Biloxi, Miss. ? He stood there and looked into the cameras and tried to take credit for something that was mandated from above. Tom Benson, you have no shame.

The New Orleans Saints’ underhanded, scheming owner did his thing before a hastily called news conference at the Saints’ training facility Friday afternoon at Metairie, and when I say did his thing, I mean he embarrassed himself, his team, and the entire NFL.

Benson announced that the Saints would be returning to their practice facility within a few weeks and that the Saints could be playing home games in the Louisiana Superdome by mid-September. The Superdome was used as a shelter of last resort during deadly Hurricane Katrina in August and was heavily damaged by the storm.

Benson’s rambling, awkward news conference was carried live by WWL-TV in New Orleans. NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue finally met with Saints players Friday in San Antonio, which has been the team’s base of operations for four months, and Tagliabue was more cautious in addressing the Saints’ itinerary for the 2006 season.

The Saints have a shot at the No. 1 pick in April’s NFL Draft and take a dreadful 3-12 record into today’s regular-season finale at Tampa Bay.

Benson was patting himself on the back for returning the Saints to their training facility, which was built largely at Louisiana taxpayers’ expense, when they could have done so in mid-October. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Guard had left the facility by then, but the Saints continued to practice at the Alamodome, unless they were relegated to a high school baseball field or a parking lot because of earlier commitments at that stadium.

Tagliabue pronounced the Saints training facility in “excellent condition” earlier this month, but Benson had no intent of returning to it, at least not until it was dictated by the NFL.

Not surprisingly, Benson spent several minutes at the podium talking about money, which is the basis for every decision he makes on the Saints. He talked about the role the Saints would play in the recovery of New Orleans and the Gulf South, throwing out staggering numbers about the economic impact the club would have in its return.

Benson even looked away from his prepared notes and told the media on hand that the Saints players had to pay Louisiana state income tax while playing in Texas, which has no such tax.

It was painful to watch.

Benson fired Saints executive Arnie Fielkow in October, after Fielkow had lobbied to play Saints home games at LSU’s Tiger Stadium instead of the Alamodome.

It’s still possible the Saints could have to play some home games at Tiger Stadium in 2006, and Tagliabue admitted they could even have to play in San Antonio, too.

It’s quite possible they’ll have a new coach, because Jim Haslett’s future with the team seems tenuous at best. What they won’t have, however, is a new owner. And that’s what they really need.

Benson told the media about a plaque he received from Saints employees, jabbering about “bringing the ship in,” when his real intent was to make San Antonio the club’s permanent port. Tagliabue, of course, had other ideas, and the NFL doesn’t want the public-relations nightmare of Benson relocating the Saints after an unprecedented natural disaster.

Benson even mangled the cliche, “When the going get tough, the tough get going.”

But he didn’t take any questions.

Benson had to get going, to catch a plane back to San Antonio.