Football in the Snow!

You know that I'm a football fan.  

I've written about being so ad nauseum.  In fact, lemme' remind you I was at Super Bowl IV, 1970, on the 52 yard-line, seat 54.  Five back, two off Mid-Field.  QB Lenney Dawson set the then record by completing 16 passes in a row.  Field goal kicker Jan Stererud set another record by producing a then-record 48 yarder.  Plus two others, accounting for the Chiefs' first points.  And the Final Score, Chiefs upset the Vikings, 23 - 7.  

BTW, my ticket cost a whopping $55.00. 

Oh yeah, I was seated next to William Boyd, otherwise known as "Hopalong Cassidy."  The very famous 1952 - '54 Black & White TV cowboy star.  

No relation, unfortunately.

Please allow me to remind you that Kansas City's Arrowhead Stadium, the place where the Chiefs play football, very well indeed, I might add, has no sissy dome over it.  It's open to the ingredients that make up what we Missourians call "weather."*  And "weather" is a very necessary ingredient in what makes up a football game.

Whether mid-July or mid-January, we Show Me State folks luv us some of that weather!  Hot or cold, "0" degrees or "100" degrees, don't try and fool us that it's 76 and mild.  Like it is inside well over half of them there domed stadia in NFL-dom.  Like the home of the Cowboys.  Or the Vikings.  Or the Lost Angeles Rams/Chargers.  Do the Rams and the Chargers play in such awful weather that they need a brand new, $1.3 Billion Dollar DOMED stadium?  We died-in-the-wool football fans like it played outdoors!  Especially if it's freezing out!

Remember when the Bears played the Packers?  Or the Lions played the Browns?  In the snow?  In blizzards?  The "Black and Blue" division?  Back in the '70's and '80's?  Before football became a game of by and for $Millionaires?  And before the $Billionaire franchise owners floated city-backed bonds to build new domed stadia?  I liked it better before.  

Did you know that the starting salary of today's first-year NFL football recruit is $986,000.  Nearly a $Million Bucks to play a kids' game.  And those who've been playing for 4 or more years are making at least $7,000,000.  Most of the 16-game schedule is played in nice, mild, enjoyable weather.  It's only the last couple of games in the regular season that are played during inclement weather.  Is it too much to ask that they play in the snow, fergodssake? 

Oh yeah, I must remind you that "Broadway Joe" Namath, QB for the New York Jets, became the NFL's highest paid player back in early '70's when he was paid a whopping $250,000 a year.  Kinda' takes your breath away when you learn our average QB now makes north of $30,000,000 a year.   

I'm guessing some of them just have to like playing in the snow, no matter if most of them don't.  And we stay-at-home football fans like it even more!  We just love it when those football $Millionaires are forced to play football in the very nastiest of football weather.  While we sit comfortably in our Lazy Boys, with the fireplace blazing, old Shep by our side, and a case of frosty Bud awaiting our attack.  While the players have icycles hanging off their mustaches.  Frostbitten noses the expected result.  Suffering greatly with each and every snap of the ball.  Dayummm, that's the way football should be played!  

And if they don't like it I hear the Sanitation Department is hiring.   

Just like the Gladiators of ancient Rome, our players should be required, DEMANDED, to play in awful weather.  The colder and nastier the better.  Blowing snow is great.  Icy sleet flowing sideways is even better!  There are 1,600 football players in the NFL today.    Playing for 32 teams.  I'm guessing there are a whole lot of NFL near-misses who would stomp puppies to death for a chance at one of those slots.

Which brings me to last Sunday night.  It was the Buffalo Bills hosting the San Franpoopco 49ers.  The "9ers" are used to playing in 76 - 77 degree weather, with a 3 - 5 mph onshore breeze, and about 34% relative humidity.  Sunday eve welcomed them with a BLIZZZARD!  Blowing snow, drifting "Lake Effect" snow, blanketing everything!  The Bills were offering $25 an hour for locals to scoop snow, plus free food and drinks, but few were taking.  Getting to, and then from the stadium presented a problem.  But like always, they cleared the stadium enough for them to play.  In a near whiteout.  But God, was the game ever great!  

Nasty weather makes for enjoyable football.  I say anyone can go out for a pass in Miami.  Very few can go out for a pass in a blizzard!

The final score was 28 to 10, the Buffalo Bills emerged victorious!  In fact, it was a smackdown!  But then again, I'd say the only folks surprised by that result were the 49-ers.

I predict a couple of decades down the road every NFL team will be playing under a dome.  So that the football $Millionaires won't ever have to be cold again.  Heaven forbid.  

*   "Weather" is what's happening today.  You can confirm the accuracy of weather reports by sticking your head out the front door.  "Climate," on the other hand, is what's expected to happen tomorrow and the days after.  And we know how accurate weather reports are, right?