The Steelers vs. Bills wild card game is scheduled for Sunday afternoon. Pushed to 4:30pm ET on Monday. After consultation with the New York State Governor’s Office, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Saturday.
But people familiar with the Buffalo Bills say there are still hurdles to overcome in order to play a game on that day, at that time, in that stadium, with fans in the stands.
“There are trapdoors everywhere you turn,” the official said, explaining all the unique challenges of playing this game in a snowstorm at Highmark Stadium in Western New York.
As of Saturday evening, the NFL was confident that games could be played as scheduled on Monday, league officials said. However, if weather issues continue into Sunday night, the NFL could consider a second postponement until Tuesday.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency and issued a travel ban for Erie County starting Saturday at 9pm ET. The ban will be re-evaluated at 6am on Sunday, depending on the forecast. At a press conference Saturday, Hochul urged travelers to head to Buffalo as soon as possible.
“This time is now, especially for truck drivers,” Governor Hochul said, adding, “Whether they’re coming across the Peace Bridge, whether they’re coming from Pennsylvania, whether they’re coming from the East, we urge everyone to monitor the situation now. Please, travel now.” Not later. ”
steelers I got on a plane Headed to Buffalo on Sunday afternoon. The team originally opted to keep the same schedule, with plans to travel at the same time on Saturday and adjust the following day.
However, Orchard Park is expected to receive 2 to 3 inches of snow late Sunday morning, with another 2 to 3 inches expected to fall in the afternoon. Travel bans remain in place and snow continues to fall in the Oscillation Zone. According to the latest forecast, the stadium is expected to remain in place until Sunday night.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said the region will experience “blizzard-like” conditions, with some areas of the county “basically going to get probably two feet or more of snow in 36 hours.” said.
Bill’s is offering snow shoveling volunteers $20 an hour, but because of the ban, it’s unclear when they will be able to start working.
When this has happened in the past, snow shovels typically started at the top of the stadium and lowered the snow down to field level with chutes. The snow is loaded onto trucks and transported out of the stadium through a tunnel at Highmark Stadium. Excavators work from top to bottom, clearing fields that are currently covered with tarps.
Officials said if there is not enough snow, the stands could be cleared of snow in time for Monday’s game. However, lake effect snow accumulation can cause problems with snow removal in both stands and fields.
“Right now, the stadium does not need to be empty until Monday,” Governor Hochul said. “That gives us a lot of leeway to manage the conditions to see if the bands are good and if we’ve gotten the amount of snow we expected. We’re hoping the winds have died down quite a bit. We are therefore expecting very different weather behavior on Monday based on today’s modeling. ”
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Then there’s the issue of stadium safety if the game is played on a Monday afternoon. Although the field is covered, temperatures have been below freezing since Saturday afternoon and forecast to remain below freezing through the scheduled game Monday.
The NFL uses Clegg Impact Testers at various locations on the field to measure surface hardness. According to the NFL Players Association, the field must have less than 100 gravity units to pass the test. At the Lions vs. Panthers game in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2022, the field was tested at up to 150g, and players from both teams complained about the hardness of the field.
To make Highmark Stadium’s field playable, it will likely need to be heated with heaters — the 50-year-old stadium does not have a complex and expensive underground heating system. And players will definitely need to adjust their cleats depending on the hardness of the field.
Next, there is the issue of public resource allocation. Gov. Hochul and County Executive Poloncarz said police officers should have been deployed, not directed, to direct traffic inside the stadium during Sunday’s snowstorm.
Officials pointed out that it would be difficult to allocate resources to games, especially if the weather in Southtown, where the stadium is located, is bad. And if Northtown’s weather is bad, resources will need to be directed there.
Obviously, there are strong hopes, and even stronger aspirations, for this game to be played as scheduled on Monday. If the predictions change in favor of Western New York, this will simply be another playoff game in Buffalo.
