In North America, the game of football is played primarily in the winter time which means sometimes we have football in the snow. For me, this is the best type of football. It is also a lot of fun when it is raining and the field gets all muddy and slippery but it is just something about football in the snow that makes me smile. Perhaps it is because I am sitting at home watching it from my warm sofa or at the local casino sports book or sports bar sipping a cool and refreshing non-alcoholic St. Pauli Girl beer or hot chocolate or coffee and not there freezing.
Now to be clear, when I am talking about football, at least for this discussion, I am talking about the National Football League (NFL) and the game played with the oval ball, not the round ball. American football evolved in the United States and originated from the sport of rugby football. The first game of American football was played on November 6, 1869, between two college teams, Rutgers and Princeton, using rules resembling a mix of rugby and soccer. The National Football League, the most popular American football league, has the highest average attendance of any sports league in the world while the championship game, the Super Bowl, ranks among the most-watched club sporting events in the world. Can you believe the NFL has an annual revenue of around $10 billion USD.
Football games are played on a rectangular field that measures 120 yards (110 m) long and 53.33 yards (48.76 m) wide. White lines marked along the ends and sides of the field are known respectively as the end lines and side lines, and goal lines are marked 10 yards (9.1 m) inward from each end line. There are a bunch of other lines and markings on the field, also in white. Now when these are covered in snow or mud they are obviously hard to see. For some reason, when they build new stadiums in cities like Chicago or Green Bay, they build these stadiums with an open roof. Of course this lets all the weather elements in and we get football in the snow or rain and mud. I don’t know why they do this. Oh sure there is the point of no roof lowering the cost of construction but still, how much can a roof cost really? For some reason they are building a new stadium here in Las Vegas and it will have a roof so why not in Chicago or New England or any of these other cold and snowy places? When you put a roof on you can have events year round regardless of the weather. If I were to build I stadium I would have a retractable roof where I could open it on sunny days and close it on snowy days. Oh wait! Unless it was a football game and then I would leave it open. Yes, when I am in charge things will be different.
Ok, off my soap box now…
In 2015 I was thinking about Super Bowl XLIX, or the Big Game or whatever they are calling it, and wondered if there would be snow that year. I quickly remembered it would be played in Arizona and they do not get much snow there so… Plus the stadium the Arizona Cardinals play in has a roof for some reason.
I guess I really should be asking why they put roofs on at all? Less roofs means more chance of football in the snow and more smiles for me!
Do you prefer football in the snow or on a dry field? Click here to leave a comment and share your opinion and experience. Would love to hear from you.
please share it with your friends using the Shareaholic buttons below.
And feel free to ‘like’ us on our Facebook page.
FREE for Kindle Unlimited subscribers.
Start your free trial to Kindle Unlimited
today!