Rookie quarterback Spencer Rattler and the New Orleans Saints took a bizarre approach to prepare for his upcoming start against the Green Bay Packers in Wisconsin on Monday.
Lambeau Field is notorious for its chilly games and with Monday's forecast calling for low 30s and potential snow, Rattler and the other Saints' quarterbacks took to the team's cafeteria walk-in freezer to run through their plays.
"This morning, (Andrew) Janocko took us in the cafeteria freezer, where it was like 10 degrees, and we're just going through the whole script in there, and so just doing that, that helped a lot," Rattler said, according to ESPN's Katherine Terrell. "So hopefully it's not 10 degrees, but we'll be ready."
Quarterbacks coach Janocko joked that the movie Cool Runnings inspired his decision, per Terrell. The film features a scene where a character sits in an ice cream truck to prepare for freezing temperatures as an Olympic bobsledder.
Janocko, who spent eight years coaching in the NFC North with the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears, has plenty of experience preparing his players for cold conditions.
"I think there's something we said about just preparing for [the cold], so you're not shocked and it's not something surprising," Janocko said, per Terrell. "It's something that you deal with as far as you prepare for the opponent and prepare for the venue. So I just thought it was good to do something a little different. At this time of the year, it's fun to do different stuff. It's a long season and sometimes other than just sitting in a meeting day after day after day, just doing something different, changing up the scene. Guys thought it was hilarious. The cafeteria workers think I'm out of my mind."
Rattler will start in place of the injured Derek Carr, with head coach Darren Rizzi stating that Carr is improving and that "the last couple of days have definitely been encouraging," according to Terrell.
