Five years ago today, the New Orleans Saints were preparing for a football season that would turn out to be like none ever experienced in the long history of American professional sports.

Certainly, none of the Saints were paying attention to the formation of a tropical depression near the Bahamas on Aug. 24, 2005. Other tasks, like getting ready for kick off of the 2005 season, were forefront in their thoughts.

But that depression would turn into a monster named Hurricane Katrina, which five days later would slam into the Gulf Coast, displacing thousands, flooding the Big Easy, and sending the Saints to play home games in New Jersey, San Antonio and Baton Rouge.

The Saints would become a beacon of hope shining through the darkest days of their city’s history, a rallying point for New Orleans residents who were living in FEMA trailers, refugees living far away from the marshlands of Southern Louisiana, and for many Americans who were inspired by the team.

Fast forward five years. Look at the Saints now. Back in the renovated Superdome, the site of so much horror in the days after Katrina slammed ashore, New Orleans takes the field this season not just as the pride of its city, but as the class of the National Football League.

The defending Super Bowl champions, the Saints kick off 2010 on top of the league. But safe to say on this day, and every day since that horrible final Monday of August 2005, everybody who dons the Saints’ uniform has Katrina and what she wrought in the back of their mind.

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