Super Bowl contenders New Orleans and Indianapolis received a soggy

Reggie Bush

welcome to Miami, with heavy rain affecting their early preparations for the biggest game on earth.

The Saints had to train indoors in the opening workout of Super Bowl week, after landing in South Florida to find heavy downpours instead of the expected sunshine.

The now infamous media day on Tuesday has also been moved indoors at the Sun Life Stadium – where anything goes as a seeming contest to ask the most bizarre question gets underway.

Head coach Sean Payton does not feel the weather will play a part though, insisting that they have a carefully planned rain schedule to deal with such events.

“Actually, it was pretty smooth,” said Payton. “When you get the itinerary down and the players are adaptable, it just involved us busing up here to practice.
Rain plan

“We knew going in this week that this would be the rain plan. The weather forecast for the balance of the week, after tomorrow, is pretty good, so these fields will dry up well. It was good that we had the (Dolphins’ indoor) bubble to use today.

“We wanted to get a workout in today. We felt that was important. Overall, it went pretty good.”

Running back Reggie Bush has been earmarked a potential difference maker come the big game, and he too was unruffled by the adverse weather conditions.

“The rain put a damper on some of our plans,” said Bush. “It rains a lot in New Orleans, too, so it is something that we are used to. I don’t think the weather is going to be too big of a deal for us.

“But getting here today has been a lot of fun. It is nice to get this thing on the road. We got situated in our hotel rooms so that was nice.”

Although the Saints are appearing in their first Super Bowl, quarterback Drew Brees says they will not be phased by a change in plans due to the rain.

“It is what it is,” said Brees. “Weather the storm. We know how to do that. This (walk-through) is something that we wanted to do today. We got here early for a reason.

“Our team jumped right on the buses to the practice field. We got a good sweat in, got a good workout in. I think it has just really set the tone for us and our mindset for this week. It’s all business.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 at 03:56 and is filed under NFL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.