Seriously, why can’t there be a Super Bowl in an northern, cold city?
Don’t tell me it’s the fans and their freezing appendages. Trust me -I’m one of them - we can dandle it.
Think of the misty, flurried late night post-season battles at Lambeau Field, watching Brett Favre throw snowballs. Or how about the muddy championship between the Packers and 49ers? Yeah, the game that somehow made Edgar Bennett good.
That’s what football is all about. However, the NFL and its owners wouldn’t have you believe that. They’ve made things too cozy.
With more and more teams rebuilding or relocating, they’re switching to domed stadiums. After all, it’s a new place with a new name, right? Might as well put a roof over their heads.
It’s as simple as this: Which would you be more amped to drive 300 miles or more to see?
Two teams in a dome stadium with no weather effects (so the kicker can’t miss a 30-yarder that beats your team), or the two-team battle in a muddy or snowy environment, one that possibly sends you to the hospital with frost bite?
Undoubtedly, they both have their perks. But does one side out-weight the other?
If we’re talking about pure, brute, honest football, then we’re cheating ourselves by playing any of these games indoors.
Bad weather increases the competition, makes the players work harder, increases turnovers, and makes for an overall more physical game.
On the other hand, a no-weather stadium makes for faster, in-your-face, highlight-reel action. Example: The Greatest Show on Turf.
Would those talented St. Louis Rams be quite as sexy or effective in rain and mud? Who knows? The true question is which one would you prefer: flawless or the true human trait-flawed.
Unfortunately, it will probably never come down to what the fans think, or even what the cities or stats think, as a whole. It’s up to the NFL as an organization, and how they see the big picture.
From their standpoint, it actually makes sense to never have a “cold” game. It ensures packed stadiums, athletic competition that is not effected by various variables, and simply allows them to put the best possible product on the biggest stage imaginable.
After all, the NFL is a business, and they’s gots to gets they’s money’s.
