This Week In Football

New York Gets Its Super Bowl
Last week the NFL announced that Super Bowl XLVIII, which is in 2014, will be held at the new Meadowlands Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Usually I could care less where the Super Bowl is being held since it doesn't effect me as a home viewer. But that's because for the viewer there is only one way the stadium can affect our enjoyment of the game; weather.

I'm not one of those people who think that fast-paced, airing it out football is better and more enjoyable than slow-paced, grinding it out football. However, both styles can realistically be executed in domes and warm weather stadiums, whereas a cold weather stadium in January would certainly favor the slow-paced style. But even that isn't too big of a concern for me since the best teams in the league, the Super Bowl caliber teams, should be able to adjust to the situation. My complaint is that an outdoor winter game in the northeast runs the possibility of being somewhat unwatchable.

As a fan of a cold weather northeastern team, the Buffalo Bills, I have seen my share of horrible games that had more to do with the weather than the talent of the teams involved. The game that comes to mind when I think of unwatchable bad-weather games is the Bills vs. Browns game from the 2007 season. It took place in Cleveland in week 15. The temperature was around 30 degrees Fahrenheit and it was very snowy. Cleveland won the game 8-0 by scoring two field goals and getting a safety*. Other than the lack of scoring, the game was nearly unwatchable because it was actually hard to tell what was taking place on the television screen. There was just too much snow blowing around.

I doubt that weather will ruin New York's Super Bowl since it's the Super Bowl, and if the weather is looking bad, the NFL will get as much manpower as it needs to make sure that the biggest TV event of the year isn't ruined by some snow. However, there's always the possibility that Super Bowl weekend will feature the type of snowstorm that brings everything to a dead halt. My fear is that in that type of situation the NFL won't reschedule, and viewers will be stuck with a boring, hard to watch game.

*I am aware that both Cleveland and Buffalo have been pretty bad teams most of this past decade, and maybe that is why the game was so horrible. However, that year the Browns just missed the playoffs finishing 10-6, while the Bills finished a lackluster 7-9. But at that point in the season both teams were still in the playoff hunt as the Bills were 7-6 and the Browns were 8-5. And if you saw the game, you know that weather was a much bigger factor than the quality of the teams.

Home Field Advantage in the Super Bowl
It's never happened before, but there's a chance that a team could play in the Super Bowl on their own home field in the next few years. The next four Super Bowls are all taking place in the stadiums of teams that made the playoffs last season: Dallas, Indianapolis, New Orleans, and New York.

Elsewhere:
Peter King on why Pat Tillman doesn't belong in the hall of fame
Chad Ochocinco is a good dude