How can something that hasn't been made official already be declared a disadvantage? Such is life for New Orleans Saints fans and our apparent "war" with the NFL. What? You didn't know the NFL had it out for New Orleans? Yeah, it's been that way ever since the Saints won the Superbowl over NFL darling Peyton Manning and the Colts.

Saturday Night Live via YouTube
Saturday Night Live via YouTube
loading...

Think about it. Since that victory, the Saints have had their head coach suspended for one year for allegedly acknowledging or instituting or being in the same room as people who wanted to put bounties on opposing players. Then there were the "bad calls". No, they weren't bad calls they were egregious departures from the NFL rulebook. And in each case, the call went against New Orleans.

(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
loading...

Maybe we shouldn't have put out all of those Roger Goodell sucks memes back in the day? Or maybe the NFL should maybe try to run the league on level ground. But no, the NFL will always cower in the presence of certain franchises. One of those franchises is the Pittsburgh Steelers. 

You know the Steelers have had a rough couple of seasons. They had to deal with an alleged nut case Le'Veon Bell and his holdout. Then they had to really deal with a basket case in the form of Antonio Brown and his shenanigans. The Steel City also said goodbye to Ben Rothlisberger too. And to add insult to injury the freaking Cincinnatti Bengals made the Superbowl. Those are more than enough reasons for the non-biased NFL to suddenly become biased, right?

StarkFact via YouTube
StarkFact via YouTube
loading...

How is the NFL Biased Against the New Orleans Saints?

Okay, we've gone over the past transgressions of the "league" against the Black and Gold, now let's look at how the NFL is already putting the screws in the New Orleans 2022 NFL Season.

We already told you about how the London game with Minnesota is going to be a cluster. Because of the game's change of venue, New Orleans will lose out on a Superdome full of screaming fans when they play the Vikings. The Saints will also have to play their next game following the London trip without the benefit of a bye-week.

Thinkstock
Thinkstock
loading...

The Saints are Officially Frequent Fliers as far as the NFL is concerned.

You might have wondered why I brought up Pittsburgh earlier in this article. It's for demonstration purposes. Guess how far the Pittsburgh Steelers will be travelling during road games this season? If you guessed 6,442 miles then you'd be right. I know that seems like an awful lot of travel but this stat will shut that nonsense down. The Steelers will play every regular season football game next season in the Eastern Time Zone.

Meanwhile, the Seattle Seahawks will travel some 29,446 miles and they will traverse through 34 time zones. The Saints aren't that far behind. They will travel 24,976 miles and traverse 30 time zones during the course of the season.

I'd say compared to the Steelers and the entire AFC Central Division the Saints are getting hosed. We already mentioned Pittsburgh will play every game in the Eastern Time Zone. Cincinnati only crosses timelines four times, and the Browns and Ravens only cross into a different time zone twice.

Wisc-Online via YouTube
Wisc-Online via YouTube
loading...

How is this Fair?

It's not. It's the NFL. It's not supposed to be fair it's supposed to be set up so that major market teams with a large fan and advertising bases can win more than they lose. Or maybe it just seems that way. I still don't know why Sean Payton got suspended for alleged improprieties when Bill Belichick basically cheated in the open and on camera and never even had his hoodie ruffled.

Bill Belichick
Getty Images
loading...

But if you've ever travelled across a time zone, you know the more you cross the more toll it takes on your body. And, it takes a while for the body to recover as well. Needless to say, the Saints are going to be "flat" either in the London game or the week following. I hope you'll make a note of that before you plunk down your money on DraftKings next season.

Did the NFL do this on purpose or was this "just the luck of the draw"? To answer that I am reminded of some very sound legal advice one lawyer once gave another lawyer, "never ask a question you don't already know the answer to in court". Seems like the NFL had all the answers long before next year's schedule even went to the printers. And, we should just learn to live with it.

Louisiana's Top Ten Super Bowl Food Orders

When folks in Louisiana get together there will be drink, lots of it, and there will be food, lots of it too. However, when the game is The Big Game, you can count on Louisiana locals to lean into Waitr a Louisiana based food delivery company for the very best in home-delivered snacks, goodies, and fan favorites.

 

More From 107 JAMZ