The Afternoon's Football

[Fred588]

The die hard football fans will probably not agree with this but I find the TV currently on showing a game between Detroit and Philadelphia to be downright comical. It is snowing so hard the cameras can barely pick up the game. Fans are loyal, of course, but you could not pay me enough to get me to remain in the stands under such conditions.

[BSink42]

The die hard football fans will probably not agree with this but I find the TV currently on showing a game between Detroit and Philadelphia to be downright comical. It is snowing so hard the cameras can barely pick up the game. Fans are loyal, of course, but you could not pay me enough to get me to remain in the stands under such conditions.

Take it as a preview of what the Super Bowl will be like in Feburary in New York/New Jersey.

[kham]

Gee a game where the weather has to be taken into account? What WILL those gentle flowers ever do??

[BSink42]

Personally I like it. Football's the one game that's supposed to be played under all sorts of conditions (maybe not during a thunderstorm where the lightening is really really close by, but beyond that.)

[PM2K]

Ah, snow.... nature's way of separating the men from the boys...

[Lomax]

The die hard football fans will probably not agree with this but I find the TV currently on showing a game between Detroit and Philadelphia to be downright comical. It is snowing so hard the cameras can barely pick up the game. Fans are loyal, of course, but you could not pay me enough to get me to remain in the stands under such conditions.

Yes, this astonishes me. Not that it snows in America, or that the game is played come what may; but that you LET the pitch get covered in snow. Reviewing the week's games, I saw three or four played on snow-covered pitches.

Over here, every Premier League football ground has undersoil heating, which keeps the pitch temperature above freezing. This means that as soon as any snow hits the ground it immediately melts, and the game is not disrupted. Why America - which is not usually a land which eschews the use of technology - doesn't simply follow suit is a puzzle to me.

[MadMax359]

i'm betting most of us that played a little football have memories of playing in the snow... or even better, mud!

i think the reason we don't put heating under the field (American for "pitch") is the idea that battling the elements is part of the fun... and i think it was the World Cup qualifier with Honduras where we played futebol in the snow, much to our visitors' dismay

[Lomax]

...field (American for "pitch")...

Yeah, I know. You Yanks use the wrong word for a whole lot of things.

As it happens, I have played (gridiron) football in swamp conditions; and I've both trained and scrimmaged in snow. And yes, it was a whole lot of fun. But this was in a league which didn't have umpteen zillion dollars worth of television revenue associated with it. The reason (association) football got its act together in this country and made sure that the pitches were always pristine no matter what the weather or the season was because TV companies pointed out that if they were going to shell out stupid amounts of cash for the rights to televise games, they damn well expected a product that looked good. Those of us with long memories who remember what mid-season pitches looked like back in the seventies are still amazed by the change.

Given that TV revenues are even more important over there, I don't understand why the various networks aren't banging on the NFL Commissioner's door with a very large stick and TELLING him to get with the times.

In the meantime: Saints 10 - 3. WHO DAT?

PS - the first line of this post was composed in a spirit of irony. I wonder who will be the first to miss this fact and get upset with me?

[Duncan Edwards]

There is a huge element in football called "tradition" that calls for playing in whatever miserable conditions nature deals to us. Unless of course your owner can arrange financing for a billion dollar dome or a two billion dollar exercise in technological masturbation like Jerry Jones did in Dallas. Doing battle with the elements gives the fans something to share with the guys who are actually doing the work down on the field. My Titans play open to the sky not only because the weather here is relatively benign but God likes to be able to see his home team. Regardless of the weather I have been there for ever single moment of every single game played since opening day 1999. I loathe the cold but no matter how crappy it gets I wouldn't have it any other way.

[kham]

And the No Fun League continues to live up to the monicker, with the douchebag assholes impersonating the committee running the superbowl have made the pronouncement (likely from their fucking ivory and gold -plated superboxes) that no tailgating will be permitted at the game. Yeah. Just take away one of the fan events that does NOT suck money into their coffers. I'm sure that had fuck-all to do with their decision.

Read the bullshit here. It's enough to make you want to not even watch on TV

remember, felon scum, 2 x thumbs up; fans participating in old traditions of their own, screw you