The interminable seven-month wait over, the NFL returns to the national stage tonight when the Vikings and Saints kick it off in New Orleans. The only shame of it all, of course, is the lack of any real drama due to the outcome having been foreordained.
What? You pretend to not know who will win tonight's highly anticipated and over-celebrated rematch of last January's near-epic NFC Championship Game in the Superdome? Someone's either in denial or just hasn't been paying attention, because the league does its level best to annually make this NFL Opening Kickoff Game the equivalent of a Washington Generals-Harlem Globetrotters showdown -- right down to the pregame razzle-dazzle and the manufacturing of faux suspense.
But facts are facts. This will be the seventh season in a row the NFL has opened with its defending Super Bowl champion at home on a Thursday night, taking one last victory lap before its adoring crowd and a national TV audience. And while there's always a worthy adversary on the other sideline, the banner-hanging defending champs are 6-0 in this set-up, with a healthy 11.2 point average margin of victory.
In order, the 2004 Patriots, 2005 Patriots, 2006 Steelers, 2007 Colts, 2008 Giants, and 2009 Steelers have all had their season-opening parties come off exactly as planned, with the added bonus of then getting 10 days or so before they have to take their shiny new 1-0 record into Week 2. As in life at times, the NFL rich tend to get richer.
"I think it could definitely be to our advantage," said Saints quarterback Drew Brees of the huge natural high he expects will result from getting a final opportunity to celebrate the franchise's first Super Bowl championship, won just two weeks after the last time these two teams faced off in the Superdome -- that 31-28 overtime thriller of a New Orleans victory. "Just the sheer emotion of watching that [championship] banner drop and knowing we were a part of it and that it will hang forever, and we will all be linked together forever because of it.''
After Thursday night the Saints will have seen this particular story from both sides. They've been both the Christians and the lions. Three years ago in Indianapolis, the 2007 Saints -- who, like these Vikings, were also coming off a loss in the NFC title game -- were the designated patsy for the Colts' banner-displaying festivities at the RCA Dome. It was a close game for a while (10-10 at the half), but then (wink, wink) the Colts pulled away and eased to a 41-10 victory, and a good time was had by all. At least all those in blue and white.
"We were part of this game in 2007, up in Indianapolis after they had won it,'' Brees recalled. "Unfortunately, that wasn't a great moment, because we were on the other side. Hopefully [we play] like the home team did that night, but I guess I haven't thought a whole lot about it.
"You're so much in preparation mode for this team and who you're going up against, as opposed to thinking about the emotions of when the banner drops, the crowd and everything else. But certainly that's something to start thinking about, so I'm somewhat prepared for it, so that I stay calm once we move on from that.''
Predicted Outcome:
Saints 27 Vikings 23
