The NFL front office is being pushed to the limit as of late, with a rash of COVID-19 issues primarily tied to the Tennessee Titans, but that now include the New England Patriots and the Las Vegas Raiders. While it does its best to sort out those issues -- including another potential rescheduling of a game or two -- Mother Nature would like to have a word. While all the world watches to see what happens in the NFL world of COVID-19, the New Orleans Saints have one eye on that and the other on Hurricane Delta, the storm that made landfall on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Wednesday. It's expected to re-emerge and strengthen in the Gulf of Mexico before Thursday, and the Saints were considering evacuating because of it.
Instead, due to changes in both the path and strength of the storm, they've decided to stay put -- per The Athletic.
The plan was initially to temporarily occupy Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis with the possibility of hosting the Los Angeles Chargers in the home stadium of the Indianapolis Colts on "Monday Night Football." The league and the Saints were mulling the decision for most of the day on Wednesday, as Delta stared down the Gulf Coast. As of Wednesday morning, Delta was a Category 2 storm with winds estimated at 110 mph and the ability to strengthen once it begins absorbing the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, making for a very real problem potentially heading the Saints' way with possible U.S. landfall late Thursday or early Friday.
If the decision was made to evacuate, given the aforementioned estimation of landfall, the Saints would have needed to depart for Indianapolis at some point Thursday. Lucas Oil Stadium is vacant this weekend due to the Colts visiting the Browns in Cleveland, which would've made for an easy pivot if the Saints needed a temporary home.
"We always have contingency plans for all games," NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy said. "We had plans for the wildfires in California last month but never had to act on them. But we will continue to monitor developments in the area. It's very early in the process."
Thankfully for the Saints, Delta changed her mind.
