Since everyone is freezing their nuts off in blizzard conditions in Buffalo and single digit temperatures in NYC, I thought writing a sports/weather-related post was needed.
Everyone who has lived in Buffalo treats these storms like some sort of badge of honor after going through them. In a way, it is like a gift and a curse for us. Some folks get pissed off whenever any outsider talks about how Buffalo is Siberia when it comes to the weather, but when we get through it, there's kind of a sense of pride that no one else could have done it.
Yes, Buffalonians view the rest of the country as pussies when it comes to weather.
I laugh my ass off whenever I see my NYC friends on Facebook panic about getting 4-5 inches of snow and cab drivers start driving like they are driving through a war zone. I will normally post a witty status update about how in Buffalo, we'd bathe in 4-5 inches of snow. No one likes being cold, but we tend to take that negative and turn it into a positive.
You get the "City of good neighbors" narrative going where people help each other. I'll always remember when the October storm happened in 2006 and how some were smitten by the Sabres and Tom Golisano because they brought back heaters from Detroit. I think 7 out of 10 Buffalonians can share a story about that time someone jumped their car in the cold or plowed their driveway or sidewalk.
Love it or hate it, snow is our identity and we slide..er, run with it. Of course, we also have another identity in our football team. I've talked until I'm blue in the face about how whenever I meet a New Yorker, the first things out of their mouth after I mention being from the (716) are snow and losing four Super Bowls. At that point I want to punch them in the nuts.
Shitty Bills football and shitty weather go together like peanut butter and jelly. Natural disasters and football games tend to be events where people rally or go insane during them.
Fans and certain MSMers are always obsessed with whether a QB can throw in the wintry conditions. God help you if you are a QB from a sunny state because they #illhangupandlisten crowd will have doubts about your accuracy and being able to handle the elements. Oh, and if you are a sunny team coming to Buffalo, forget it! You are toast. If it wasn't for the Toronto experiment, we would have crushed the Seahawks 50-0 last year!!! #sarcasm
Since I normally go home for Christmas, the only Bills game I usually attend is the last game of the season, which is like having a front row seat to "The Day After Tomorrow" storm. I normally come to Buffalo unprepared for the football elements and then resemble a homeless person going through garbage once I get to my dad's closet to find anything that is warm.
Construction boots? Fuck it. I'll wear those. Three sets of sweatpants, including one pair that belongs to Mom, that can't fit me? Throw them all on! An army jacket that my great-great-grandfather wore in the battle of Alaska, throw that shit on! Plastic bags in my shoes? Hand warmers in my underwear..er..hands, I mean..done!
Trust me, I take pride in my fashion, but that shit goes out the window when you have to stay outside for 4-5 hours. I'll fucken cut up Paul Hamilton to hide in his belly like Han Solo and Luke Skywalker did in "Empire Strikes Back" if it feels warm like apple pie. I'm not an outdoorsman by any stretch of the imagination so I gotta prepare!
Without further ado, let's break down my five cold games…
(Note: Some videos I found on YouTube. For the others, click on the game title and that will take you to NFL.com for highlights)
5) 1991, Bills vs. Dolphins playoff game – This was the 2nd game I ever went to and my first playoff game. You thought ESPN was overkilling the weather angle last week? Um, you had to see the hype this week. "Could Miami handle the January cold?" They were kind of lucky a few weeks earlier when they came to Buffalo. The weather was cold, but they avoided the elements. They wouldn't be so lucky this time around.
It snowed for a good 3 quarters and was probably one of the snowiest Bills games I've ever seen on TV or in person. Truth be told, I thought Miami's offense handled the snow well. I mean, they scored 34 points. However, the Bills were just a better team in any weather conditions on that day.
The most random thing about this game for me was that I went with this couple from Jordan who worked at my parents' pizza shack. I hardly knew these folks and my parents were all like "Take our son!" This couple was in their mid-30s and folded pizza boxes and made calzones for us. Parents: "Sure, we trust you. Now go be responsible for our son and take him to a game with drunks and frostbite!!! " Parents of the year!!
Start the video at 4:00:
[youtube=://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iqJY5zCFM8&w=395&h=296]
4) 2010, Bills vs. Colts – I don't know what the hell I was thinking going to this game. The Colts were playing their B-team and the Bills were a bigger tire fire than normal since they had fired Dick Jauron and it was documented at that point that no one wanted the job. Oh, and there was also the fact that there was so much snow that it would make Die Hard 2 look like Vegas Vacation. There was no upside in going to this game. This was the snowiest game I've been to. It was snowing from the second we pulled up in the parking lot to when we left at halftime.
Yes, I bailed.
The Bills were up by 3 TDs and I didn't feel like watching Jim Sorgi get crushed by Grant Irons. I do remember getting into an argument with the one guy from the group who wanted to stay until the end. There's always "that guy" whenever the discussion of leaving a game early gets brought up. I felt bad because he bought these tickets at face value in September while we all got ours a few days before for 20 bucks, but he was insane and lost the vote.
3) 2008, Bills vs. Patriots – Quality-wise, this game was the worst. The Bills lost 13-0 and both teams had like 200 yards in total offense. I'll always remember how Duke Preston got into a shoving match at the end of the 1st half while time was running off the clock and the Bills were trying to attempt a FG. He kept shoving, the clock kept running, and the Bills waited for the idiot to stop so they could kick a FG. He didn't and they never got the field goal off. It was truly an iconic moment for Dick Jauron.
As for the weather, there was zero snow but the wind was fricken badass to the point that it moved the goal posts. It was so fricken cold that I may have tried snuggling with my cousin while the blanket was over our heads. It was painful.
2) 2007, Bills vs. Giants – You know how "The Hunger Games" and "The Truman show" mostly take place in a dome-like world controlled by outside powers who can change the weather like I change the channel whenever the weatherman goes on and on about the weather?
That's how this game was.
Mother Nature was playing a sick joke on us, changing her damn mind with the weather. We had hail in the 1st quarter, freezing rain in the 2nd quarter, snow in the 3rd quarter, and I think all three in the 4th. Oh, and there was a shit ton of wind with the worst part being how we were in the last row in the upper deck. Yes, we were going to get blown out of the stadium and land on the Field House at some point. I remember my jacket was made of ice because the rain drenched it and the cold temperature froze it. My jacket resembled something like Mr. Freeze would wear in his lair to entertain Batman.
1) 1990, Cards vs. Bills – You always remember your first time. This was my first Bills game ever and you couldn't go to more of a baptism by fire type of weather game than this one. This was the game in which the Cardinals' punter kicked the ball backwards while a storm looked like it was going to swallow him whole like Bill Paxton should have been eaten in "Twister" (would have saved the movie). I remember being a 10-year-old and the hail started coming sideways at me at a Nolan Ryan-like speed. It was hard as shit and I just stared at my feet while the snow was pelting the back of my neck. I cried, but it was still a good time!
Start of video
[youtube=://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRmRajpv2IY&w=376&h=282]
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
