One of the marquee Monday Night Football matchups of the 2026 season came at Roger Goodell's request.
The NFL commissioner asked for the game between the New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons at Caesars Superdome to be played on Monday night, according to NFL VP of broadcasting planning Mike North. It'll celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Saints' memorable win over the Falcons in their return to New Orleans for the first time since Hurricane Katrina in 2006.
"It's really to the commissioner's credit," North said, according to Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk. "It was, 'We're gonna play Falcons at Saints on Monday night this year, fit it in in that kind of three-week window.'"
North added, "It wasn't a requirement (that) it had to land in a special week, but it was a requirement, straight from the boss, that it landed on our schedule."
The game will take place Oct. 5 in Week 4, falling 10 days after the 20th anniversary of the 2006 "Domecoming," which happened in Week 3.
North said the league considered scheduling Falcons-Saints again in Week 3 this year, but Week 4 was a better fit.
"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 explained. "Fans remember that moment, the electricity, the excitement. If we were a week early, or closer to the day, or a week later, (we) weren't gonna throw away our best schedule just by being off a couple days."
He continued: "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.'"
Atlanta didn't want to be New Orleans' road opponent for this season's "Domecoming," reports Jeff Duncan of NOLA.com.
In 2006, the Saints beat the Falcons 23-3 in a contest best remembered for Steve Gleason's blocked punt recovered by Curtis Deloatch for one of the most iconic touchdowns in New Orleans history.
