As the 2011 NFL season — which opens next Thursday — inches ever closer, I’m going to take a crack at a new series called Football Friday. Each week from now until the end of the 2011 season I’ll post something of interest regarding the NFL. Since the first game of the new season is a matchup between the Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers and the visiting New Orleans Saints. The Saints are coming off a stunning upset loss against the Seattle Seahawks in last year’s NFC Wild Card round.

Today’s video is a time capsule back to Week 4 of the 1975 NFL regular season, and a clash between the Packers and Saints. New Orleans was playing their ninth season in the league, and their first in the newly opened Louisiana Superdome (mmm, Corned Beef Domewich!). The Saints, led by quarterback Archie Manning and running backs Mike Strachan and Alvin Maxson, fell behind 16-0 before launching a comeback. It all ended on a last-second field goal from Rich Szaro, and the Saints won 20-19.

It was the first win of the ’75 campaign for New Orleans, and one of only two they would earn all year. It was just another in a seemingly endless string of futility for the ‘Aints, who did not notch a winning season until 1987. The Packers fared little better in 1975, finishing 4-10 for their third straight losing season.

(footage from This Week in the NFL, hosted by Tom Brookshier and Brent Musberger)

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