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Online comments are flying like snowballs at an Eagles game.
Some are funny, others hilarious.
The 197-year-old Almanac today officially predicted that a winter storm will sock the Northeast right around the time the first cold climate Super Bowl is played at MetLife Stadium on 2/2/2014.
“We’re using a very strong four-letter word to describe this winter, which is C-O-L-D,” said Sandi Duncan, the Almanac’s managing editor. “It really looks like the Super Bowl may be the Storm Bowl.”
Jerry DeMarco
Editor/Publisher
Cold in February? Really?
Sandi Duncan? Any articles by Capt. Hook?
Actually, the “weatherman” in this case is Caleb Weatherbee, who said he nearly predicted two of last year’s biggest storms — including the February blizzard.
Leading him to his remarkable 2014 conclusions are planetary positions, sunspots and lunar cycles. In other words: The stuff scientists scoff at.
It’s all there, sharing space with a campaign to get people to donate all their pennies to charity and then get Congress to stop making them, as well as the familiar jokes, home remedies and gardening tips.
They could have also included some of the responses to the “Storm Bowl” prediction on nj.com:
“Let me guess: They’re predicting that next summer in New Jersey will be ‘hot’ and ‘humid’.”
“What did the Mayans have to say about that weekend on their calendar?”
“I have it on good authority that there will be a Sharknado during the Super Bowl.”
“When people fly in on Super Bowl weekend and see Xanadu, they will think a storm already hit the place.”
“I have complete faith in ‘Miss Cleo’.”
“Does Rex Ryan write the Almanac? He’s not good at predicting anything.”
Of course, there are the more thoughtful responses:
“I have been above the Arctic Circle in late January and at Giant Stadium in late November. Let me tell you, there is something about the MeadowLands in the late Fall that makes my memories of the Arctic seem like a Club Med vacation.”
“Weather is a factor in all the games for the 5 months leading up to the championship, and we’re supposed to now remove it from the equation? I don’t buy it. If anything, bad weather will make the game itself more compelling. It will suck for the big business client entertainment stuff, the vacation aspect for many fans. But the game itself? No issue.”
“Bad weather will give the commoner a chance to maybe see their first (only?) super bowl live. By Thursday that week we’ll know what Sunday will be like, and if it looks rough the rich folk will be unloading for less than face value to people like me.”
Let’s get serious for a moment:
If the area is socked, and it’s severe, emergency responders will be needed elsewhere, not in East Rutherford. There is no rail transportation from just about all of the hotels where people will be staying. The NJ/NY airports would likely be closed.
The idea of a football game played in football elements is great — if those elements are manageable. Given the storms we’ve seen around here, the chance exists that they won’t be if a massive visitor drops in. Then again, we could make sports history with the first postponed Super Bowl.
ILLUSTRATION, top: Courtesy ESPN.com
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