Let it snow, let it snow, oh wait no! Make it stop! That’s what the people of Buffalo are singing right now after having upwards of 8 feet of snow dumped on them in recent days.
With not enough resources to have Ralph Wilson Stadium ready for go-time on Sunday at 1:00pm, the NFL has decided to move the AFC East game against the Jets away from Buffalo.
Players have even resorted to trekking to the stadium on foot for practice this week. Bills wide receiver Chris Hogan tweeted out Friday morning, “Still snowed in! Walking to the stadium.”
The game between the Jets and the Bills will be played at Ford Field in Detroit, where weather can not possibly be a factor, seeing as it is a totally enclosed stadium.
Interestingly enough, Ford Field was the site of another neutral-site game forced by weather in 2010 when the roof of the Metrodome in Minnesota.
Bills president, Russ Brandon, had this to say earlier this week regarding the conditions: “It is not practical to play a game in Orchard Park in the condition that our community is in. It really wasn’t an option to try to play the game at any point Sunday, Monday or even potentially Tuesday based on what the forecast is.”
Even with the problem sorted out for this week, the question still looms regarding the state of Buffalo for next week. This game between a 5-5 Bills team and a 2-8 Jets team may not matter all that much, but next week’s game in Buffalo against the 6-4 Cleveland Browns holds major playoff implications.
Our thoughts still remain will the people of Buffalo as they continue to dig themselves out of their snow-coated city, and hopefully they can have some solace in watching their Bills take on the Jets on television.