Minnesota Vikings defensive end Jared Allen offers apology to New Orleans residents, not city

Not to fuel the fire, but crime stats analyzed in a DOJ report released earlier this year showed that the overall crime rate in New Orleans is lower than in Orlando, FL., home of Disney World, and below the national average for cities of its size. What New Orleans has is murder problem, driven largely by killings among young black guys who know each other and are settling beefs with guns.

As for litter or cleanliness, one I'd suggest getting off Bourbon Street before making that evaluation. Two, I travel a lot and on balance I'd say the "cleaner" a city is the more boring it is. If the first thing you can say about a city is how clean it is, that's a reliable indicator that you wouldn't want to spend much time there.

Allen said two things that were telling. First, that he doesn't really identify with a place, only his family, ergo he'd never understand the bond many of us feel to our city. Second, he cited his faith and to many strict Christians, New Orleans embodies much of what they reject about society. It's a free country. New Orleans isn't for everybody.