On the opening weekend of the National Football League season, the Green Bay Packers met the New Orleans Saints in Jacksonville. How did Green Bay and New Orleans end up playing their September opener in Jacksonville?
On the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, another storm ravaged New Orleans. Hurricane Ida flooded Louisiana and sent the Saints away from a scheduled home game to open their season at the Jacksonville Jaguars stadium. While the Saints had to deal with the horrific aftermath of the storm, the Packers were just playing another away game. Redirecting their flight from New Orleans to Jacksonville didn’t seem to be something that would affect the Packers play, while the Saints losing a home game and dealing with their community being trashed again by mother nature, threw their opener into added stress.
If that game had been played at the Superdome, the Saints would have been a 2½ point favorite over Aaron Rodgers and company. In Jacksonville, the Packers were posted as a 3½ point favorite.
So, with that as the setup, what do you think happened in the game?
Nope.
The Saints gave their stricken community something to cheer about with a trouncing of the Packers, 38-3.