Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell has set off a national debate about football, snow and the downfall of America.
Rendell, an avid Eagles fan, was so upset by the NFL postponing Sunday night’s game in Philadelphia between the Eagles and the Minnesota Vikings because of a snowstorm that he called it an indictment of an entire nation.
“My biggest beef is that this is part of what’s happened in this country,” Rendell said. “I think we’ve become wussies.”
The implications of the cancellation are not as wide-ranging as the measure of America’s resolve. But the unusual move of postponing a game because of snow does raise questions about the precedent it could set for the NFL regarding future contests.
The focus could be on one contest in particular — the controversial selection of New Meadowlands Stadium, home of the New York Giants and New York Jets, as the site of the 2014 Super Bowl.
All along, critics of the decision to schedule the championship game in an outdoor stadium in such a northern location have talked about the impact a snowstorm like the one last weekend could have on the NFL’s signature event.
Those criticisms — and the ramifications of Sunday’s Eagles-Vikings postponement (they played Tuesday night, a 24-14 Vikings win) — impact Washington football fans as well. Redskins owner Daniel Snyder has made it clear he wants to host a Super Bowl at FedEx Field, and the success or failure of the Meadowlands game impacts that decision.
Forgive the pun, but while the intentions of Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, who asked the NFL for the postponement, were good — to protect people who might have been traveling to the game — it is a slippery slope. There were hockey games played by the Devils in New Jersey and the Islanders in Nassau, N.Y., that night. There are events that take place all the time in dangerous conditions in which people have to make their own decisions.
Quite simply, what happens the next time?
Of course, Rendell reduced the debate to the emotions of a Philly fan, which he is, and one with a snowy past. In 1989, during an Eagles-Cowboys game when fans pelted the players and officials with snowballs, Rendell, then the city’s District Attorney, said he paid some fan $20 to throw a snowball on the field.
“It goes against everything that football is all about,” Rendell said of the postponement.
The irony of all this is that one of the Eagles’ greatest moments came during a Philadelphia blizzard that struck the city on the eve of their 1948 NFL title game against the Chicago Cardinals. At the time, NFL commissioner Bert Bell wanted to postpone the game. Greasy Neale, the Eagles’ coach, supported that decision.
“I don’t want to work all year for one big climatic game and then lose on a break like this,” Neale said.
But the players wanted to play, and so Bell let the game take place. More than 30,000 people showed up at Shibe Park to watch the Eagles win their first NFL title in a 7-0 victory.
Of course, that was a different America, as Ed Rendell will tell you.
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected].
