Saints Face Rams In Preseason For First Time In 46 Years

The New Orleans Saints will open up their 2014 preseason schedule on Friday night, when they travel to St. Louis, Missouri, to take on the St. Louis Rams.

Most people know that the Saints played their very first regular season game against the Rams, a match-up which took place back on September 17, 1967.

In that game, John Gilliam returned returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown for the Saints, sending the fans into a frenzy, before the Rams went on to win, 27-13.

What a lot of people don't know is that the Saints also played their very first preseason game against the Rams.

In that game, played back on August 2, 1967, in Anaheim, California, the Rams won, 16-7, before the Saints won their final five preseason games, to finish 5-1 in the preseason in their first year of existence.

The two teams also opened against each other in the 1968 preseason, a game which the Rams won, 21-7.

As it turns out, that was the last time the two teams met in the preseason, as both franchises were not only a part of the same conference, but also division rivals for many years after that.

From 1970-1994, the Saints and the Los Angeles Rams were both members of the NFC West, and then after the Rams moved to St. Louis in 1995 the two franchises continued to be part of the NFC West, until 2002, when the Rams stayed in the NFC West, while the Saints became part of the newly-formed NFC South.

During the regular season, the Rams hold the all-time lead in the series, 40-32, and have outscored the Saints, 1,631-1,469.

The two franchises have played many memorable games, and we'll look at a few of them in the coming days, including a heartbreaking loss for the Saints in the 1981 regular season finale, and an exciting playoff win in 2000, the first-ever postseason win for the franchise.

First, since the Saints are playing their first-ever opponent, in both the preseason and the regular season, let's go back to 1967, and take a look at the beginning for the New Orleans Saints:

You can catch all the play-by-play action on ESPN 1420, with kick-off set for 7 o'clock.