Cam Jordan now has his name on a Saints franchise record that won't be changed any time soon, but he's not focused on that right now.
He'll wait until the season ends before he stops to appreciate the true wait of the feat he just accomplished with a 3-sack game to reach 115.5 in his career, surpassing Rickey Jackson. It's bittersweet, at best, in a season that fell short of the playoffs.
“It was great to accomplish a feat that I thought I wanted the last few years, but I want wins more," Jordan said. "That’s what I found out. I want playoffs more. I want teams to have success. I want all my guys to eat.”
But that didn't stop Cam from reminiscing in the locker room this week on some of his favorites from that 115. Here are the sacks/games he mentioned, and some notes on each.
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SAINTS vs PANTHERS, Jan. 1, 2012
The victim: Cam Newton
The score: Saints 45, Panthers 17
Notes: Nothing complicated here. Gotta start somewhere. And Cam got his run started on Cam.
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MATT RYAN, OVER AND OVER AGAIN
Notes: This is in reference to the obscure record Jordan already held, and that's the most sacks against a single opponent. Cam has sacked Matt Ryan 23 times in his career. Jordan made sure to thank Matt after setting the record.
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SAINTS vs EAGLES, Nov. 5, 2012
The victim: Michael Vick x3
The score: Saints 28, Eagles 13
Notes: This might've been the Philadelphia Michael Vick, but Cam is still going to celebrate it. The dude was still fast.
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SAINTS vs FALCONS, Nov. 22, 2018
The victim: Matt Ryan x4
The score: Saints 31, Falcons 17
Notes: Just one of the many times Cam turned Matt Ryan into flat Ryan. It also doubles as Cam's "flu" game, because he says he was sick and constantly running to the sidelines to recover as it was happening.
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SACK NO. 100, Dec. 19, 2021
- The victim: Tom Brady
- The score: Saints 9, Bucs 0
- Notes: Some of Cam's best games over the past few seasons have come against Tom Brady in a Bucs uniform, and that included a pair of sacks to reach 100 in his career. Jordan also forced a fumble in that game. Cam said he asked Brady to swap jerseys after the game ... but it didn't happen.
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THANKS, JAMEIS
The victim: Jameis Winston x9
The score:
Notes: This was over the course of four seasons, but it's not lost on Cam that his current teammate has accounted for a large percentage of his new record. Cam even went so far as to create a highlight reel of those plays shortly after the Saints signed Winston in 2020, and waited for his moment. Eventually they were sitting across from each other on the team plane, and sparked up a conversation about how many times Cam had actually hit him. Jameis assumed it was only a handful of times, but Cam had the evidence.
"I was like ‘I’ve been waiting for you to say that since you came to the team.’ I created a whole reel for him," Jordan said. "He watched it and was like ‘wow.’ I was like, ‘Yea. It was a lot. Appreciate ya.’ "
...
“He was on a plane. Where else was he gonna go."
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THE RECORD-SETTER, Jan. 1, 2023
(we're assuming)
- The victim: Gardner Minshew x3
- The score: Saints 20, Eagles 10
- Notes: Cam Jordan didn't list this among the favorite sacks in his career, but we'll add it for him. Like many of the others that stand out, it's a multi-sack game and, most importantly, a win.
What's most impressive about the record Jordan now owns is it figures to be a great deal larger by the time he hangs it up. Jordan is finishing up Year 12, and hasn't shown any real signs of slowing down, though he said after the upcoming season he'll begin checking with himself each offseason to see if he wants to keep playing. His ironman streak did end after 11-plus seasons due to COVID, and he missed his first game due to injury earlier this season due to an orbital bone fracture.
Interestingly, those two absences have come in the NFL's first two 17-game seasons. Cam's father, Steve, joked that he's just a 16-game player, the number of games he's played in each of his dozen NFL seasons.
Says Jordan: “There have been some good ones along the way."
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