The NFL is not afraid of the snow. It sure isn't going to let an opponent as trifling as Mother Nature impede on Super Bowl XLVIII. But there is a contingency plan to reschedule the game, just in case.
NFL prepared for Super Bowl snow
The league said Wednesday that it’s prepared to move the start time of the game if necessary. They’re counting on a giant snow melting machine, a gazillion tons of salt and lots of good will from fans to prevent that.
Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Frank Supovitz, NFL vice president of events, discussed the league’s weather operations for the New Jersey Super Bowl on Wednesday at MetLife Stadium, where the game is scheduled to take place on Feb. 2, 2014, at 6:30 p.m. ET.
”It is obviously operationally complicated to move the start time of a game, whether you’re backing up a couple of hours, which is minimal inconvenience, or whether you have to change to another day.
“The fact is, the chances are very, very good that we’re going to be kicking off the ball on time, because you have to be incredibly unlucky for that not to happen, but we’ll be prepared either way.”
There are emergency plans in place for every NFL game. Several games this season have been delayed because of lightning, but Major League Baseball's been more of a scheduling inconvenience for the NFL this year than the weather. The season opener between the Super Bowl champion Ravens had to be moved to Denver because of an Orioles game happening the same day. The Chargers and Raiders kicked off at 8:35 p.m. Pacific time in Week 5 because of an Oakland A's playoff game.
The NFL has embraced the possibility of cold weather and snow at the big game.
Said Supovitz:
“I think a little bit of snow on the Super Bowl would be very romantic. I think it would be terrific. Football is a cold-weather sport. We play in anything, as long as it’s a safe environment for our fans to be able to get to and from the game.”
Snow doesn’t stand a chance against the NFL, not against this kind of industrial might:
This snow melter will be deployed for the super bowl. It melts 600,000 tons of snow per hour pic.twitter.com/6rtYCxrVwd
— daniel kaplan (@dkaplanSBJ) December 18, 2013 In addition to the heat producing tank, there will be 2,000 snow plows, 60,000 tons of salt & 840,000 gallons of calcium chloride, providing the motorists of Northern New Jersey with mountains of dirty snow thrusting skyward from parking lots and at least a dozen extra trips to the car wash ... Super Bowl memories for months.
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