Dear New Orleans

SC Featured (SportsCenter, Sunday, 10 a.m. ET, ESPN)

Hurricane Katrina made landfall 10 years ago, leaving in its wake a trail of devastation across the Gulf Coast. With an estimated cost of more than $100 billion, it stands as the most expensive natural disaster in United States history. The human toll was astronomical, with 1,833 lives lost. While the hurricane’s carnage could be felt across several states, New Orleans has long been seen as the epicenter of destruction. The city’s football stadium, the Superdome, became the face of the disaster for a country anxiously watching on TV. To mark Katrina’s anniversary, through letters written by the many faces of New Orleans to the town they call home, SC Featured looks at the enduring love felt for the city 10 years later.

“I helped win the first playoff game in Saints history. I have a Super Bowl ring, and a nine-foot statue outside my old office, the Superdome, but what I enjoy most about New Orleans is the infatuated, idealist citizens and the pervasive, wholly nourishing culture of family.” –Steve Gleason, former New Orleans Saints safety.

 

Chris Borland’s Struggle with Football

Outside the Lines (Sunday, 9 a.m. ESPN; 10 a.m., ESPN2)

ESPN.com

ESPN The Magazine (“NFL Preview” issue, on newsstands Friday)

Credit: ESPN/David Lubbers

Chris Borland (L) interviewed by Mark Fainaru-Wada

Twenty-four year old Chris Borland stunned the football world in March when he announced he was walking away from the NFL after just one season with the 49ers. The former linebacker cited concerns about developing brain damage if he continued to play. For five months, Borland allowed Outside the Lines to follow him on his post-retirement journey. And, as he reveals to Mark Fainaru-Wada, his new perspective is allowing him to consider the violence of football in ways that he avoided as a player.

 

How WVU’s Kadeisha Buchanan Commands Attention on the Pitch

espnW

A rising star for Canada’s national team and a Hermann Trophy candidate, West Virginia defender Kadeisha Buchanan has a knack for putting fear into players before they even get to the ball. Graham Hays reports.

 

Why Rex Ryan is welcoming infamous NFL brawlers to Buffalo

ESPN.com

Brett Carlsen/Getty Images

Rex Ryan was all smiles two days after claiming IK Enemkpali off waivers. 

Ryan, whose father was a noted NFL fighter, has a soft spot for guys with rough edges, but he says he’s not trying to save them. Elizabeth Merrill reports.

 

ESPN Employees Share Knowledge, Perspectives at 25th Annual AAJA Convention

ESPN employees participated in the 25th annual Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) convention Aug. 12-15 in San Francisco where many took part in Sports Task Force activities, including the ESPN-sponsored mentor mixer.

 

Sports Reporters

This week’s Panel* (Sunday, 9:30 a.m., ESPN; 10:30 a.m., ESPN2)

John Saunders, Howard Bryant, Frank Isola, Bob Ryan

*Subject to change