The Night They Didn’t Play Football
Back in the days real men played football in snow storms
As Tom Hanks famously stated in the movie, “A League of Their Own,” there’s “no crying in baseball.” And there’s no cancelling an NFL football game because of bad weather. It’s blasphemy. It’s un-American. We, as a nation, have changed forever.
Reacting to the rescheduling of the Sunday night Vikings-Eagles match-up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Governor, Ed Rendell, called the postponement due to blizzard conditions an “absolute joke,” and declared, “We’re becoming a nation of wussies.”
The arguments are all covered in this excellent rant by columnist Will Bunch in the Philadelphia Daily News in a piece entitled the Wimps Who Stole Christmas:
If you grew up anywhere in the wintry half of this country, you probably have fond memories of hiking up your snow pants and sloshing around with your buddies and your Pete Rozelle-signed football in the backyard drifts – and the only thing that comes a close second to playing football in the snow is watching a classic NFL matchup in a furious downpour of the white stuff.
And he goes on to mention that if the same wimps who postponed last night’s game had been in charge, there would never have been the “Ice Bowl” NFL championship game between the Packers and the Cowboys, or the infamous “Snow Plow” game between the New England Patriots and the Oakland Raiders or the 1948 NFL title game at Shibe Park in Philadelphia that attracted nearly 40 thousand fans in a raging blizzard not dissimilar to yesterday’s conditions.
Do you know how memorable an NFL game played in Philly would have been last night? Wind gusts of 50 mph would have wreaked havoc on every pass. The footing would have been atrocious. There was no keeping up with those conditions and the field would have been a total mess; a quagmire. In other words- the perfect setting for a legendary gridiron contest.
It’s one thing to cancel a football game because the roof atop a domed stadium collapses. It’s one thing to cancel an exhibition game as they did once in one of those games they use to play between the NFL champs and college all-stars because a vicious storm washed away one of the goal posts. But postponing a football game because of a blizzard?
They have a subway in Philly that goes to the stadium. They have fans in the City of Brotherly Love that are certifiably insane who would have gladly braved the blizzard conditions for their beloved Eagles- in T-shirts.
And they delayed the game until Tuesday! Do you know how much that screws up the Eagles who then have to turn around and play in a shortened week next Sunday? Not only has the NFL succumbed to the soft-bellied political correctness of “public safety,” they’ve potentially messed up a team’s fortunes and deprived us all of what surely would have been the talk of the nation for years to come.
No- this is wrong; very, very wrong. NFL- I don’t even know you anymore.
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Garcia Media Life 
I bet it had something to do with money.
I used to play football in the rain and snow all the time as a kid, and I remember watching many games on our old black and white TV when the conditions were less than pristine. There was a famous game in Philly where the fog was so thick the referees couldn’t see five yards down the field. What’s the matter with us in America today that we have to cancel football games because of weather? It’s not the football way.
Football players are supposed to be like postal carriers … not wind, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail will prevent them from delivering.
A nation of wussies indeed! 😉
its just roger goodell acting like the dictator that he is…flexing his muscle. i bet he has a small thing that rhymes with venus.
http://dearexgirlfriend.com
Well, not to quibble…. but playing in a blizzard might have had a SLIGHT negative impact on the Eagles’ fortunes, too, by making the game outcome completely dependent on chance. But damn: I REALLY wanted to watch them play in the snow. You just never see that anymore — and the sport is diminished by this fact.
Remember the 1980 AFC Divisional Playoff Game at the Cleveland Municipal Stadium??
WUSSIES are in charge !!
Grow a pair, NFL leadership
I TOTALLY agree with you, OMG! THANK you. (not to beat my own blog’s drum, but I posted very similarly to you yesterday when I heard this silly news and even went to the NFL website to submit a complaint via “contact us”.
Mine: “Safety” End Zone Game For Scrooge NFL
Congrats on getting Freshly Pressed like a Pete Rozelle suit!
achilliad.wordpress.com
The inflated paychecks everyone in the NFL receives, from the decision maker that pulled the plug to the linemen sitting on the bench – has put them out of touch with reality, and certainly with the average football fan. Money makes the world go ’round, but it also makes wussies out of giant men.
Absolutely agree! I’m surprised the NFL didn’t find a way to postpone the Vikings game a little farther 2 weeks ago when Brett Favre was doubtful. Maybe they could have kept his streak alive. Sheesh! What a bunch of babies. Great post. Hope you’ll check out my blog sometime…a lot of sports content.
