football in december...

December is often when the football season gets juicy. It’s the last couple of weeks in the regular season and most football fans are on the edge of their seats eager to see their team get into the playoffs. It’s also, in case nobody’s noticed, freezing cold in most of the US. Why would anybody would want to go to a football game in December when it’s raining or snowing or hailing or more than one of the above? The games are on TV in HD. You can see the game closer, get instant replays, watch from cool angles like the skycam, and you get the yellow line.

Ok ok…I know that there’s the excitement of being there live and the camaraderie of being surrounded by fans there to witness a potentially historical game, and I’m sure diehard fans will tell me I simply don’t understand what being a fan is about (btw I am a diehard eagles fan, but have no desire of standing in the snow to watch a blizzard in a stadium), but dude, it’s snowing! For fans in green bay and new england, it’s pretty much blizzard conditions for all of december. The Russian army has won wars by fighting in these conditions, freezing out enemies wearing substantially more than cheeseheads in body paint (and probably passed around just as many flasks as these guys).

I get going out to the game when it’s nice out, or even raining a little. You do get to enjoy the atmosphere of the fans and the excitement of being where the action is. Yep…pretty cool. I’ve been to my share of exciting sports games, and it’s definitely an experience that I would like to repeat, but not in blizzard conditions. Yet, there’s something about having to plow a car out of the snow, driving in traffic for 4 hours, peeking out of your poncho to watch what I’ll admit will be a pretty fun game, and getting stuck in gridlock in the parking lot afterwards, that just doesn’t quite appeal to me.

One last thing to put this in perspective: the players standing out in the blizzard are getting paid millions of dollars to brave the wind and snow and hail for those four hours. You paid for your seat to brave the wind and snow and hail for those four hours. What’s wrong with that hi-def picture?