The Farmer’s Almanac is calling for cold and snow just in time for Super Bowl XLVIII next Feb. 2.
I’m not surprised. In late December of 2010, when the National Football League wisely called off a game in Philadelphia because of a blizzard, I wrote in my column in The New York Times: "But the league has set in motion the reward for arrogance: the impending blizzard of February 2014." That forecast will come true because of the hubris of N.F.L. owners who think they can control everything. They do their best to ignore unfavorable medical information about brain damage from their dangerous business, and they bully network partners like ESPN into choosing between a lucrative partnership and journalistic integrity. However, tempting nature may be a step too far even for King Football. I've got a track record for predicting storms for leagues demonstrating chutzpah. In 1986, Major League Baseball scheduled not one but two post-season games in dear dumpy old Shea Stadium within 24 hours on Yom Kippur, the most solemn Jewish holy day. I wrote: "It is going to rain for 24 solid hours, children. The television networks and baseball officials are going to have to scurry around like lost souls in a Cecil B. DeMille epic trying to protect their cameras and their money from floating into Flushing Bay.” Sure enough, it rained hard and long enough to push back the games by a day. Frankly, they were lucky the deities did not send a surge straight into Flushing Bay to return Shea to the marshlands. Now the folks at the adjacent National Tennis Center are planning a weighty retractable roof mechanism over the main stadiums, built over the very same swampland. Let’s see how that works out. But first, please feel free to contribute your own vision of the great blizzard of 2014. My 2010 column predicting snow: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/28/sports/football/28vescey.html My 1986 column predicting rain. Rather, I called it a deluge. http://www.nytimes.com/1986/10/01/sports/sports-of-the-times-mets-forecast-a-deluge.html The story about the current Farmer’s Almanac prediction: http://www.almanac.com/weather/longrange/NJ/East%20Rutherford
Ed Martin
8/27/2013 11:12:43 am
Its a little spooky George, but then you were a divinity student at one time if I recall. Meanwhile I always admired Sandy Koufax for refusing to play on Yom Kippur, when it was a very strong statement.
Mike C from Whitestone
8/28/2013 02:21:34 pm
Ed
John McDermott
8/27/2013 12:19:12 pm
I hope it snows like hell that day.I can just see the people lucky enough to have paid a small fortune for a ticket in the security lines, lining up with their little transparent plastic bags. Way to go NFL, that will show all those terrorists they better not think of messing with football. The NFL's got it covered.
George Vecsey
8/29/2013 01:06:51 am
FIFA would never paint itself in a corner like this. GV
John McDermott
9/4/2013 08:44:00 am
No, FIFA would never, ever do such a thing, something really hair brained(or totally corrupt), like awarding the World Cup to a country which can't get its act together sufficiently to host the event on an acceptable level of infrastructure and service. Or like deciding to host the World Cup in the middle of the Arabian desert in high summer. Oh, wait a minute... 8/27/2013 11:28:05 pm
George
George Vecsey
8/28/2013 01:28:34 am
Alan, that is brilliant. Switch sites. I allude to traditional great weather in NYC for the holy days. See you next week. GV
Charlie Accetta
8/28/2013 05:39:06 pm
George - I understand your feelings, but that's because we've been programmed by the NFL to expect a warm weather site for the NFL showcase. Before there was a Super Bowl, championship games were played on somebody's home field, be it in New York, Philadelphia or Green Bay and regardless of the seasonal inconveniences. Football the game is considered weather-proof. As live entertainment, I can see the drawback for the audience. You know what? That's the risk in buying a ticket for any outdoor event. It could just as easily rain on Barry Manilow at Jones Beach. On Yom Kippur, no less.
Ed Martin
8/29/2013 04:06:49 am
Checking backmin to see the latest and it made me think of stiing in the living room, by the fire, watching the idiots, not the players-they are getting paid. I may turn the sound down and listen to Ray Charles and Betty Carter singing, "Baby, it's Cold Outside."Check out this video on YouTube: 8/29/2013 10:18:48 am
Ed
Ed Martin
8/29/2013 10:26:24 am
Sounds good Alan, I usually read simultaneously. In case you wonder why I spell so interestingly give the credit to Steve Jobs and his I Pad. 8/29/2013 04:40:19 pm
Ed 4/29/2014 11:05:10 pm
I have not much time to visit many websites. But today I found this site accidently. I explored much information which is useful to my life. Thanks! Comments are closed.
|
Categories
All
|