Saints process “shock” of terrorist attack that killed 15 people

A terrorist attack that killed 15 in New Orleans has rocked the community, including the employees, coaches, and players of the Saints.

“When something of this magnitude, on this scale happens, there are literally no words that are going to provide any solace for this,” linebacker and team captain Demario Davis said Wednesday, via Katherine Terrell of ESPN.com. “Moments like this . . . humanize us all and show us how fast life can change. When you’re a part of this game, you’re always trying to keep things in perspective and it’s always front and center, this game and all that’s going on. It’s moments like this that make you stop and put things in perspective. Many lives were impacted last night, this morning. I think it hit us all with a ton of shock. . . . It’s just truly tragic, truly horrific.”

The Saints started their day with a moment of silence, a prayer, and a discussion about the incident.

“We talked for about 10 minutes this morning at the beginning of our team meeting, and nothing had to do with football,” interim coach Darren Rizzi said. “It all had to do with keeping things in perspective and how blessed and fortunate we all are at the start of a new year. What we do here is obviously important to all the individuals that are here, but there’s much more important things going on around the world and right here in our community and at home.”

Rizzi found out about the early-morning attack when he arrived for work at roughly 6:00 a.m. local time.

“When I pulled in this morning into the parking lot, and I got the alert on my phone that it happened, the first thing I was doing was checking where my children were,” Rizzi said. “And there’s some people that woke up this morning and unfortunately lost loved ones that were victims of these attacks. Lost sons, lost daughters, lost brothers, lost sisters.”

Fifteen in all. An item in the New Orleans Times-Picayune lists the names of some of the victims. They include Martin “Tiger” Bech, a 27-year-old who played football locally at St. Thomas More Catholic High School before playing at Princeton.

The Saints end their season on Sunday at Tampa Bay. Safety Tyrann Mathieu, a New Orleans native, said the team feels an added obligation to perform well.

“I know a lot of people look to us to kind of make their day, make their week a little better,” Mathieu said. “I definitely think it’s part of our responsibility to go out there this week and really represent New Orleans.”