00:00You know, as I mentioned earlier on the program with Mike Hoss, the play-by-play man of the New
00:05Orleans Saints,
00:07tonight we're going to see something very special.
00:09We're going to see Steve Gleason out there.
00:11We're going to see the great Saints fans.
00:14I've played in this building around four times between playing with the Buccaneers
00:18and also at the University of Miami when we played in the Sugar Bowl there.
00:21And it is truly one of the greatest and loudest stadiums I've ever played in.
00:26And that fan base, the Saints, man, the things that they went through with Katrina.
00:32It's the 20th anniversary of the reopening of the Superdome.
00:35I had a chance to go back a year after Katrina when they hosted the Super Bowl.
00:41And you saw all the buildings with all the tiles off.
00:44And you saw many of the buildings that were still going through reconstruction after Katrina had gone through there
00:50and pretty much wiped out the entire town.
00:52But the one building that they took great pride in was the Superdome.
00:58During that time in Katrina, you have to remember, it was a place of, you know, respite.
01:04It was a place of stocking bodies.
01:08The dead.
01:09Feeding people.
01:11Giving people water.
01:13That building meant so much.
01:15And this is what the National Football League is all about.
01:19A community.
01:21Civic pride.
01:22That's what this is here.
01:24You know, many of the players that are going to play in this game tonight were so young.
01:29Not born when this thing happened.
01:31Some of them were just so young.
01:33I mean, when this thing happened.
01:36Tyler Shook was given a lesson of what it was all about.
01:41And Kellen Moore was talking to all the young players that were so young during this time
01:46that had a chance to get a little bit of the history of what reopening of the Superdome is going
01:52to mean tonight.
01:55It was emotional.
01:56I got a little teared up just watching it.
02:00Seeing people who still work here, the staff members.
02:02You know, Jay Romick talking about the impact on the city.
02:05The impact of that game.
02:07The significance of it.
02:08And then seeing former players talk about those moments.
02:12And you really feel just how important the Saints are and how important our work is.
02:19And it makes you really want to prepare and work hard.
02:21So it was really cool for him to do that and kind of relive, you know, why we're playing this.
02:26Why we play this game, for one.
02:27And then also the importance of this rivalry and this game coming up.
02:31Boy, I tell you, when they reopened that building and you saw all the fans that night.
02:35I remember watching that night when they reopened it and that Monday night football game.
02:40And it just meant so much to that community.
02:44Look, New Orleans is one of the greatest Super Bowl cities we have in the rotation when it comes to
02:49hosting that game.
02:50And it's there for a reason.
02:52The city of New Orleans loves pro football.
02:55The city of New Orleans loves football in general.
02:59But more so than anything, they love the Saints.
03:02And tonight, when you see Steve Gleason and Drew Brees there tonight to celebrate, they're celebrating the fans.
03:09And what they went through in rebuilding after Katrina.
03:13Look, Katrina was devastating.
03:14The entire region was almost wiped out.
03:17There were people helping one another.
03:19An NFL team was one of the things that really kept the glue together in how important it was.
03:26Mike Hoss said it earlier.
03:27And he's so right when he said it.
03:29Hey, man, you look at it as a place that was during the disaster.
03:33We look at it as a place where people could cheer, could be happy again.
03:39And could really respect all the things that people were doing during that time to get through a disaster.
03:45And that's exactly what the Superdome did during that time after Katrina.
03:51It's really a great honor to sit there and watch what tonight will be one of the most pivotal moments
03:57in what makes the NFL and what makes pro football so important to communities.
04:02As I said, Civic Pride, man, Civic Pride with some of these teams.
04:06I compared the Superdome to Lambeau Field.
04:10Every single great ballpark, like Arrowhead or Lambeau, means something to a fan base.
04:17You know, when Highmark opened up this year and the old Rich Stadium went down, that's exactly what they're trying
04:23to do up in Buffalo.
04:25Every single one of these cities that have these type of stadiums, it's not just about playing pro football.
04:32It's about the great pride that communities take and having their teams and how they surround their teams and how
04:39they have great support of their teams.
04:41And the Saints, no question about it in their fan base is like that.
04:46Every single time I've played a football game at the Superdome, it's the loudest building I've ever been in.
04:54They cheer for their team.
04:56And this goes through generations of great fans that have supported all the way back through the 60th anniversary, which
05:04is this year.
05:05Think about that.
05:06This is the 60th anniversary of the Saints starting football in New Orleans and tonight's the 20th anniversary of getting
05:13through that disaster of Katrina.
05:16And the National Football League and its fans were right there to get people through it.
05:21It's one of the greatest moments truly in the NFL on how they and how the community all gave back
05:27to one another in a great moment that we're going to see tonight.
05:30I'm looking forward to that.
05:32Falcons and Saints tonight.
05:34The reopening 20th anniversary of the Superdome.
05:38Awesome moment tonight.
05:39I'm looking forward to it.
