The New Orleans made sure they checked all of their boxes when they chose to play their first ‘home’ game of the season, since they cannot do it in New Orleans. After Hurricane Ida hit New Orleans last weekend, the Saints had the decision of where to play their season opener.
Jeff Duncan of The Times-Picayne reports the Saints considered every detail and put great thought into arriving at Jacksonville as their temporary home stadium.
All three Florida stadiums were available for September 12th, and the Saints figured the high humidity could give them an edge since they already practice and play in New Orleans. They looked up Aaron Rodgers‘ record in Florida and discovered he is 3-4 in his career with a 78.1 passer rating, according to Duncan.
The Saints actually had someone check out which city would be the hardest one to reach for Packers fans, so they had one employee check out how much it would cost to travel to Jacksonville versus Tampa and Miami, and what the employee found is that Jacksonville was the most expensive city to travel to (out of those three options). The franchise basically did everything they could to make sure that Packers fans aren’t going to take over the TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville for what’s supposed to be a “home” game for New Orleans.
“We’re conscious of everything when it comes to preparing for an opponent,” Saints general manager Mickey Loomis said this week, via NOLA.com. “There’s just so many variables. I don’t want to get into all of the variables. The main thing is to have a suitable place to play that both teams have access to.”
The fact that this story is even out will likely just get Packers fans to reach down further into their pockets to make sure they take over the stadium anyway.
We shall see.
