The New Orleans Saints are considering a return to Millsaps College for its summer training camp – at least, that was the news reported by The Sporting News over the weekend.

If so, it is also news to Millsaps College, which hosted the team’s summer camp from 2006-08.

“We’ve had absolutely no communication with the Saints to my knowledge,” said John Sewell, Millsaps director of communications and marketing.

“We’d be interested but we have heard nothing on our end,” Sewell added.

The Saints shocked everyone in pro football by making it to the NFC Championship Game in 2006 after first training at Millsaps. They remained at Millsaps in 2007 and 2008, working in extreme heat and humidity and dodging afternoon thunderstorms.

The Saints moved their training camp back to the team’s Metairie, La., headquarters prior to the 2009 season that ended in the team’s first Super Bowl. Even then, Saint coach Sean Payton said the seeds to the championship were sewn at Millsaps.

Sean Payton

“Our experience at Millsaps and in Jackson was outstanding and really good for us at that time,” Payton said during Super Bowl preparations in 2009. “It provided us a chance to get away as a team and eliminate the distractions we might have had here in a good teaching setting. The people there were wonderful.”

The Saints trained in Metairie through 2013 but moved summer camp to Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia for 2014-16. All three of those seasons ended with a 7-9 record.


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Rick Cleveland, a native of Hattiesburg and resident of Jackson, has been Mississippi Today’s sports columnist since 2016. A graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi with a bachelor’s in journalism, Rick has worked for the Monroe (La.) News Star World, Jackson Daily News and Clarion Ledger. He was sports editor of Hattiesburg American, executive director of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. His work as a syndicated columnist and celebrated sports writer has appeared in numerous magazines, periodicals and newspapers.
Rick has been recognized 13 times as Mississippi Sports Writer of the Year, and is recipient of multiple awards and honors for his reporting and writing.