Cheerleaders Wearing Pants & Other Issues With the NY/NJ Super Bowl

Posted by Holly Phelps on May 27, 2010   Jump To Comments

I guess I don’t really understand all the hoopla and hair-pulling over the fact that New York/New Jersey will host the first cold-weather Super Bowl in 2014.  It seems there are several major arguments against moving the game to a four-seasoned part of the country:

• It’s gonna be cold, so the corporate and media bigwigs can’t go golfing and schmooze all week.
• The week leading up to the game is all about the parties, which now might have to be held inside, and we can’t have that.
• It might snow/rain/hail, and as we all know, weather is evil.
• WHAT IF NO ONE COMES TO WATCH THE GAME?!?
• Warm-weather teams will forget how to play football once it starts snowing.

As for my take? Two servings of “that’s a damn shame” followed up with three heaping spoonfuls of “you’ve got to be f’ing kidding me.”

Last I checked, football is a fall-to-winter sport.  Not a fake winter sport, like swimming, where high schools and colleges compete from October to February in warm indoor natatoriums with heated pools, but an honest-to-god winter sport, where fans are occasionally asked to dress warmly and shovel out the seats at their stadium.  After all, isn’t football the sport by which meteorologists FIGURE OUT that winter is coming?!

The Onion tells it like it is.

I understand that the NFL, like so many businesses, is driven by money.  Money from advertising, money from endorsement deals, money from exposure and access.  Having a Super Bowl in the New York area, where major media, many supporting industries, and the NFL itself are housed, is hardly putting it way out in the middle of nowhere.  All the money?  Can still be made/spent. All the schmoozing? Can still take place, because alcohol doesn’t freeze. Good times? Can still be had. The cheerleaders? Will still be hot, even if they may have to wear pants.

Now, about the fans.  There isn’t much I want to add to Aaron Nagler’s post over at Cheesehead TV:

All this whining about “oohhh people pay thousands of dollars, they shouldn’t have to sit in the elements” and “what if it snows all day…” is just about enough to make me puke. My grandmother used to tell me about she and my grandfather bundling up and going to see the Packers play the Cowboys in what is now known as The Ice Bowl. She always pointed out that people who didn’t want to be there…didn’t have to go. Maybe a cold-weather Super Bowl will allow ACTUAL fans to get into the game, rather than the corporate sycophants who get to attend now.

I understand there will be complications. I understand it might snow. Good God. CAN’T have that, can we?

He makes a good point.  After all, fear snow is the mind-killer. But you can’t tell me that the 2007 playoff game between the Packers and Seahawks would have been better without the snow. You can’t sit there and honestly say you’d remember it more fondly had it been a sunny day.

Snow is far more dangerous than a linebacker. Clearly, Ryan Grant earned all 201 yards by RUNNING FOR HIS LIFE.

So, the NY/NJ Super Bowl might be cold. It might be windy. It might, heaven forbid, involve precipitation. But again, last I checked, this is a game played by professionals who have dedicated their lives to the one-on-one battles that take place on the field.  The argument that “cold weather teams will have an unfair advantage in cold weather” holds as much weight as the argument that “warm weather teams will have an unfair advantage in warm weather.” You don’t hear the Patriots arguing that Super Bowls in South Florida are unfair, do you?

It’s pretty simple. The better team will win the one-on-one battles. The better team will find a way to move the ball. The better team will win, and the fans will be treated to one of the most memorable games they’ll ever experience.

And now that New York City has been given the green light, it’s open season for other outdoor stadiums, right?  I mean, it’s not like they’re really only going to do this once, are they?

Super Bowl L. L for Lombardi, L for Lambeau.  Think about it.

In addition to all the revenue for the neighboring casinos, every resident north of Sheboygan could open a bed & breakfast for the folks flying in to experience the game. With hotel prices jacked up to $600 a night, think of all the new small business jobs that would be created!  It’s clearly a win-win.  Right?

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Got another point of view? Share your thoughts here, or contact me at holly@brentfavre.com or on Twitter at @htphelps.