Payton's guys set aside OTAs, are real Saints for a day

When New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton telephoned Tuesday, he and his team had completed a morning of work that went so well Payton pronounced it "a good day."

Except there were no passes thrown, and no tackles made.

Reggie Bush does his part to help out. (Provided to CBSSports.com)

"It was a little more philanthropic," said Payton.

No, it wasn't. It was a lot more.

Payton gave players the day off from practice and had them transported to Hollygrove, a New Orleans neighborhood badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina, where coaches and players spent the morning working on four houses.

"We put up fences, cleaned up yards, painted, and put up dry wall," said Payton. "We just tried to fix things."

I know, the Saints should worry about fixing themselves. I get it. But this is serious stuff we're talking about, and the New Orleans Saints did what they could Tuesday by partnering with Rebuilding Together New Orleans to help another community struggling to recover from Katrina.

So they spent four hours on the job, arriving by bus at 8 in the morning and leaving by noon.

Originally, Tuesday was supposed to be an OTA session, but Payton notified players on Monday they were going to work the next day, and he recommended they dress in jeans. But this is what I like most: He notified almost no one else.

"This was pretty much a secret for the past eight days," said Kristin Gisleson Palmer, director of Rebuilding Together New Orleans. "They didn't want a big press conference. The way I understood it is that (Payton) really wanted his guys to work and to work hard because this was their chance to give back to the community.

"It wasn't until they were nearly finished that people in the neighborhood knew what was going on. So there wasn't a lot of stopping and gawking. This wasn't a photo opportunity. They were here to work."

That jibes with Payton's phone call. I tried to reach him Monday after hearing what the Saints were going to do, but we weren't connected until a day later -- and then it was only after he and his team were finished.

"When I told them what we were doing they were very receptive," Payton said. "And I think if you asked them how they feel now they'd say the same. They feel it was a good day of work. And it was. When you get 100 people working in an area you can get a lot done."