Football and Hurricanes

Three years after Katrina and a few days after returning home from Hurricane Gustav evacuations, New Orleans area residents packed the Louisiana Super Dome for the season-opening game between the New Orleans Saints and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It turned into a tremendous game with the lead going back and forth between the National Football League division rivals.

During a timeout, a popular local telecaster suddenly showed up on the instant replay screen, generating some crowd laughter with his Saints jersey. Then the video switched to a graphic of Hurricane Ike approaching Cuba and aiming at the Louisiana coast. The crowd immediately responded with long and loud boos, the kind usually reserved for Saints opponents.

The fans seemed to be saying something like: "We came here for football, to get away from hurricanes. Go away. Don’t rain on our game."

Apparently there’s a time for everything, including news, weather and advertising, and this wasn’t that time.