Agree, agree…what the heck were they thinking? Having watched many games in Buffalo and Cleveland snow, I know it is crazy when you are there, and the best memory once you have left. Football in good conditions is no challenge. 🙂
Congrats on being freshly pressed! Maybe they’ll ask you to help make the decision next time. 🙂
http://workingtechmom.wordpress.com
Unfortunately now football is all about the money… look at the kicker or whoever who was complaining about having to play outside in the snow at Minnesota when the dome collapsed. Well hopefully they start to listen to the fans more, and I’d love if the players were more about the love of the game then the love of the dollar!
Some of my fondest memories playing soccer involve thunderstorms, tons of mud, and rain pelting you in the face as you dribbled down the field. Only during games like these do you find your true grit! I heartily concur with you!
Congrats on being FP! Great post!
http://miracleon32ndstreet.wordpress.com
I couldn’t agree more. Part of the love and attraction of the NFL is the fact that the game is played through nearly ALL weather conditions, minus lightening…the fans have the capacity to make their own decisions. Play ball!!!
Great post! I thought the same thing when I saw that they post-poned the game last night.
One of the few outdoor sports which can be and should be played in all weathers. They postponed all the EPL Soccer games in England last week. It seems the Americans are becoming as much a wimp as their British cousins. Shame!!!
http://www.cynicseyeview.wordpress.com
Something about kids skating on ponds with frozen rubber pucks in -50 degree (celsius) weather for 6 hours a day in the dark makes NFL players seem like wusses to me. Come talk to me when they play 4 games in a week in venues all across North America with temperatures routinely this bad. Grow up “professional” football and remember where your fans are coming from
it has EVERYTHING to do with money. who’s going to go sit in that blizzard? not me. who’s buying cold beer at $8 a pint in a blizzard? not me.
I appreciate the comment but you’re not from Philly, are you? Those people are insane. They’d paint their chests green and bare themselves in driving, side-ways snow. They’d buy frozen beers and use them as popsicles. Snowballs would have been flying everywhere. What’s truly nuts is that if it really was all about money…it’s not the beer sales or even the attendance… the television ratings would have been enormous. The geniuses at the NFL somehow fail to understand that toughness- playing in weather- goes to the very character of the game. It’s a sad day, indeed.
Here, Here! Right on with this. One of the greatest games I ever watched was between the Steelers and Dolphins in a massive rainstorm. Pulitzer photos came out of that game. This is how a rant should go, thoughtful and dead on the money. Congrats on FP.
http://www.eduClaytion.com
total agreement!
Oh this is reeeeeeeeeal old school lol
This article makes me want the Metrodome to be turned into an open air stadium! Bring on the weather!
The new way to search the market–period
George Carlin would be so disappointed in the football wussies. Remember his baseball vs football bit? In it, baseball players were the weenies and the football players persevered through any circumstances!
As if George wasn’t already angry enough, this would have sent him over the edge for sure!
God forbid the NFL lose anymore viewers like they did when they moved the Vikings game two weeks ago. They also had to consider the feelings of poor little ESPN and their Monday night game. That’s the main reason the game is on Tuesday, exclusivity agreements.
Its things like this that make me realize we’ll never have games like the Ice Bowl again. The NFL is getting too cautious on things now. Football was meant to be played in all types of weather. I know the most fun games I played in High School was in crazy snow. Its such a different game in heavy snow, completely changes the way you play the game. Its one of my favorite types of games to watch.
Damn right! Up here in Green Bay we don’t postpone games because of snow. We pray for snow. This is the frozen tundra and we’ve got a reputation to maintain.Geez, Philly, get with the program. Or maybe it was for the benefit of the Vikings, those wussies play in a dome….or did. ha.
Too cautious? Right, like 50mph winds are going to make football fun to watch.
Look, when Collie gets 3 Concussions in 3 months, entire teams are wiped out on injuries, etc etc, you’re going to say that the real soul of football is playing in literally 2 feet of snow? Cool, hope the lot of you are OK with paying the players who can’t walk right anymore because of nasty angles on icy turf. It’s not 1948 – they’re friggin 300 lbs — just think of the physics of the matter! How many injuries were in the entire 1948 season? In that game?
This isn’t about playing in bad weather, this is about protecting the fans and — more importantly — the players.
And then, compound that with how crazy Philly fans are that they’ll actually come, clogging the roads before, during, and after the storm, and the cost to the stadium to keep the on and off-ramps clear? And to the cops, who have non-football-related accidents and issues to deal with?
I guess bloggers are supposed to be self-centered…
If all Eagles fans lived within access of the subway, I would agree with you.
