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Brooks says he'll quit if Saints move again
Weather displaced the New Orleans Saints again Thursday, and it's getting on the nerves of quarterback Aaron Brooks.
Freezing temperatures caused the Saints to move a morning walkthrough from a downtown parking lot back to the Alamodome, where the team was forced out earlier this week so the stadium could prepare for the NCAA women's volleyball tournament.
Following the walkthrough - held on the Alamodome's bare concrete floor and staged near a volleyball court - the Saints returned to the high school baseball field where their newest locker rooms are located.
It was just the latest disruption for the Saints, who haven't had a place to call their own since Hurricane Katrina uprooted them from New Orleans in late August.
"Weird," Brooks said after finishing dressing at his locker behind the dugout on the third-base side. He expressed frustration at the number of moves.
"We move one more time and I'm quitting," he said.
No other moves of the practice facility are planned.
The Saints (3-9), already mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, have four weeks remaining on their schedule. New Orleans plays at the Atlanta Falcons on Monday night.
"The party don't stop," receiver Joe Horn said. "What, do we let everyone go home? We've got to do what we've got to do."
The team's latest move to the baseball locker room facility at the San Antonio School District Spring Sports Complex is another stop on the Saints' journey since Katrina.
Since the storm displaced the Saints, they practiced near San Jose, Calif.; at the Alamodome; and at two high school fields in San Antonio. They've also had "home" games at the Alamodome, Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La., and Giants Stadium in New Jersey.
When the Saints moved their locker room, training equipment and front offices to the Alamodome in September, team officials knew they would have to move everything out when the NCAA set up the volleyball tournament.
Earlier this week, the team's offices and meeting rooms were moved into a downtown office building near the Alamodome.
Players arrived at the building Thursday morning for film review and team meetings. The schedule had them next filing into the building's parking lot for the walkthrough, but temperatures in the 20s forced the team back inside the Alamodome.
"In the future we'll just walk out and do the walkthrough and go back in the building," coach Jim Haslett said. "It doesn't seem to bother our guys. You don't hear anybody complaining. Nothing's like home, but this is the best we could do."
Most of the team dresses in a locker room on the third-base side at the baseball field. Offensive and defensive linemen have the first-base side locker room.
The weight room is in a PGA Tour-style tent on the baseball field's parking lot. A generator powers heating and air conditioning.
"It's better than I thought it was going to be," cornerback Jason Craft said. "You think of high school you think of some small little box that we'd be dressing in."
The training room and equipment room are located in an enclosed mezzanine, with windows overlooking home plate.
It's impressive for a high school baseball team - but not an NFL franchise.
"I wished my high school baseball field was like this," said Horn, a native of Fayetteville, N.C. "But this ain't high school, though."
Source: AP
Freezing temperatures caused the Saints to move a morning walkthrough from a downtown parking lot back to the Alamodome, where the team was forced out earlier this week so the stadium could prepare for the NCAA women's volleyball tournament.
Following the walkthrough - held on the Alamodome's bare concrete floor and staged near a volleyball court - the Saints returned to the high school baseball field where their newest locker rooms are located.
It was just the latest disruption for the Saints, who haven't had a place to call their own since Hurricane Katrina uprooted them from New Orleans in late August.
"Weird," Brooks said after finishing dressing at his locker behind the dugout on the third-base side. He expressed frustration at the number of moves.
"We move one more time and I'm quitting," he said.
No other moves of the practice facility are planned.
The Saints (3-9), already mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, have four weeks remaining on their schedule. New Orleans plays at the Atlanta Falcons on Monday night.
"The party don't stop," receiver Joe Horn said. "What, do we let everyone go home? We've got to do what we've got to do."
The team's latest move to the baseball locker room facility at the San Antonio School District Spring Sports Complex is another stop on the Saints' journey since Katrina.
Since the storm displaced the Saints, they practiced near San Jose, Calif.; at the Alamodome; and at two high school fields in San Antonio. They've also had "home" games at the Alamodome, Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La., and Giants Stadium in New Jersey.
When the Saints moved their locker room, training equipment and front offices to the Alamodome in September, team officials knew they would have to move everything out when the NCAA set up the volleyball tournament.
Earlier this week, the team's offices and meeting rooms were moved into a downtown office building near the Alamodome.
Players arrived at the building Thursday morning for film review and team meetings. The schedule had them next filing into the building's parking lot for the walkthrough, but temperatures in the 20s forced the team back inside the Alamodome.
"In the future we'll just walk out and do the walkthrough and go back in the building," coach Jim Haslett said. "It doesn't seem to bother our guys. You don't hear anybody complaining. Nothing's like home, but this is the best we could do."
Most of the team dresses in a locker room on the third-base side at the baseball field. Offensive and defensive linemen have the first-base side locker room.
The weight room is in a PGA Tour-style tent on the baseball field's parking lot. A generator powers heating and air conditioning.
"It's better than I thought it was going to be," cornerback Jason Craft said. "You think of high school you think of some small little box that we'd be dressing in."
The training room and equipment room are located in an enclosed mezzanine, with windows overlooking home plate.
It's impressive for a high school baseball team - but not an NFL franchise.
"I wished my high school baseball field was like this," said Horn, a native of Fayetteville, N.C. "But this ain't high school, though."
Source: AP
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