With Hurricane Irma bearing down on the Gulf Coast, the NFL has elected to move Sunday’s Week 1 game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Miami Dolphins, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. The league was reportedly considering this decision on Monday and made it official on Wednesday, moving the game to Week 11. The game was originally scheduled to take place at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium, but public safety is obviously the bigger priority at the moment.
Buccaneers-Dolphins Week 1 game moved due to Hurricane Irma
Irma is currently forecast to strike Florida by Saturday. The Bucs and Dolphins will now play in Week 11.
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Conveniently, the Bucs and Dolphins both have the same bye week, Nov. 19. The game will be played then, with both teams getting essentially one more week until the start of their season. So instead of a breather in Week 11, the two teams will face off then.
The NFL released a statement Wednesday morning:
Due to the potential impact of Hurricane Irma on South Florida, the Miami Dolphins home game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, originally scheduled for Sunday at 1 p.m. ET at Hard Rock Stadium, will instead be played there in Week 11 on Sunday, November 19, the NFL announced today.
Week 11 was previously an open date for both clubs.
The NFL announced yesterday that in the interest of public safety in light of the continuing state of emergency, the league, in consultation with state and local officials as well as both clubs, would not play an NFL game in South Florida this week.
Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone in the impacted area.
Irma strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane on the Atlantic Ocean over the weekend. As of Monday evening’s forecast, it’s projected to hit the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and Cuba over the next four days, eventually reaching Florida sometime on Saturday.
“This is a powerful storm which poses a serious threat to our area,” Miami Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez said via The Washington Post Tuesday. He added, “I would rather inconvenience our residents on this occasion than suffer any unnecessary loss of life if in fact we are hit by Hurricane Irma. It is still too early to know if we will take a direct hit.”
It’s unclear how strong the storm will still be by the time it hits Miami, but Florida governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency in advance. The NFL is simply not taking any chances here, especially in the wake of the devastating damage Hurricane Harvey did to the Houston area. The Texans canceled their preseason game with the Dallas Cowboys while helping out with recovery efforts, but will still play their Week 1 contest in Houston as scheduled
The last time an NFL regular season game was affected by bad weather was in 2014. Due to a massive snowstorm in the Northeast region, a Buffalo Bills-New York Jets game got moved from Buffalo to Detroit’s Ford Field and got played a day later than scheduled.
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