KiwiHawk":s1vrn561 said:
There are times when the game conditions are so bad that the skill differential between the teams is minimised. At that point it just becomes a coin-toss as to who wins or loses.
The rain game in Kansas City comes to mind, where tackled players were in danger of drowning if they landed face-down. Extreme cold is another "equaliser". It's not good for the game to play in conditions like that. We all respect how manly and butch NFL players are - apart from a certain Rams punter - but there are limits.
I was at both of these games. The rain game was miserable, for sure. I remember being one of the last to leave my seat, avoiding 70,000 KC fans in my Galloway jersey. The stairs were waterfalls and the field had waves on it. Having been through it, I'd take that 100 times out of 100 times over the cold playoff game.
GEAR: I took my kid and her boyfriend, both 18 years old. I was bundled with an under armor shirt, a hooded north face jacket, a seahawks zip sweat shirt and two jersey's. I wore jeans with sweatpants over them and a pair of hawks shorts over that. I had a blanket as well. On my head I wore my hawks beanie and the hood from the jacket. Also a handmade hawks scarf. Standard gloves and then my real mistake. I wore one pair of ankle socks and some canvas shoes. All my warmers were worthless...
GAME: It looked miserable. The equivalent of what looked like 50,000 people or whatever, who were all smoking. I couldn't even grab the hot chocolate that was being handed to me. My limbs and digits just didn't respond. I couldn't imagine grabbing, catching, tackling, any of it in this weather. The few plays that were made were electric. I am proud of everyone who was on that field. Kudos for putting up any points at all.
FANS: They were nice around us, but at least in my section (front row 227) in the opposite endzone of the kick, they were not very educated football fans. I have examples, but nothing that really needs to be posted. I was having trouble with my scarf coming undone and not being able to move to fix it. A Minnie fan saw my struggle and from behind me, they helped me get things straight. After the kick, they were obviously shocked. They were celebrating pretty hard after the penalty and long pass play to Rudolph. Some shook our hands and most said, "you better win the effing super bowl".
I got some, "Oh, you guys really earned that one." I just said things like, "I'm not going to apologize." A few fans were screaming obscenities at us as we walked back to the car. Other fans apologized for them and asked us not to take that away from the stadium as typical Vikes fans.