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Compared to the human misery in New Orleans that is playing out daily on television screens across the country, football is nothing more than a trivial pursuit. When you don't have water, you aren't exactly worried about whether the Saints have a solid No. 3 wide receiver yet.

But at the risk of appearing insensitive to the plight of the displaced and the desperate in New Orleans, there is going to come an appropriate time when the future of the Saints is a topic for discussion in whatever remains of The Big Easy. It could (and we stress could here) become apparent that the city simply can't afford the Saints, or perhaps any professional sports franchise.

That is not to suggest, as some already have whispered, that Saints owner Tom Benson will use the tragic events of this week as an excuse to call in the moving vans and head for a Los Angeles market left barren by the departures of the Rams and Raiders in the mid-1990s. Benson has been a loyal soldier, a man who, despite all his critics, wants to stay put. But here's the stark reality of the situation: The structural integrity of the Superdome may have been severely compromised by Hurricane Katrina. Much of the city's infrastructure is in ruins. There is no electricity, and despite the positive spin from politicians, no one knows when there will be. And a state already revenue-challenged -- which has struggled in each of the past two years to come up with the subsidies to the Saints that former governor Mike Foster negotiated to keep the team in town -- has more pressing ways to spend its money. Embattled Gov. Kathleen Blanco, who has attempted in the past to renegotiate the deal stuck by her predecessor, has a lot more to worry about than writing a check to Benson and his team. But even before the hurricane, the Saints were pushing for a new stadium, right? Given the damage to the Superdome, a new building might now be imperative, but Louisianans aren't likely to approve a stadium when simple, bare-bones housing is a more pressing need.

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