20 years later: How Steve Gleason's punt block unified New Orleans, stoked flames of Falcons-Saints rivalry — SkimNews
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- Steve Gleason blocked Michael Koenen's punt less than 90 seconds into the Saints' Sept. 25, 2006 Superdome reopening game; teammate Curtis Deloatch recovered the ball in the end zone for a touchdown in a 23-3 Saints rout of the Falcons.
- Gleason, diagnosed with ALS in 2011, told NFL Network the blocked punt "means I'm alive," saying the play connected him "permanently to New Orleans" and spared him from "fading away and dying anonymously" as "just another has-been football player."
- The blocked punt was ranked No. 28 on the NFL's "100 Greatest Plays" list and is commemorated by a statue titled "Rebirth" outside the Superdome, with the source noting that in the 20 years since, there have been 5,216 regular-season games, 45,983 punts and 247 blocked punts — "perhaps none" with the same impact on one city.
- The Saints-Falcons rivalry returns to ESPN (8:15 ET) with both teams at 1-2; the Saints are slight favorites after a 35-27 loss to the Raiders, while the Falcons beat the Packers 35-14 on Sept. 24.
- Saints coach Kellen Moore showed his team a video of the 2006 game to educate players who were "2 and 3 years old" in 2006 and had no memory of the storm — an approach mirroring what then-coach Sean Payton used 20 years ago.
- Saints QB Tyler Shough called the Falcons matchup "one of the last really cool rivalries in the NFL," while Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich dismissed other NFL rivalries as "false" and "fictitious hype," calling this one "real."
Why it matters: The NFL deliberately scheduled a primetime showcase to mark 20 years since a single blocked punt transformed New Orleans' post-Katrina recovery into a national symbol of resilience — now immortalized in a statue, ranked among the league's 100 greatest plays, and tied to Gleason's ALS fight. With both teams sitting at 1-2, the winner stakes an early NFC South claim while honoring a moment that, in Gleason's words, saved him from anonymity and saved a city from despair.
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