuesday night, really late, we were game-planning, and about five of us on the coaching staff decided to drive home. I don't know why. We got home about 2 a.m. and were going to carpool back at 5 a.m., but we couldn't get back because the streets had flooded. We had to wait until they turned on the pumps to get the water lowered in the streets.
But those storms were nothing like Katrina.
Some of my assistant coaches here  (linebackers coach) Winston Moss, (receivers coach) Jimmy Robinson and (strength and conditioning coach) Rock Gullickson  they were there during Katrina, working for the Saints. They had homes there. I know it was very hard on their families to go through that.
In hiring Winston, Jimmy and Rock, I was conscious of their time off in the spring, because they hadn't fully recovered from living away from their home, away from their family, living in San Antonio last season. If they needed extra time to go home, I thought it was important for them to be there. They probably didn't take advantage of it like they should have, but it puts an unusual amount of stress on your personal life.
Professionally speaking, New Orleans was a very positive experience for me. I got an opportunity to be an offensive coordinator for the first time, and for a defensive head coach. It was a 3-13 football team we took over, but we had success. I'll always be thankful for that opportunity Jim Haslett gave me.
The Saints had not had a lot of success, but we went to the playoffs that first year in 2000 and won a playoff game, knocking off the defending world champion St. Louis Rams. They had just beaten us the previous week in the last regular-season game to get into the playoffs, but we won the division, so we had to play them again.
I always held higher standards and felt bad we never went further than that, but that was such a big deal because the Saints hadn't won a playoff game before. The next four years, three times we were the last team knocked out of the playoff race, so, professionally, it was frustrating.
You also remember the players you went to battle with. Joe Horn and Deuce McAllister are two guys I'm very fond of.
Joe was with me in Kansas City and all five years in New Orleans. He wasn't a starter for long with the Chiefs, and when the Saints signed him, everybody said, "What are you giving him that kind of money for?" But Joe is a special player. He put up big numbers.
Deuce is another great guy and very talented. Both of those guys have a big heart, really a heart of gold. They're good guys who are hard not to root for.
Like anything, when you take a job, one thing I've always looked at is whether you leave it better than you receive it, and I know I can say that of my time in New Orleans. I just wish we had won a lot more games.
Mike McCarthy is the coach of the Green Bay Packers. His column appears in Packers Preview each week.
GO PACK GO !