Faulk's mind on troubled hometown

ST. LOUIS -- If Marshall Faulk blows an assignment in tonight's preseason game, there's a good reason. The St. Louis Rams' running back grew up in New Orleans, and believes several of his relatives may be marooned there by Hurricane Katrina.

"I find myself going between the game plan and what's going on down in New Orleans while sitting in meetings," Faulk said Wednesday. "I'll see what kind of challenge it's going to be. I've never had a distraction like that."

Coach Mike Martz isn't sure whether Faulk will play against the Chiefs in the annual Governor's Cup game. He had planned to rest most of his frontliners anyway, especially because the team will be playing its second game in five days after beating the Lions on Monday.

"He was up all night and he was late coming in this morning," Martz said. "There's no communication, they're worried sick, so it's a very difficult time for Marshall right now."

These days, Faulk finds himself glued to news channels as much as game tape for updates from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. His hometown, now largely underwater, is unrecognizable.

"I couldn't tell what part was which and I'm growing up down there and it's not a big city, so I'm pretty familiar with it all," Faulk said. "With all the water, you just couldn't tell parts apart."

Given the chaos he sympathizes with looters, saying they're just doing what's necessary.

"Everything is out and people are going into survivor mode," Faulk said. "They're calling it looting, and I'm saying it's survival. What's a store with food in it if you don't have food? What's a store with fresh water if you don't have water?

"What do you do? What are you supposed to do?"

Faulk's mother got out of town in time, although it took some persuasion. She's safe in Texas after leaving with one of Faulk's five brothers.

"Probably just missed it," he said. "My mom's one of those people that believes in riding it out. I talked to her Sunday and she was adamant about staying, but she decided to go.

"I finally talked to her yesterday afternoon and I've never heard my mom cry or never heard her upset about anything pertaining to something of a house or her friends or her family. She was very upset, very upset, and just heartbroken and devastated about the whole ordeal."

Faulk's not so sure about other family members.

"One of my brothers is fine, I just haven't heard from my other brothers and the rest of my family," he said. "My aunts, uncles, cousins -- haven't heard from anyone. Everyone down there, you worry about them."

Faulk said everyone should have had plenty of time to evacuate the city. Then again, he remembers such warnings being a way of life, and so he can understand why anyone would have decided to ride out the storm.

He related that to Midwesterners reacting with yawns to tornado warnings.

"Sometimes you evacuate and it seems like you don't need to, you end up just catching a storm or whatever," Faulk said. "If I had been there and I was in that situation, I don't know if I'd have left myself, that's just how it is.

"If a tornado is coming through here, do you leave? You never know if it's going to hit your home or not. It was that kind of situation."

While growing up, Faulk never experienced anything like what's happening now. Nothing close.

"I think as a kid I never really understood the magnitude of a hurricane and what it could do," Faulk said. "I never experienced a really, really bad one.

"It rained, it stormed, it flooded. But nothing, nothing, like this. Ever."