In Search of Joe Horn's Phone

A FEW DAYS before a Dec. 14, 2003, home game against the Giants, Saints receiver Joe Horn paid a goodwill visit to the Christian Brothers School, for boys 10 to 13, in New Orleans and made his young fans a promise: "You turn on the TV this weekend, you are going to see an amazing performance by Joe Horn." Horn not only set a team record with four TD receptions that Sunday, but he also became the talk of the sports world by retrieving--with the help of teammate Michael Lewis--a cellphone from the goalpost padding after the second TD and trying (in vain) to reach his family. The stunt drew a 15yard unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty and a $30,000 fine from the NFL. (Lewis got fined $5,000, which Horn paid.)

Horn has gotten past the incident, but he hasn't forgotten the Christian Brothers School, which started a football program (team members above) this year. He signed the phone--with a sketch of a trumpet and the words HEAR ME NOW--and gave it to the school to be auctioned at its annual fund-raiser this Saturday. The phone will be among more than 300 prizes, including a Vespa and a cruise on the Mississippi. "It won't be the biggest item," says the school's director of development Tom Bagwill, "but it will be the most notorious." --Sarah Thurmond

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RICK OLIVIER (TEAM WITH PHONE)

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CHRIS GRAYTHEN/GETTY IMAGES (HORN ON PHONE)

2003