City Council President was VP Of Team During Katrina

WDSU – August 26, 2010 – Most people in New Orleans know who Arnie Fielkow is — he’s the president of the New Orleans City Council. But it’s a far cry from where Fielkow was when Hurricane Katrina hit the area in the summer of 2005.”Five years ago, I was in a different place. I was executive vice president of the Saints,” Fielkow said. The Appleton, Wis., native came to New Orleans in 2000 to run Tom Benson’s organization.”It was my career, (the) job that I had worked my whole life for,” Fielkow said.And it’s a job Fielkow watched wash away. He was dismissed by the Saints a few weeks after Katrina. Katrina Special Section “It’s a painful period, I have to say. When you work your whole career toward a goal and that goal is taken away, that’s hurtful,” he said.Until now, Fielkow has never spoken publicly about why the Saints got rid of him. And though he won’t give a specific reason for his termination, he does admit that with the city in ruin and the population of New Orleans scattered across the country, he had philosophical differences with the organization after the storm. “The thought of the Saints not being in New Orleans was, quite frankly, unthinkable,” he said. With the Superdome in shambles, the team was forced to relocate to San Antonio, Texas. It’s no secret to anyone in the Big Easy that leaders in San Antonio and team owner Tom Benson flirted with the idea of keeping the Saints in Texas. When Fielkow got wind of what was going on, he blew the whistle, alerting the media, the league and anyone else who would listen. It’s a move many feel cost him his job. But in early 2006, under the guidance of then-NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and a blue-ribbon panel of owners, the Saints returned to New Orleans. “The Saints’ story will fade into memory at some point. Katrina won’t, but what happened in the months of September and October after the storm will eventually fade, and I think the best thing I can say is I know the position I took, and I know the commitment to New Orleans,” Fielkow said. “The best thing I can say is that the Saints are here and they will be here for another 50 years or more, so I will always take great pride that they are not playing somewhere else and not wearing the colors of another city.”

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