NEW ORLEANS – New Orleans and Atlanta battled over football before the Saints and Falcons even existed.
The rivalry has lasted for more than 60 years, and it was more than coincidence that the Saints’ first game back at the Superdome in 2006, a year-plus after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina damaged the stadium, was against the Falcons.
Same with the 20th anniversary of Steve Gleason’s shining moment in an emotional Saints victory, which will be celebrated Monday, Oct. 5, during “Monday Night Football.”
“To come away with that victory over Atlanta? Out of all people?” Saints fan and New Orleans resident Corey Singleton said in front of the statue – aptly named “Rebirth” – of Gleason’s blocked punt against the Falcons prior to the team's Week
3 game. “Oh my god, that meant something to us.”
The NFL scheduled the 20th anniversary celebration for the Falcons on “Monday Night Football" despite the Saints hosting the Las Vegas Raiders for a home game two days after the actual anniversary. The teams also faced off for the 10th anniversary celebration in addition to the original “Domecoming."
“It was always a little special because it was the Falcons,” longtime New Orleans sports journalist and Louisiana Sports Hall of Famer Ro Brown told USA TODAY Sports.
“I think the league knew what it was doing," he said. "It was by design. They think about stuff like that.”
As far as football rivalries – professional or collegiate – go, the one between the Falcons and Saints rarely is one of the first few mentioned.
“That’s as good as it gets, I would say, in football,” Falcons running back Bijan Robinson told USA TODAY Sports.
A Texas Longhorn, Robinson hails from the famous Oklahoma-Texas college rivalry. The level of preparation heightens during a rivalry week, he said, “because you know what comes with the game, from the fans all week, just that anticipation.”
“I’m always super excited to play that game, just because that’s a fun rivalry,” Robinson said. “The fans, the crowd, get into it. And we do too. … I hope that rivalry just builds even more.”
Origins of the Saints vs. Falcons rivalry
Erin Grayson Sapp, a New Orleans-based historian who studied the formation of Saints, said her research helped her understand not only the team’s stronghold in New Orleans, but also “why the Falcons-Saints rivalry was so big.”
As the NFL and its competitor at the time, the AFL, sought expansion in the American southeast, Atlanta and New Orleans were the top contenders.
“There was very much a real rivalry well before either city even had a team,” Grayson Sapp told USA TODAY Sports.
Atlanta won the race, with the team awarded to Rankin Smith, and began playing in 1966. The Saints’ first season was the next year. In 1970, the teams joined the NFC West. Thirty-two years later, they comprised half of the brand-new NFC South.
New Orleans hosted Atlanta for the final preseason game before their inaugural season in 1967. Someone broke into the Falcons’ locker room and stole nine jerseys, forcing players to wear different numbers than what was printed in the program.
“To me, that’s just hilarious New Orleans-Atlanta type stuff,” Grayson Sapp said.
Louisiana State Museum executive director for marketing and communications Jeff Anding said New Orleans considers Atlanta its “anti-hero.”
“It’s our long-term nemesis,” Anding said. “I think that that moment, September 2006, was as at least as important – maybe even more so – than the Super Bowl win.”
The final game of the Saints’ first season was Nov. 26, 1967, against Atlanta at Tulane Stadium. Both teams had one win and were trying to avoid a last-place finish. It was dubbed “The Cellar Bowl.” That didn’t impede a sellout crowd – standing room only – from enjoying its new team. Atlanta led 21-10 at the half, but the Saints came back to win 27-24.
“The fans standing elbow to elbow, you know, standing for over three hours, watching these two one-win teams play each other,” Grayson Sapp said, “says a lot about the fan base and the rivalry as well, for sure.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: New Orleans and Atlanta's football rivalry existed before Saints and Falcons
