Jim Derry

PRESIDENT'S COLUMN:
THIS LEAGUE IS SPECIAL

In the weeks after catastrophic Hurricane Katrina hit my hometown of New Orleans, it seemed like everyone I had ever met tried to call me to make sure I was OK and to ask where I was.
But this call was a little different.

"Jim, please hold for the commissioner," AFL Senior VP Chris McCloskey told me.

Being just hours after the VooDoo and owner Tom Benson had announced the team had suspended operations for the 2006 season, I had sort of expected a call from the league. Chris has been nothing short of phenomenal to me, and that began long before the storm ever destroyed most of the city I have lived for all but about six months of my 37 years.

But it wasn't just a call from the league. And it wasn't about the VooDoo's suspension. It was about David Baker making sure a displaced sportswriter was OK.

"Commissioner, thanks for calling," I said. "Let me ask you about ..."

"Hold on, Jim," the commissioner said. "I don't care about arena football right now. I want to know how you're doing, and I want to know if there's anything I can do for you."

I know he meant it, and it meant more to me than he could ever know.

Because of my past dealings with professional franchises, it would have been hard to imagine any commissioner caring about me. And that's what makes this league so special.

That's also why it's going to be tough not covering games on a weekly basis this season. The AFL has become more to me than just the beat I cover. VooDoo games were something I looked forward to, and it has been more than a job.

Mike Neu and I have become friends, along with many from the rest of the staff. Now, some of them have moved on to other cities, such as Austin's new executive director Mike Feder, who served in the same capacity with New Orleans.
But, as I have learned in these post-Katrina days, such is life.

Slowly, things are getting back to normal here. Homes which were completely inundated with water are being demolished, and people are rebuilding their lives, whether it is here in New Orleans or somewhere else. The home I own, which had about a foot of water throughout, has a new floor, new walls, new paint, and soon it will have new appliances.

We will be fine. We have had a lot of help.

One thing we have all realized is that floors and walls and even pictures can be replaced. And we realized how important it is to enjoy what we still have, not to fret about what we lost. Mostly, what we've lost doesn't matter. It can be replaced.

Now, it is time to move on, and for many left here in the city, having the AFL will help take their minds off things for a while. Even without the VooDoo, many fans around town will watch games, as they did before the Crescent City had a team.

They will be interested to see how former New Orleans players Andy Kelly, B.J. Cohen and Mike Landry do in Kansas City. They will be hoping that Mike can entice them to come back when the season is over. They will be interested in seeing if the commissioner will keep his promise and awards ArenaBowl XXI to our city, when that the VooDoo comes back in 2007.

And they will have fun, as they always do, watching players carom off walls and balls bouncing off nets, as they sit in their dens cheering for more and more scoring.

I am looking forward to the new season as well, although it will be very different than the one I have enjoyed the past 1 1/2 seasons. More importantly, I look forward to keeping in touch with my new friends around the Arena Football League. I have learned that they really do care about the people they work with.

And that goes all the way to the top.

Jim Derry covers the Arena Football League for the New Orleans Times-Picayune.