Madison Kwiecinski

Editor-in-Chief

mvk5945@psu.edu

During the 2022 NFL season, the Saints have an opportunity to accomplish something no other NFL team ever has: beating all of the birds. Often referred to as the “Bird Gauntlet,” the Saints will face off against every team in the NFL this year that has a bird as their mascot. It is rare for one NFL team to play all five teams that contain a bird as their mascot, as it is broken up by division, and it takes a perfectly scheduled season for this lineup to occur. 

For the Saints this year, they will play a total of six games against teams with birds as their mascot, as the Atlanta Falcons are in the same division as the Saints and, therefore, will be played twice. The schedule goes as follows: 

Week 1 – Atlanta Falcons 

Week 5 – Seattle Seahawks 

Week 7 – Arizona Cardinals 

Week 9 – Baltimore Ravens 

Week 15 – Atlanta Falcons, again

Week 17 – Philadelphia Eagles 

The first bird gauntlet game of the season for the Saints was close, winning by exactly one point. The game from September 11 ended 27-26, keeping the Saints in the running for beating every bird team for the first time in history. Technically speaking, although the Saints play the Falcons again in week 17, they have already beaten them for the season and would still win the bird gauntlet if they lost when facing them again later this season. 

The last time an NFL team was paired to face every bird team was in 2020, when the Dallas Cowboys attempted the bird gauntlet. The Cowboys lost to Seattle in week 3 of 2020, which allowed for the opportunity the Saints now have to make history. 

The way the NFL divisions are split makes it so that every few years, it rotates which team gets an opportunity to play all five bird teams. Due to the way the yearly divisional matchups, every 12 years, the Saints, Panthers, and Buccaneers are guaranteed to play the Eagles, Ravens, Cardinals, and Seahawks. One of those three teams may also play the Falcons if they finish in the same place as their respective division. This also occurs with the Redskins, Giants, and Cowboys. 

For teams in the NFC North and NFC West divisions, it is much more difficult to get a matchup that allows them to compete for the bird gauntlet. In the West, teams are only guaranteed to play three of the five bird teams every four years but then must get lucky with their ranking in playoffs to play the other two bird teams. The NFC North is in a similar situation, but they only play three of the five-bird teams every twelve years rather than every four. 

On a technicality, there are two other teams this year that may be able to accomplish the bird gauntlet, but it would require some very specific things to happen. For example, the Panthers play the Falcons and the Cardinals during their regular season and could technically play against the Eagles and Seahawks during playoffs. If they plate both of those teams in playoffs and then if the Ravens were to make it to the Super Bowl but lose to the Panthers during it, the Panthers would not only win the Super Bowl but also complete the bird gauntlet. A very similar situation is technically plausible for the Packers, who play the Falcons and Eagles during the regular season and would need to face the Cardinals and Seahawks during playoffs before beating the Ravens in the Super Bowl. 

It is no wonder the bird gauntlet is discussed every year and that a team has an opportunity to accomplish it, as no one ever has successfully. These matchups are rare, which only adds to the excitement, making it rare but keeping it plausible.