But I especially love these playoffs for a perverse reason, and you’re welcome to hate me for it. I love them because I’m in Southern California. Football games are always way more dramatic when they’re played in horrible weather conditions. Snow bowls — the best. Rain bowls — super fun. Hail, fog, hurricane winds — that’s entertainment. Subfreezing temperatures (like in Buffalo) — now you got a football game. (Dick Enberg told me he was calling a Bengals-Chargers playoff game from Cincinnati and it was so cold someone poured him a hot cup of coffee and by the time they set it on the desk in front of him it froze solid. Now THAT’S cold, friends and neighbors.)
But the elements do add an element. If you can’t see the yard markers that’s a game you’re not turning off. They don’t want to hold Super Bowls in those outdoor winter venues because it would inconvenience the high rollers paying to see the game, and Lady Gaga would freeze in her trashy Tinkerbell outfit.
Too bad because some of the more memorable games in NFL history were legendary because of the weather. The famous ice bowl in Green Bay between the Packers and Cowboys. Championship games between the Giants and Colts in arctic New York.
And the enjoyment is heightened by watching in 70 degree weather. At least for me.
That said, I don’t know why anyone actually attends these playoff games in punishing weather. The players are getting paid and they can go into the locker room at halftime. You’re just sitting there. I know some of you spartan readers will say “it’s an experience,” but so is waterboarding.
Were I to be in Buffalo yesterday I would have been inside with a warm fire, food at the ready, my own bathroom, a better picture, the yellow stripe, and no chance to catch COVID at a super spreader. The only downside is maybe catching an Applebee’s CHEERS commercial (more on that tomorrow). The coffee you buy at the stadium can’t be any warmer than Dick Enberg’s. Of all the major sports, football is really made for TV.
There was a time in the NFL when home games wouldn’t be televised unless they were a sellout (which was rare). Here in LA, the Rams played in the Coliseum that seated 100,000. We NEVER saw a home game. Ever. Not once. The very first Super Bowl was held in LA. Both CBS and NBC covered it. Both were blacked out in Los Angeles. The point is, in those days you had to attend the game if you wanted to watch it. Not now. When the Rams returned from St. Louis and played in the Coliseum while their new stadium was being built, it was downright eerie to finally see a Rams home game at the Coliseum. Like sneaking into an X-rated movie when you were a kid.
Anyway, if you attended any of the games this past weekend I hope you didn’t get frostbite, COVID, trench foot, hypothermia, pneumonia, or toxic shock. But if your team won I’m sure it was worth it. I’m turning up the heat just writing this.
from By Ken Levine
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