Pandora's box is wide-freakin'-open now. The NFL went and awarded the Giants and Jets for building a new stadium by granting them the Super Bowl in 2014 and now every NFL owner from a cold-weather city is lobbying for the game.
Stop it. Stop it right now. This open-air, cold-weather game in New Jersey is supposed to be an exception to a rule. A once-in-a-lifetime anomaly. The Super Bowl is meant to be played indoors or in warm temperatures. That's how it's been for nearly five decades. The rotation has always been accepted by everyone associated with the NFL. San Diego, New Orleans, Tampa, Miami, Phoenix, Houston, maybe Dallas and Atlanta.
It's easier to cover and host a mega-event under those circumstances. But more importantly, it's easier for on the athletes, who shouldn't have to battle the elements in the most important game of their lives. Why make everyone's life difficult? The Super Bowl is a special getaway for fans who make the trek. Nobody wants to fly to Philadelphia in early-February.
I call out Philly because Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie is the latest owner to try to piggyback off of New York's Super Bowl. At the league's owners meetings Monday in Phoenix, Lurie said he'd push for a game in the City of Brotherly Love if New York works out. But the Eagles don't have a new stadium and thus the league has no incentive to grant them the game. A new stadium would help, but that shouldn't be enough. New York is different. It's the media capital of the world and the biggest city in the United States. It gets the game because of a unique set of circumstances.
That's what bidders in Philly and Minneapolis and Seattle and Washington and Chicago and Denver have to realize.
Forget it. The Super Bowl wasn't made for cities like those.
