A CITY IN NEED GETS A GIFT IN REGGIE BUSH.

Byline: BILLY WITZ NFL 

NEW ORLEANS - Affixed to the rear of a car riding down Louisiana Avenue was a bumper sticker that read:

Thanks Houston.

That nod to the city that helped house so many refugees of Hurricane Katrina took on new meaning Saturday.

Thanks Houston, indeed - for delivering Reggie Bush.

For a city and a football team that is not used to unexpected gifts, it was a small token they were grateful to accept here.

After the Houston Texans decided the day before to choose Mario Williams, a defensive end from North Carolina State, with the top pick in the NFL draft, Bush, USC's Heisman Trophy winning tailback, was suddenly and stunningly dropped into the New Orleans Saints' lap.

When word reached the team's draft room that the Texans were passing on Bush, everyone threw their draft cards in the air. The reaction was much the same for several thousand fans who had gathered near the team's practice facility to watch the draft. Once the roar settled, they broke into chants of ``Reg-gie, Reg-gie.''

A local jazz radio station interrupted its programming with a bulletin announcing the pick.

Such good fortune is indeed news for the Saints, whose 38-year history is a litany of bad choices, bad luck and bad football. The team has one playoff win in its history.

Then again, the Saints have never quite had a talent like Bush, whose speed, cutting ability and versatility have led to comparisons with Gayle Sayers and Marshall Faulk. Nor are they used to seeing anyone with his improvisational skills that didn't have a trumpet in his hands.

``This is very, very, very unlike the Saints,'' said Larry Moon, while taking a break from playing basketball at an Uptown park.

The question facing Bush is does he want to be here?

He arrived in New Orleans on Saturday night, whisked in from New York on the private jet of Saints owner Tom Benson. As he got out of a black limousine with agent Joel Segal, marketing advisor Mike Ornstein and Sports Illustrated writer Peter King, Bush paused for a few moments to adjust his beige suit and tie, then headed in to Saints headquarters to meet with coaches and officials before being brought into a press conference.

Bush spent the flight adjusting to the idea of New Orleans. It's one thing to suddenly be in a small market with a history of losing and limited marketing opportunities, but Bush is walking into something that is much more.

``From what I've seen on TV I have a little idea,'' Bush said of the city's condition. ``But obviously what happened and what they encountered, all the property that was lost by the families - once I see or I'm able to visit and tour the city I'll have a better understanding.''

A short drive past the Superdome sits the hardest hit area of the city, the Lower Ninth Ward. To describe the devastation in this section of the city, which had been inhabited by the poorest of the poor, as that of a war zone is more an understatement than hyperbole.

Cars are flipped upside down and the houses, many of them little more than shanties, were collapsed and blown off their foundations by the wall of water that came in when the banks of the Industrial Canal linking the Mississippi River with Lake Ponchatrain burst.

There are no stoplights and no signs of life other than cars touring the carnage and an odd roster or cat. Spray painted atop one car turned on its side was the word ``Baghdad.''

In other, more prosperous parts of the city that were hit by the flooding, there are the ubiquitous white trailers sent by FEMA and signs that New Orleans is beginning to slowly creep back. But it will be a long crawl.

In a city that once revolved around the clock, where food was celebrated as both an art and activity, it's now hard to find kitchens that are open past 9:30 p.m.

Into this walks Bush.

How straight forward he does so will play out soon enough. For a day there was little talk of the contract demands, a reported $30 million guaranteed, that punched Bush's ticket out of Houston. Any disappointment about his destination or the events that led him here were spun as opportunity.

``I think Reggie is a compassionate guy,'' Ornstein said. ``I think he's going to really adopt New Orleans and get in the community and do whatever we need to do to make an impact in this town.''

CAPTION(S):

32 photo, 3 boxes

Photo:

(1) MARIO WILLIAMS

(2) REGGIE BUSH

(3) VINCE YOUNG

(4) D'BRICKASHAW FERGUSON

(5) A.J. HAWK

(6) VERNON DAVIS

(7) MICHAEL HUFF

(8) DONTE WHITNER

(9) ERNIE SIMS

(10) MATT LEINART

(11) JAY CUTLER

(12) HALOTI NGATA

(13) KAMERION WIMBLEY

(14) BRODERICK BUNKLEY

(15) TYE HILL

(16) JASON ALLEN

(17) CHAD GREENWAY

(18) BOBBY CARPENTER

(19) ANTONIO CROMARTIE

(20) TAMPA HALI

(21) LAURENCE MARONEY

(22) MANNY LAWSON

(23) DAVIN JOSEPH

(24) JOHNATHAN JOSEPH

(25) STANTONIO HOLMES

(26) JOHN MCCARGO

(27) DEANGELO WILLIAMS

(28) MARCEDES LEWIS

(29) NICK MANGOLD

(30) JOSEPH ADDAI

(31) KELLY JENNINGS

(32) MATHIAS KIWANUKA

Box:

(1) ROUND ONE AT A GLANCE

(2) ROUND TWO

(3) ROUND THREE