Just about every unusual situation you can imagine, and some you couldn't have, struck the Saints over the first six weeks of the NFL season.
Oddly enough, of the things that hasn't happened is among the most common: A night-time kickoff.
Typically mainstays on national broadcasts, the Saints have yet to be featured on Monday Night Football, Sunday Night Football or Thursday Night Football. That'll change this week when they face the Seattle Seahawks. The Saints opened with an afternoon kickoff, then five consecutive noon starts.
It'll be the second visit out to Seattle for a good number of Saints players. That group includes Alvin Kamara, who's been around the block a few times at this point. He doesn't get quite as amped for the Monday night spotlight games as he used to, it's all business this time around.
"It's another day for me," Kamara said, giving a big shrug. "I think Monday Night Football, when you're coming up, it's a big thing. Now I'm here, it's a work day. It's another opportunity, another game."
At that point Kamara took a second, then came to a new realization: He's not indifferent, he actually doesn't like games set on Monday at all.
Why? "Because then we've got to turn around and play on Sunday. It's a short week. ... you lose a day."
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It's a good point, considering the team is hopeful to get several players back from injury this week. Any players who get back on the field will face a shortened recovery window that already presents challenges.
The Monday kickoff also represents an extra day of waiting as the Saints return from their bye week. It also means an extra day to prepare for those players, 7 of whom returned to practice this week, working to get back on the field in time for Week 7. The Saints will also be hopeful to get LT Terron Armstead and C Erik McCoy back on the field, both having missed multiple weeks due to injury.
McCoy and Armstead were also both in the group that shipped out to Seattle for a thrilling Week 3 win in the 2019 season, the first of five games started by Teddy Bridgewater. That group knows this matchup will likely be different in terms of the noise than what they experienced that time. A Deonte Harris punt return touchdown and a scoop-and-score by Vonn Bell sucked a lot of the air of the stadium en route to a comfortable Saints win.
Armstead even began relaying to Kamara what it was like playing in Seattle, one of the loudest venues in the league, before the RB reminded him they went there together. Armstead does have two other Seattle visits to reference, the most notable a playoff loss in 2013.
"It's a loud place. It's definitely a football environment, to say the least," Kamara said.
But don't get used to the early schedule. The Saints now have six noon or night-time kickoffs in their final 12 games -- a number that includes back-to-back Thursday night kickoffs in Week 12 (Bills/Thanksgiving day) and Week 13 (Cowboys).
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