In Week 1 of the 2022 NFL season, the New Orleans Saints will renew their oldest and bitterest rivalry when they hit the road to take on the Atlanta Falcons. And ahead of that game, the Saints set the tone by giving their most hated enemy another unwelcome reminder of their most colossal failure.
According to Ross Jackson of Locked to sports, the Saints spent most of Wednesday’s practice at their indoor facility with the scoreboard 28-3, an obvious blow to the memories that continue to plague the Falcons. Atlanta led Super Bowl LI 28-3 late in the third quarter, only to blow a 25-point lead from that point and lose in overtime in the biggest collapse in Super Bowl history.
The Saints’ efforts to torment the Falcons didn’t stop at the training ground alone. The construction barriers at Caesars Superdome also reference Super Bowl LI, announcing how new escalators currently under construction will get fans to their seats “28.3 times faster than before.”
It’s no surprise that the rivalry between the Saints and Falcons is petty and personal. Both entered the NFL around the same time as the expansion teams in the late 1960s, and for a long time both teams were the only two NFL teams to play in the Southeast in outside Florida. The Saints have had the height to talk trash over the past few years, as they won the NFC South four years in a row from 2017 to 2020 and went 8-3 against Atlanta in that span.
However, the Falcons lead the all-time series 54-52, and the two teams have split their season series in 2021.