Okay, scratch that. If all Eagles fans lived within access of the Broad Street Line, I would agree with you. The Market Line is partially above ground. And I guess it’s reasonable to expect people to walk up to 10 blocks in a foot of snow to the subway to get to the game. So that covers a chunk of South Philly, a chunk of Center City, and a chunk of North Philly.
But what about the crazy fans who would attempt to navigate I-95 of 76 in the snow? And I’m sorry, is it worth playing a game if your fans can’t come? Isn’t the game ultimately for the fans?
Full disclosure: I’m not a football fan. But I am a Philadelphian, and I think the choice, while controversial, was for the best. Now people who put down good money for tickets will actually get to see the game.
I love football, I like watch the football men run in snow, it make me happy with my friends. I do not want to go out into snow because it cold. It hard to get to stadium because of wind and ice. But I like football.
Grow a brain Philly moron! It was a blizzard. And for your information they didn’t call it the Ice bowl because it was a blizzard it was the Ice bowl because the field froze over the night before the game. As a mater of fact, in addition to a brain you should probably also get HBO so you can watch the film Lombardi and learn more about the game you supposedly love. What a douche!
Thats a really cool pictures for my collection. i love old picture which tells us many things about the past.
Thank you for sharing this story. I would agree with Gov. Rendell and also your writing on this article. In comparison to what you stated, may I say how disheartening it is that we rely to much on objects and things to entertain us. Yes, of course they had the spool of thread and the mason jar lids in the old days, but I’m talking electronic media that has deprived our “get up and go”.
My neighbor, a WWII veteran, is up at 5:30 every morning, standing at his flag pole, raising Old Glory and then saluting her. He fired his tractor up and goes and gets his work done for the day. He’s 86.
Today, you have 30 somethings doctor shopping, needing those prescriptions and disability checks. It has become a society of what government can do for you instead of what can you do for yourself as my neighbor lives by. He works for himself. Our society has become wussies. We are lost in civil engagement and found online being keyboard wizards, if we don’t have the app uploaded to our phone. Ever counted in one day, sitting on a bench how many people are enthrawled with their noses pressed against their cell phone screens? It is an interesting observation. God bless our veterans! There’ll never be anymore like them!
Very nice. I linked it to my blog. Greetings
Gpcastellano aka ventefioca
A sad commentary on our times.
My friend’s dad was one of the original Washington Redskins–played in a leather helmet with broken bones etc. and didn’t do it for the money…but for the absolute love of the game….. was roofing houses until he was 75 (and that was after his stroke)
Football has changed!
Still recovering from the hole in my Sunday night . . . that such anticipation was so cruelly dashed!
http://nylondaze.wordpress.com/2010/12/27/snow-snow-snow/
I know…
Ban domed stadiums in all soprts!
What a bunch of wussies not being able to play on Sunday after just playing on Tuesday!
It would’ve been nice to watch the game play during the blizzard, but I am all for public safety. Is there any further word from what the NFL says about this?
I don’t quite understand this either. Didn’t the Patriots whoop the Bears last week in a similar blizzard?
Whoever called off this game deserves to be part of the Dummies of the Year!
And if one fan died 9or was injured) on the way to the stadium then EVERY rant would have been about how the NFL didn’t do enough to protect the fans.
Football has changed for a good reason. You can call it the No Fun League, but I am from Philly and I can say that I’m happy the game was pushed back. Think about how many injuries the NFL has had this year– it’s getting pretty ridiculous, definitely the highest since expanding to 32 teams in 02. This isn’t 1950’s America, and nearly none of you were even around back then to say you miss the ‘good old days’.
You should be happy you’re getting a football game on a Tuesday night anyway. That game would have been bad for Eagles players, traveling fans, and EMPLOYEES who have to work the game (there are thousands employed by the Linc and ARAMARK who have to arrive hours before the game and stay for hours after the game).
You think Mike Vick would have liked to run around in even a few inches of snow? One slip and he’s done for the season, and there goes our chances in the playoffs. I think it was the right decision. On a related note, Gov Ed Rendell needs to relax.
As a pats fan I’ll never forget the snow bowl in 04, when Bruschi intercepted that pass on the 1 yard line and the fans started tossing the snow everywhere.
i agree.
you are suppose to play in whatever element presents it’s self.
this is suppose to be a mans game.
I’ll bet it had more to do with players agents, insurance, and lawyers than most of us know.
Midwesterner here. I’m always baffled by how unprepared other places are for weather. I visited the east coast last year during some snow– perfectly manageable back home, but you would have thought hell froze over! It’s a shame. We couldn’t even find ice melt at the hardware store!
