Goodell: Saints a 'great story' but no long-term commitment made; NFL-to-L.A. a dead issue

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell held his first "State of the League" address on Friday, and he noted that the Saints were a "great story" but failed to extend any sort of long-term commitment to New Orleans.

Goodell was quoted in this story by Mike Triplett in today's Times-Picayune as saying:

"I think the New Orleans Saints and the whole Gulf Coast region has been a great story for the NFL this year, not just because of the Saints' success on the field, but also because of what you're seeing the team has done for that community. It's obviously a community that was tragically impacted. It is still going through a recovery period. But we're very proud of the fact that Tom Benson brought his Saints back there very early last year, before we even knew we had a place to play.

"The Saints brought hope back to their community, and people like Drew Brees and his wife have done great work there. We're proud of what the Saints have done, and our hats are off to Tom Benson and his group for doing it."

It's a great thing that Goodell acknowledges that the area is still in recovery mode and that the team has done great things for the community. Hopefully that relationship will continue, but the commish was noncommital when asked directly about the long-term viability of the Saints in New Orleans.

Also, to be fair, Goodell gives praise to Tom Benson when Goodell's predecessor, Paul Tagliabue, should be given a lot of credit for influencing Benson to keep the Saints in New Orleans. However, that's not to say that Benson hasn't done a lot of good since the Katrina debacle and the Tagliabue intervention. He has. Let's just hope he keeps it up.

And, Saints senior vice president Dennis Lauscha told Triplett that the Saints are interested in hosting another Super Bowl, but a new long-term lease agreement with Louisiana and the Superdome and completion of Superdome repairs are first in line.

With the offseason officially beginning after tonight's Super Bowl, negotiations between the Saints and Louisiana for that long-term lease should get underway soon. Keep an eye here for updates.

NFL-TO-L.A. A DEAD ISSUE
A Los Angeles Daily News column by Steve Dilbeck notes that Goodell's comments at the aforementioned "State of the League" address were not positive in terms of the NFL's return to L.A.

Goodell is quoted in the piece as saying, "We need to find a solution in LosAngeles that works for both the community and the NFL. It's important for us to be in LosAngeles long-term. But we've survived quite well without Los Angeles. Los Angeles has survived quite well without the NFL."

And, Dilbeck writes, "[R]ight now it is so far removed from being a priority to the league it barely earns a mention."

He also points out that the cost to build a stadium in Los Angeles would be upwards of $1 billion. Previous plans were that these costs would be footed by the league. Perhaps they made those thoughts public before knowing how much it would really cost, and that's one reason the NFL has cold feet about L.A.

And, L.A. is tired of being used as a relocation threat, writes Dilbeck:

"Los Angeles will always hold appeal, but even after years of using it to extort new stadiums out of existing NFL cities, the country is getting wise to the concept that there is no reasonable stadium solution here. The sky can only be falling so many times. There is no working solution even near the table."

Which means that the Saints will not be moving to Los Angeles in the near future, unless something changes dramatically on the NFL-to-L.A. front.

And that's great news for Saints fans.

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