tiggerpolice

When House Speaker Dennis Hastert was questioning the continued existence of New Orleans and Ruth's Chris Steak House was on the run to Florida, NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue stuck by us.

With 80 percent of the city covered in muck from Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters and the Superdome marred by wind damage and human suffering, it might have been tempting for Mr. Tagliabue to give up on greater New Orleans as an NFL market.

He didn't. He saw that keeping the team in New Orleans was the right thing to do for the community and for the NFL.

Now the Saints are gearing up for the 2006 season in the Superdome. Unlike the Hornets, the Saints will play a full schedule in New Orleans this fall. Not only that, the NFL will host a concert and interactive fan experience during the season's opening week. The league also is planning a New Year's Eve game in the city and will bring its owners meeting here this fall.

Mr. Tagliabue and Saints owner Tom Benson deserve great credit for those developments.

Given what this metro area has been through since Aug. 29, the news this week of Mr. Tagliabue's impending retirement no doubt made Saints fans anxious. But Mr. Tagliabue still will play a role in the league as the NFL's senior executive consultant over the next couple of years. And he has assured Mr. Benson that the Saints' success is his top priority.

He has committed to remain involved in the Saints return to New Orleans and the metro area's recovery.

That's a relief. People in Southeast Louisiana are working hard to recover from Katrina, but we need all the support we can get. And few people have been as supportive as Mr. Tagliabue has been in the months since the storm turned our lives upside down.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/editori...2327153500.xml

TIGERSAINT31

Hats off to Paul Tagliabue. We will dedicate our superbowl win in 2006 to tags