According to a report by Daniel Kaplan of SportsBusinessDaily.com, the league is exploring every option for contingency plans in the event that inclement weather hits East Rutherford, N.J., on or around the day of Super Bowl XLVIII.
The game will be the first Super Bowl played in an open-air stadium in an area with consistently cold weather in February (h/t ESPN). With the amount of bad winter weather that has hit the East Coast this year, establishing contingency plans is a necessity for the league.
According to Kaplan, the league may explore the possibility of delaying the game several days or playing it on a Saturday should poor weather conditions threaten to make it impossible to play on its traditional day. However, changing the schedule of the event could lead to serious problems for fans and media with travel plans centering on the scheduled day (Feb. 2).
NFL Reportedly Considering Backup Plan for Cold-Weather Super Bowl | Bleacher Report
h/t to Tom Nelson
Part of the allure of watching Football was that is was played REGARDLESS of the weather! The 1981 ice bowl between the Raiders and Browns (now Ravens). Or the ice Bowl Championship of 1967. Or the NE Miami Felon bowl!
I hope they play regardless. Anything less than a nuclear holocaust causing a delay is not going to go over well with fans.
Don’t forget Denver-Baltimore 2013!
The last 2 I mentioned are kind of famous. The first one is because it was my Raiders. I guess if I was a Broncos or Ravens fan, I would have remembered that game as well. Still, watching a football game played in a snow storm is fun! But I am not sure watching one up in Greenbay in the dead of winter would be so hot. (pun intended).
That game made me cringe. 6F! That’s cold, I don’t care who you are.
Ah yes, the good old days……before the wussification of the NFL and the US. Forget about playing a Superbowl in bad weather, soon hitting a guy too hard will be against the rules in the NFL.
It is not so much for the players – half of them play in bad conditions to get to the game. It is for the effete elite who demand if they pay a grand for a ticket, that they be provided with comfortable weather.
Steven – What does this have to do with climate? It seems the NFL is concerned about the possibility of inclement WEATHER in New York in early February. That doesn’t seem to me to be unreasonable at all. In fact, I was in NYC last Friday. My flight was scheduled to depart at 5:05 p.m. Fortunately, I was about to reschedule to leave at 11:30 a.m. That was a good thing because LaGuardia closed at noon. The NFL is right to consider the possibility of a major weather event for the next Super Bowl due to transportation concerns. Contingency plans are a good thing.
They were told that the mild weather last winter was the “new normal”
They got a rude wake up this winter! LOL
If we all continue to drive our SUVs like crazy that’ll cause massive amounts of CO2 to be released warming the planet enough by 10 degrees right before kickoff!