Welcome Back To New Orleans

It is somewhat of a relief, as viewed in the Spike Lee's amazing When The Levees Broke — still available on HBO On Demand, still highly recommended, if you have 4 1/2 hours to kill — to learn that as horrible as the circumstances were in the Superdome during Hurricane Katrina last year, they weren't quite as bad as some of us had feared. (That is to say, three or four deaths rather than hundreds dying and complete anarchy and godlessness.) But it still seems strange that they're playing football there. It's great, it really is: As little credence as we typically give to the "Sports help people overcome tragedy" storylines, it is inspiring to see that New Orleans is on its feet enough to be something. As far as they have to go, the Saints' existence is proof of the city's own. It makes it considerably more difficult to forget.

And tonight, as you might have heard, they're playing a game there, and it's such a big deal that Bono's showing up. (We have a good feeling about Billy Joe potentially having a Kanye West moment tonight, by the way; "George Bush doesn't care about aging mall punk rockers." Oh, and where's Juvenile?) In all the fuss — one New Orleans resident said her optimism for the game stemmed from "If they can fix the dome, maybe they can fix my neighborhood." Yeah. About that ... — it's easy to lose sight that there's an actual game going on tonight, and it involves Reggie Bush, Ron Mexico and the most electric player in all of football, Drew Brees.

We're a little nervous about having Joe Theismann with an open microphone to opine about a national disaster ... but it's probably worth a look, regardless.

The Saints Come Marching In [ABC News]