This past weekend of football provided two of the most visually appealing games of the season and it had nothing to do with the uniforms the teams were wearing (Okay, the uniforms helped one in one of the games).
First, on Saturday afternoon, Army and Navy did battle on a snow covered field in Philadelphia and played an instant classic. Amongst a steady stream of falling snow, Army prevailed 14-13 after Navy missed a game winning field goal as time expired.
Then on Sunday, snow came to the NFL in Buffalo where the Buffalo Bills and Indianapolis Colts played in an all out blizzard. Coming away with a 13-7 victory in overtime, the Bills were able to keep their slim playoff hopes alive.
For the sake of this article, we are going to focus on Sunday’s blizzard game in Buffalo. Nothing against the all out fun that was Army/Navy, but Sunday’s game was football weather at its finest.
Buffalo is no stranger to snow. Located directly on the shores of Lake Erie, the city sits directly in the line of strong lake effect snow that can drop feet of snow in a short amount of time.
On Sunday, Buffalo was trapped in a full on white out blizzard as the game between the Bills and Colts kicked off. The scene looked like it was taken straight from a snow globe.
It was one of the most visually appealing football you could imagine. It wasn’t the prettiest brand of football you can think of (only 20 points combined) but the atmosphere was incredible.
Watching the game and seeing the highlights made me realize how wonderful this kind of game was. This game needs to be played at least once every season.
That’s why my proposal is this: the NFL should designate one game every season as their annual “Snow Game.”
It may sound like a gimmick but the league just needs to follow the example set by the NHL. Just one game every year needs to be set aside as a full on blizzard snow game. Obviously the game would be set in a northern city but it could absolutely work and it would be glorious.
Now, I understand the NFL cannot control the weather and guarantee inches upon inches of snow for whichever game they designate as the annual “Snow Game” but that issue can be easily resolved by just hauling in some snow machines like you see at ski resorts to create their own blizzards. This is understandably expensive but the NFL has more money than it knows what to do with and they could make a boatload of money off merchandise for the game.
Given the overwhelming positive reaction from the fans following Sunday’s game in Buffalo this is an idea the NFL should grab hold of and run with. The spectacle was something to behold and made for one of the best atmospheres you could ever wish for.
It may take some planning on the NFL’s part and if they need to make their own snow it could get expensive but with the way the NFL markets their product it would be asure fire success.
Do it, Rog.
The Bat Flip 