By Julie Buehler
I’m in New York, well, technically New Jersey, the site of Super Bowl XLVIII.
As you read this, you’ll likely be well acquainted with the forecast for the NFL’s championship game, but if you’ve been living under a rock, allow me to offer a summation of the reports: Stick your head in a freezer, while standing in a bucket of ice, then have a buddy throw Rocky Road ice cream in your face. While you enjoy the 80-degree temperatures of the Coachella Valley, we’re braving all sorts of elements in the New York, New Jersey area. And by we, I mean the media contingent covering the Super Bowl. And “we”, are not a tough bunch, I’m afraid.
No, most media is used to covering the nation’s largest sporting event in warm, Coachella Valley-like temperatures. Some are down-right pissed off the NFL chose to have the Super Bowl in a cold weather city, thus redirecting their yearly all-expense paid trip to palm trees and out of the likes of Chicago or Indy or Minneapolis or Boston cold.
But don’t listen to the media. They won’t be taking a snap, taking a hit or even taking a moment to consider this game is about winning the NFL Championship, not winning an NFL beauty contest.
As Denver head coach John Fox said early in Super Bowl week, “In order to be a championship football team, we have to be weather proof.” He’s absolutely right.
Ladies and gentlemen, football is not a game built in tropical climates that’s been translated to the Frozen Tundra. The game of football was built in adverse conditions with Gale Sayers carving a Hall-Of-Fame career through 2 feet of mud, with Dick Butkus proving his toughness by beating tough conditions, by the Galloping Ghost’s irreverent runs through rough terrain. Without those greats (and the many more like them) braving the elements and forging legends, the NFL may not have cemented its place in our culture. But they did, so it has.
Super Bowl winning quarterback and a guy who had his greatest success playing in a dome, Kurt Warner said he’s against a cold weather Super Bowl because he doesn’t want the elements to impact the game, that he’d rather see each team at its best to determine the championship.
Sounds good, sounds ideal, and sounds totally unrealistic. The only way you eliminate the elements from the game is to not play it.
If the game is played in warm weather cities, but outside, you have to deal with sun, glare, perhaps heat, players wearing out from losing fluids, passes being dropped because of bad shadows on the field, there could be wind that is unpredictable.
If the game is played inside, teams have to deal with turf and the different speed associated with that, crowd noise, and the fact that FOOTBALL WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE PLAYED INSIDE EVER… (my personal bias aside).
The point is, football is a game of elements and adverse conditions by nature, and housing the championship in a stadium where each team must face adverse conditions and modify their game accordingly will be a true test of which TEAM is superior. Which TEAM overcomes the conditions and excels. And isn’t that the definition of winning a championship? To be the last TEAM standing after all others fall?
If Peyton Manning loses this game it will not be because of the weather, it will be because the Seahawks pass rush brutalized him for 60 minutes. And that would be the case in New York or Miami.
So even when it’s cold outside, the definition of a champion is the team who can turn the heat up hot enough to best the competition. Period.
Now, please excuse me, I need to find a mirror, lost the feeling of my nose 2 hours ago, just want to make sure it’s still there.
Oh yeah. Broncos 35, Seahawks 15
Julie Buehler hosts the Coachella Valley’s most popular sports talk radio show, “Buehler’s Day Off” every day from 3-6 on 1010 KXPS, the valley’s all sports station. She’s an avid gym rat, slightly sarcastic and more likely to recite Steve Young’s career passing stats than American Idol winners. Tune in M-F 3-6 pst at www.team1010.com or watch the show on Ustream.