But, can you see the lines and the rest???
I am wondering if Tuesday will be again postponed??? What do you think about?
I think they could have played. Nowadays people are too afraid to take risks. They try their hardest to not make a mistake. I guess that is what this was. Great blog by the way 🙂
It’s funny how making a responsible decision with safety in mind renders someone a ‘wuss’, but I guarantee that EVERYONE OF YOU WHO ARE COMPLAINING would be furious if you had to work in an environment that was conducive to IMMINENT PERSONAL INJURY, not only during the act of employment, but also in the ‘coming and going’ of it all. I am absolutely sure that if any one of you were to lose the luxury of central air conditioning, and were told that you had to go chop wood to heat your homes, you’d ‘wuss’ up and relocate to a location that could provide what you needed to function.
Please look around you and realize that with progress and ability comes RESPONSIBILITY. I would dare ask any of you to research and find out what the ex governor was doing during the snowstorm. I’m 100 PERCENT sure he adjusted his plans accordingly, if needed…
In reply to “muchmagicproductions”: I spent six years in the US Navy, several of which were on a warship. That’s a dangerous environment, where there is always the risk, however small that risk is made by safety regulations and equipment design, of imminent personal injury. Despite the risk, all of us who served,as volunteers I might add, did so with acceptance of the risk. We did our jobs to the best of our ability, and enthusiastically most of the time.
Not all of us have the luxury of central A/C, and in my area, many people cut, split, and stack their own wood to heat their homes during what can be brutal winter weather.
I am bothered by the tendency of many individuals and organizations to go the “safe” route when confronted with potentially hazardous conditions. These are conditions which have existed for a long time. What has changed? It seeme to me that it is people who have changed. Risk is more and more seen as something to be avoided rather than faced, fled rather than fought. I’m speaking of physical risk here. When a circumstance arises that affects the conditions under which I do my job, I don’t avoid doing it. I modify my actions and methods to enable my continued productivity instead. That is what you saw the NFL teams do when they played in the driving snowstorms during those famous games. I think the powers that be of the NFL should have taken that view of things when they considered how to handle the weather’s effect on the Monday night game.
Football can and should be played in any type of weather. It had something to do with the risk of million dollar athletes getting hurt. How come other sports like baseball can be called on account of a little rain but it takes a real snow storm to delay a football game?
http://www.moneyprovidesfreedom.wordpress.com
they need to man up!
it should be played come rain or shine!! 🙂
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thanks for a great post!!
Leanne.
xxx
what a brave man hahaha…
To the NFL: I am a NY Jets fan decades so i had no “horse” in this race, however, Your commissioner made a really bad call, which affectd the outcome of the Philly/Minnesota game tonight. In effect “fixing” the game in favor of the visiting team. He should resign!
You HAVE to know that Michael Vick would have juked the Viking defense all over the place in the snow, on the way to a more competitive win on Sunday night! Instead, GOD-ell chose to play Mother Nature and “fix” the game. For Shame for the game.
achilliad.wordpress.com
Great post, and I totally agree. I’m a Bronco fan and one of my favorite Bronco games was “the blizzard game” in Denver against the Packers back in the early 80’s. It snowed a solid foot during the game. The stadium was packed. I was little at the time, and that game helped me become a football fan for life. The postponement of the Eagles-Vikings game because of a very similar snowstorm is a travesty. Sadly, it’s not just football. It’s just one example of many of how we are becoming soft and over-sensitive to anything that might be a little dangerous or uncomfortable.
I was a kid when the Cincinnati Bengals played the San Diego Chargers in 50 degrees below zero weather. Dave Lapham still talks about playing in that game. The Bengals’ lineman decided not to where long sleeves. Instead they covered their arms with vaseline. LOL That was one memorable game that get’s talked about every whenever thereis a cold front or when they play San Diego like this last Sunday.
I really couldn’t believe they called off the game…it never should have been called off. It really does make this country look like we’re full of a bunch of wussies! I’m sure it does have to do with money;the NFL or the owners and concession people must have been worried about the money lost from fans not showing up because of the weather, call me a doubter, I don’t think they were really worried about people safety, there is public transit,perhaps they were more worried about some people not showing up and losing some money?! The game itself would have been more exciting for the fans… get real…
evelyngarone.com
Well I gotta say.
I’m from Aussie-stralia. We have your version of NFL without all that wimpy body armor. I myself used to play. A lot of people consider us the epitomy of manliness. But I guarantee you, if it were to snow here, you’d be for damn certain we’d cancel a game.
