Roger Goodell Personally Asked For Saints-Falcons Primetime Game To Be Made
It's never really clear exactly how much Roger Goodell puts his thumb on the scale when it comes to direct influence over NFL games, but one high ranking NFL official made it clear that he petitioned hard for one matchup in particular to be put in front of a national audience.
Week 4 will see the New Orleans Saints host the Atlanta Falcons in the Superdome on Monday Night Football. While that may have seemed like a headscratcher as a national showcase for fans given that they both had losing records last year, NFL VP of broadcasting planning Mike North revealed on Friday that Goodell specifically wanted to have the two on Monday Night Football early in the season.
North explained that 2026 marks the anniversary of the 2006 game between the two teams, when the Superdome opened for the first time since Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans.
"It's really to the Commissioner's credit, it was, ‘We're gonna play Falcons at Saints on Monday night this year, fit it in in that kind of three-week window.' So, it wasn't a requirement it had to land in a special week, but it was a requirement, straight from the boss, that it landed on our schedule," North said, via Awful Announcing.
North said that Goodell might have preferred the game to be in Week 3, just as it was in 2006, but that putting it within a few weeks of that date left the league "in good shape." He said that Week 4 was the only date this year that worked due to prior commitments from the stadium and the city for other events.
"Relative to the exact date of the anniversary, honestly, we figured if we were within a couple of weeks, we were in good shape," North said. "Fans remember that moment, the electricity, the excitement. If we were a week early, or closer to the day, or a week later, weren't gonna throw away our best schedule just by being off a couple days. Plus, as you know, there's a lot of events going on in that region. I don't have the stadium availability off the top of my head, but relative to the Dome itself, the arena across the street, there's concerts, there's basketball games, there's other things going on at times. It wasn't a, ‘This game has to be in this week.'"
The 2006 Saints-Falcons Game
The 2006 Monday Night Football game between the Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints became one of the most emotional and symbolic moments in NFL history because it marked the Saints' return to Caesars Superdome following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. After Katrina severely damaged New Orleans in 2005, the Saints were forced to play home games in other cities while the Superdome underwent major repairs. Their return on September 25, 2006, represented far more than a football game-it became a symbol of recovery, resilience, and hope for the city of New Orleans.
The game itself became legendary when the Saints blocked a Falcons punt early in the first quarter, with Steve Gleason helping spark one of the most iconic plays in franchise history. The Saints dominated Atlanta 23–3 in front of an emotional national audience, and the atmosphere inside the Superdome was widely praised as one of the greatest in NFL history. The victory helped launch a breakthrough season for New Orleans under coach Sean Payton and quarterback Drew Brees, while permanently cementing the game as a defining cultural and sporting moment for the city.
Three years later, the Saints hoisted the Vince Lombardi Trophy for the first time in franchise history.
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This story was originally published May 16, 2026 at 8:40 PM.