Yeah, no, there’s nothing to this. But we’re going to share a quick laugh together anyway. If the New Orleans Saints take care of business against the Arizona Cardinals on Thursday night (and our staff picks like them to do just that), it won’t be because Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray is in a rush to get home and log onto his Xbox Live account. It’ll be because they put in the work to prepare for this game and executed a well-thought-out plan to outplay Arizona.
Still, it’s a lot funnier to joke about the alternative. And with the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 campaign opening up to early access preorders on Thursday, Oct. 20 (the full game and, most crucially, its multiplayer features, release on Oct. 28), it’s a coincidence we can’t help but mark. Murray is an avid gamer and often streams his sessions on Twitch to audiences approaching 100,000 live viewers, and he’s often said the Call of Duty franchise is among his favorites.
The ridiculous “study hall” clause initially written into Murray’s contract extension with the Cardinals (and later struck out) earlier this year prompted a fan on Reddit to compare Murray’s usual performances against games played during Double XP bonus weekends, and they found some minor deficits in his stat lines. Murray’s passer rating, passing yards per game, completion percentage, and winning percentage all dipped whenever the Double XP events were in effect.
Now, that’s hardly the sort of diligent statistical analysis to draw any conclusions from. As the author noted in their post on Reddit, it’s possible Murray simply faced tougher opponents in those games or was dealing with factors like injuries, weather, or anything else. Again: we aren’t seriously suggesting the Saints have a leg up on Murray just because a new video game is available. Odds are there are plenty of players in the New Orleans locker room who will spent their weekend gaming, too. But the Saints are under a lot of pressure after their 2-4 start, and they could use all the help they can get.