😉
this is real old school
It’s one thing to cancel a football game because the roof atop a domed stadium collapses. It’s one thing to cancel an exhibition game as they did once in one of those games they use to play between the NFL champs and college all-stars because a vicious storm washed away one of the goal posts. But postponing a football game because of a blizzard?
On the one hand, I couldn’t agree more. On the other hand, though, it takes a lot more people, equipment, and resources today to “put on” an NFL game than it did even ten years ago. There are arguably more factors to consider now than there was half or a quarter of a century ago. Even if all of the players and coaches from both teams, the spectators, the stadium personnel, and the host city itself was willing to do everything in order to avoid a reschedule, the entities with the authority may not have been motivated by the spirit of the perseverance. Instead, they (outwardly) heeded caution across the board.
And yet, broadcast journalists (with camera crew and whomever else in tow) brave “worse” conditions for the sake of reporting live. I couldn’t imagine the Academy Awards being rescheduled (or aired not live) if it wasn’t out of respect for something that happened. Maybe the NFL wants to save the keep the show-must-go-on card for something of Super Bowl caliber?
Living in Minneapolis I am accustomed to snow. In fact this December is the “snowiest” on record. The entire Vikings 2010 season has been as much as drama as any soap opera. Snow or cold are no reason to delay a football game. What’s next heat advisory postponements?
I am about to be eaten alive and I know it, and no I am not from Philly. I just can’t understand how people can want to abuse other people for the pleasure of watching men kill thier bodies. It is bad enough on good weather days but why subject anyone to high winds, cold and snow, slipping and slidding so you can sit and yell and scream because a ball was dropped. We in this country are not much different than the Romans sitting and watching the gladiators fight to the death. The only difference is these men kill thier bodies very slowly in the name of fun and we cheer it on. Rah Rah
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.It looks nice
In England, we play football in sub-zero temperatures, blizzards and tornados. Well … I don’t. I prefer to stay in and blog. Thanks for an entertaining read.
tom hanks. america. football. I just puked. get a fucking life. a real life.
Wasn’t the snow plow game between New England and Miami in 83 or 84? The game against Oakland was the” tuck rule” game I believe.
In hindsight it didn’t matter moving the game to Tuesday in “normal” conditions because the dome team in Minnesota still traveled to Philly and won and Philly did not look good in “normal” conditions. The Eagles tried airing it out early and failed, their gameplan wouldn’t have been anywhere close to what it was in the snow, and it didn’t work in “normal” conditions anyway. I think we put to much emphasis on the past and what people once did in bad weather, the old adage, “I used to walk ten miles in the snow to get to school” doesn’t apply anymore. And I don’t buy the idea that Philly fans would’ve been glad to have shown up in t-shirts cheering on their team because last nights game was nowhere near full.
every football game is better when its snowing
It’s totaly a man game.
Those Philadelphia nuts wouldn’t have been in T-Shirts… They would’ve been shirtless!! A nation of wussies, we are, indeed!! Great post!!
I recently moved from the Baltimore/Washington area to Johannesburg, South Africa. I am a die-hard Baltimore Ravens fan but I haven’t done a good job of following football this season, due to the long distance between me and the NFL. But when I saw on the news last week that an NFL game had been canceled due to snow, I assumed my eyes must have been deceiving me. I agree with you — it’s a disgrace!
Check out Brett Favre getting down at practice to “Ice Ice Baby”
http://meatlockersports.com/2011/01/01/have-you-ever-seen-a-qb-get-down/
Check out “The Meat Locker” for some great sports insight!
Football players are supposed to be like postal carriers
tenks…good
As a player I would of loved to play in a game like this, but as WR it would also suck because in these kind of games you just become an linemen away from the line. While it was weird not having that game played, it was also kinda cool watching a game on Tuesday night. Made my week seem a lot shorter, to bad I’m on break. While I don’t agree with it 100% I do understand the reasoning. While we say how much crap it is, I’m certain that many of the fans, had they fallen victim to some kind of accident as a result of going to the game as scheduled, would have not thrown out the idea of suing the league, granted they knew it was possible. In our soceity so many people try to get a edge and suing has become the knew fad. The league has been praising themselves for looking out for everonyes best interest so by postpoing the game they not only help ensure the safety of the fans, but they also ensure that they game be more competitive. As a nation we love scoring. I don’t believe fans would appreciate a good old fashion Snow Bowl like fans did years ago.
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Football players are supposed to be like postal carriers
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