Photo du Jour: An Exuberant Tom Benson Discusses the Future of the New Orleans Saints

There's no place like home. Really.

The past week I have been in South Florida and now in Atlanta for the LSU/Miami Peach Bowl. About 2pm, my wife and I go over to the Marriott Marquis (the LSU team hotel) to see what's going on in the lobby and maybe catch a glimpse of the team before they head over to the stadium. After seeing some of the players waiting to board buses, we walk over to the sports bar in the hotel. As we walk into the bar, who's big head do I see up on a couple of large screen televisions?? Why Tom Benson, of course. There were bowl games on at the time, so the audio of the televisions in the bar were tuned to the football games and not the "we're coming home" press conference. Since I had no audio, all I had to go on was the facial expressions and body language of Mr. Benson as he announced the team would be returning to New Orleans in 2006. You know what came to mind as I watched the press conference? Remember in the first Gulf War when those captured American POWs were carted out in front of cameras and basically forced to read prepared propaganda denouncing the United States and they spoke in a purposely monotone "I really don't mean what I am saying" way?? Thats the vibe Mr. Benson had--like he was forced to say something he didn't really want to say. And of course, no Q&A after the scripted show . . .