The matchup on Sunday between the New Orleans Saints and Cincinnati Bengals has many Louisiana football fans conflicted on who to root for.
Both rosters include former LSU, Tulane and Louisiana Tech players. The game will also be Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase’s first game back in the Superdome since LSU won the 2019 National Championship.
Burrow has arguably become the most popular former LSU player since Leonard Fournette, but there is no doubt he’d the best quarterback to play for LSU in the last decade.
Although he only played at LSU for just two seasons, Burrow led the 2019 Tigers to a perfect season, gave LSU its first national championship since 2007, won the Heisman Trophy and was the leader of arguably the greatest college football team of all time.
Burrow became the face of LSU football and Louisiana college football, cementing his place in the conversation for the best quarterback in LSU history with his breakout 2019 season. Although Burrow was born and raised in Ohio, the mutual love between him and Louisiana draws parallels to the love Saints’ fans shared with former quarterback Drew Brees.
This mutual love was shown by Burrow when he decided to change his last name on his jersey to “Burreaux” for an LSU home as a tribute to Louisiana’s culture and the Cajun way of spelling “Geaux”.
Burrow has also publicly made it known that his love and appreciation for LSU is unlike anything he has ever felt before. LSU and Louisiana football fans feel the same way and his reception when he is introduced into the Superdome again will reflect that.
Although Burrow will be the most popular former LSU player to take the field Sunday, Chase and La’el Collins will also be returning to the state they called home while in college. Other Bengals players, Cam Sample, who attended Tulane, and Trent Taylor, who attended Louisiana Tech, will experience similar emotions.
The Saints’ roster also includes former LSU greats Tyrann Mathieu and Jarvis Landry. Both Mathieu and Landry are Louisiana natives and attended high school in Louisiana at St. Augustine and Lutcher High School. The Saints added Mathieu and Landry in the offseason and both players expressed how much it means for them to represent their home state in the NFL.
Less than a month ago, Landry had his high school jersey No. 80 retired at Lutcher High School. Landry said at the ceremony, “Tonight is not just about me or just about football. It’s about all of us in this community, it’s about these young men right here on both sides.”
Landry and the New Orleans Saints also teamed up to donate a ten-thousand-dollar check to Lutcher High School.
Both Mathieu and Landry haven’t forgotten where they were able to become great football players and have organized youth football camps in Louisiana to inspire the next generation of Louisiana football players. They understand that football in Louisiana is a way of life and are grateful to be a part of that.
Whether Louisiana football fans are cheering for the Bengals because of their former LSU players or are cheering for the Saints because they are fans of their hometown team and have former LSU players, nobody can deny how proud these players have made the state of Louisiana.
The game will be a perfect example of LSU football’s phrase “NFLSU” and should be a great matchup between two teams that are trying to establish themselves in their respective conferences.
