The National Football League missed an opportunity to gain some goodwill during the wild card game blackout scramble.
The NFL has gotten much more weather-focused of late, delaying games when there is severe weather and even clearing the stands when big storms threaten, something unheard of in the glory days of smash-mouth “frozen tundra” football, but perhaps not the worst idea given the NFL’s emphasis on the fan experience.
Given that the temperature in Green Bay with the wind chill had been predicted to be a football-record minus-30—in fact, it turned out only to be a comparatively balmy minus-12 or so—if we had been in the NFL’s cleats we would have lifted the potential TV blackout there, citing the weather as the extenuating circumstance, while continuing a hard line in Cincinnati and Indianapolis. The Colts hardly had a weather complaint, since they play in a dome.
