The Super Bowl Should Be Played in the Elements

I want you to close your eyes. Imagine a football game. Imagine the things that make football different from every other sport. What's the weather like? Is it a nice autumn day? Do the fans look comfortable in the stands? Do you know what I picture when I imagine a football game? I see huge guys colliding in the bitter cold. You know that cold that's so bitter that makes your skin sting on contact? Well these guys are doing more than making simple contact. Did I mention that it's snowing? And the wind is howling? I can't even see the grass on the field. It's a sea of white. The fans are all bundled up so you can't see their faces except for that guy who's painted blue and not wearing a shirt. Although, with temperatures like this it may not be paint that's making him blue. This is the football game I picture.

I know I'm not alone with this description, and it leads me to an important question. Why, if football is a game of rugged toughness and damn the elements, is the Super Bowl played indoors? It's the most important game of the year and it's the game where the league seems to go easy on the players. Why? That's no fun. What's next; call the games on account of rain like baseball? I say play the Super Bowl outdoors.

This year the Super Bowl is in Detroit. That's a good start, but there's only one problem: Detroit has a domed stadium. It's no different than having it in Jacksonville or Houston or any of these other places where the players don't have to suffer the elements like they do during the season. Bring the Super Bowl to New England or Green Bay or Canada. I know what you're thinking, "But the fields are bigger in Canada." Do what we used to do when we were kids and just mark off the correct measurements with plastic orange cones. But if you insist on having the Super Bowl in Florida, how about flooding the field before the game so the players have to fight through six inches of mud? That's great television in the high definition age.

None of this will ever happen though and we all know the reason: money. The Super Bowl is the biggest media event of the year and we know how those people love to complain. Not only do they love to complain, but they have a monopoly on the forum. All you have to do is turn on the television or listen to sports radio and the commentators are all complaining about how cold it is in Detroit. Well, boohoo to you. Poor you has to go to the Super Bowl and be cold. I can't forget the fine folks in the luxury boxes either. A lot of money goes into pampering important people in those boxes. It's a miracle they're getting them to go to Detroit.

But forget about the outside people. The Super Bowl is about football and it's about who is the toughest and who can work the hardest. The way I see it, if you can't win a game in a blizzard with a wind chill of thirteen below you don't deserve to be called a champion. Peyton Manning plays in a dome. Tom Brady and Brett Favre play in the elements. I rest my case. Tom Brady and Brett Favre have also won their Super Bowls in domes. They've proven they can win anywhere. It's called earning it. Make them earn it when it really counts: The Super Bowl.

When it comes right down to it, the game is not the important part of the whole event. It's a weeklong spectacle and where better to hold a spectacle than sunny Florida or Pasadena, California. I have a hunch though that the people would come to a Super Bowl in Green Bay or New England. Most of us don't get to go to these games so for us its all about the television and there's no better satisfaction for those of us who can't go to see those that could suffer. Is that so much to ask?