Saints guided by their Catholic chaplain
NEW ORLEANS -- As is custom the night before each home game, the Rev. R. Tony Ricard will lead about 15-to-25 New Orleans Saints players and coaches in a 30-minute Mass on Friday night at the team hotel. He will read Scripture. He will offer inspiration. He will tug at the group's emotions, reminding attendees of their potential to become not only Super Bowl-winning professionals, but also evangelists -- men of fame and faith who carry the power to nurture and inspire a city.
And, when appropriate, he will reference football.
"I have to remind them that in the Catholic faith, we have cardinals, and we have saints," Ricard said, smiling. "Saints are way higher on the ladder than cardinals. We have to make sure they realize that we are destined to win because saints are greater than cardinals."
Ricard, the pastor of Our Lady Star of the Sea Church and the Saints' Catholic chaplain since 2000, will present his first playoff Mass on Friday, before the Saints hosts the Arizona Cardinals on Saturday afternoon in the NFC divisional round. He represents a faith-level connection between New Orleans' passion for the NFL and its Catholic influences.
In recent months, Ricard has gained notoriety for publishing two prayers in the local newspaper, the Times-Picayune. The first -- 418 words long and titled "The Prayer of the Who Dats" -- appeared Sept. 13 and became so popular that the newspaper requested he write another for the playoffs. The second -- a 466-word prayer titled "A Playoff Prayer for the Who Dat Nation" -- ran Tuesday and includes lines such as "Just like the Hebrew children, our 40 years of wandering in the desert have come to an end. With eyes of faith, we can see the promised land! We can taste the Super Bowl! And, yes Lord, we believe."
The first prayer produced fanatical rituals. Ricard said he received word that a woman laminated the message and holds it to her chest while speaking to God before each game. Another family wrote to tell him they gather 30 minutes before kickoff and recite it as one.
"It's kind of cool because, as a minister, you hope you bring your folk closer to God," Ricard said. "To think you have written something that is helping them on their journey of faith is pretty cool."
Born and raised in New Orleans, Ricard has been a Saints fan since attending his first game at Tulane Stadium with his father, Rodney, 40 years ago. He remembers the 1980 "baghead year," when the Saints finished 1-15, beating only the New York Jets in Week 15. During that season, he became so enraged at fans wearing paper sacks over their faces at the Superdome that he routinely yelled, "Take that bag off!"
"I thought it was such a disgrace," Ricard said. "We all have people in our family who we don't want to be associated with, but do you wear a bag over your head at the family reunion? Just because your brothers are pitiful right now, you don't need to hide your face under a bag."
This season, New Orleans' success has made Ricard's role within the team that much more fulfilling. Ordained in 1995, he began subbing during Saints Masses in 1999, and took over the coordination role a year later. Over the years, he said, he has developed cherished relationships with many players and coaches, and he considers his acquaintance with former kicker John Carney, now a kicking consultant for the team, one of his most valued. He doesn't travel with the team -- though he is hoping for an invite to Miami if New Orleans earns a trip to the Super Bowl -- and spends road-game Sundays watching on a 60-inch television in his rectory's "Reggie Room," a Saints shrine remodeled after Hurricane Katrina that includes a large Reggie Bush Fathead sticker on a blue wall near the entrance.
During Saints Masses, Ricard attempts to provide a traditional church experience. Citing his vivid imagination, he said the 30-minute window is a challenge, because brevity is not his preaching style. (Masses at Our Lady Star of the Sea Church can last as long as two hours, he said.)
Ricard has discovered an angle to NFL life he had never suspected prior to becoming a team chaplain. He said players and coaches are just "regular guys who make a lot of money" and confront common life issues. Some are new husbands and fathers, he said, and seek spiritual guidance. When a regular Mass attendee gets cut from the team, he said it is like losing a member of the family.
"Money doesn't bring happiness," Ricard said.
"That's why there's always a great need for the spiritual element, because they can get so caught up in the fame and in the money. But when all that is gone, that is when they have those great falls."
Said the Rev. Robert Seay, the pastor of St. Paul the Apostle Church in Lafayette, La., and Ricard's predecessor as Saints chaplain: "When the curtain comes down, they have to live a normal life.
"What people don't see is the spiritual side of the players. They're young people. … They have to overcome star status. Some do it very well, and some have difficulty."
Ricard has critics. After writing the first prayer for the Times-Picayune, he said he received an e-mail from a man who considered it sacrilege, and wrote that no good priest should waste his time praying for a professional football team. Ricard asked the man to point out specific spots in the prayer that were disrespectful to God. Ricard said he has never received a reply.
Ricard also uses his position with the team to mentor other young parishioners. For about five years, he has invited members of his church to help at Saints Masses so they can "see that there really is a different world." He asks that they refrain from acting like "a groupie" and limit their gawking at the sight of Drew Brees. "Now I look at it that they're humans just like us," said Denzel Millon, a parishioner who has attended Saints Masses for the past three years. "They live their everyday lives. The only thing is that they're on TV, and they're entertaining us."
Ricard treasures that basic human connection most. When he leads the Saints during Mass on Friday night -- for what he hopes is not the last time this season -- he'll try to convey a larger, more lasting message: Football represents today. Personal legacy never perishes.
"I just hope I helped them at some phase find a connection between the great blessings that they received from God and how they're called to use them not only on the field but their entire lives," Ricard said. "In the end, football, for them, is their career now. They'll be looking back on it. Nobody plays forever.
"The Saints have lifted the whole spirit of the city. … For me, it's such a privilege to be a part of that experience."
Andrew Astleford is a freelance writer. Check out his Web site at AndrewAstleford.com.
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