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.

Creative Commons License

Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.

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 Hattiesburg American, Monroe (La.) News Star World, Jackson Daily News and Clarion Ledger as a reporter, editor and columnist.

He was 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 authored four books and has been recognized 13 times as Mississippi Sports Writer of the Year.

He was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 2016 and into the Hattiesburg Hall of Fame in 2018. He received the Richard Wright Award for Literary Excellence in 2011 and was inducted into the University of Southern Mississippi Communications Hall of Fame in 2018. In 2000, he was honored with the Distinguished Mississippian Award from Mississippi Press Association. He has received numerous state, regional and national awards for his column writing and reporting.