One icy quarter in the AFC title game shouldn’t force the NFL’s hand in killing off one of the few remaining vestiges of “Any Given Sunday.”
Many a mother has told their children to “go outside and play.” Is the NFL really above momma’s wisdom?
Weather woes in the NFL are once again at the forefront of gridiron talking points after the AFC Championship Game tilt between the Denver Broncos and New England Patriots on Sunday afternoon. The mountains turned white, not blue, during fourth quarter action when snow flurries amassed into a frozen Denver deluge.
Despite the glorious cinematics emerging from the Broncos and Patriots dashing through the snow, one last debate has kicked in at the end of the 2025-26 season before the casual fans make their annual visit for the Big Game: while many appreciated the idea of “football weather” in one of the game’s most hallowed showcases, Hall-of-Famer Kurt Warner was driven to virtual illness by the display.
So glad this weather game is dictating who goes to the SB!!! 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮
— Kurt Warner (@kurt13warner) January 25, 2026
The backlash was enough to resurrect the idea of moving conference title games to a neutral site, an idea that originally surfaced when the Buffalo Bills nearly reached the 2022-23 semifinal after losing an entry on their schedule due to the Damar Hamlin situation. Games like Sunday’s may already be on the endangered species list: of the seven stadiums currently in development only one (New Highmark Stadium in Buffalo) will be fully open air, which would leave just 14 on the active circuit as the builders seek to host events beyond the gridiron (and maybe even a Super Bowl once every two decades).
Even the aforementioned Broncos are said to be seeking shelter, working toward a retractable roof stadium due to open in 2031.
Embrace the Unexpected and Play Outside
For what it’s worth, it probably doesn’t matter what the NFL does: the league has established a firm stranglehold on the national imagination and shows no signs of loosening its grip. The supposedly undesirable parts of the schedule — i.e. an ugly Christmas slate on Netflix that handily outdrew the NBA’s Christmas equivalent — gain ratings that make the other major leagues blush and mundanity like the release of the yearly schedule is treated like a national holiday.
Even so, some viewers are readily able to admit that the game is not the same as it was even a decade ago and part of that stems from a bizarre desire to control the uncontrollable, to coddle those who have taken on one of the most complicated professions.
Some recent rule changes can be viewed as removing the thinking aspect from the game: one now must inform the opponent of an onside kick, touchbacks set receiving teams up at the cusp of field goal range, and both teams get to touch the ball in overtime. The Philadelphia Eagles’ patented “Tush Push” lives on but rather than finding a way to stop it like prior offensive fads (i.e. the Wildcat), teams would apparently rather find ways to ban it outright.
Eliminating the concept of a snowy playoff game, especially one with plenty of consequence behind it, would be the latest attempt to remove the special edge that well-stocked teams have carried. The league’s history and its finest hours have been authored by plenty of unexpected and buried names, whether it’s a role player that steps up in crunch time or an assistant coach that develops a sterling strategy to combat the unexpected. Just imagine, for example, if Denver had someone on the sideline or in their booth tracking the weather and encouraging game management to kick a field goal to go up by 10 before the snow arrived. It would’ve been the stuff of legend and a cult hero would be born.
The one who prevails on the road to a championship often earns that title through how they adapt to and overcome adversity. Artificially evening the playing field further dilutes a game that has to balance innovation for both continued success and player safety. Playing in bad weather is just one more challenge to prepare for, one more test to overcome. If teams truly feared the weather, they could prepare for such contingencies, they could ensure that they’re in a good position before the bad weather arrives, or they could’ve avoided it entirely.
If a scoreless fourth quarter in a game where only 17 points were scored over the first 45 is the price to pay to keep that price, that hurdle, that variable, alive, that’s more than acceptable. The NFL is a league built on the concept of “Any Given Sunday” … not “Any Well-Prepared Scripted Weekend.”
If a few flakes are enough to keep your team out of the championship, maybe that squad in question should be looking inward instead of blaming the weather (which, to be fair and their credit, the Broncos have not done in the immediate aftermath of their defeat).
The Domers Have A Simple Solution
If dome loyalists, ones who apparently became addicted to scoreboards resembling pinball machines and slamming the “over” in yardage, really need their indoor football fix, there’s absolutely nothing stopping them from supporting their local indoor team or league.
While things hardly resemble the early-to-mid-2000s heyday of the original Arena Football League, several indoor leagues in various stages of development have surfaced in recent years. The Indoor Football League, for example, has been rolling since 2009 as the longest-running such organization in the country.
The IFL is one of five indoor leagues currently in operation and there are several notable names lingering among them: 11-year New York Jet Marvin Jones is the head coach of the IFL’s Tulsa Oilers while previously Super Bowl visitors and accomplished turn-of-the century names Tim Brown and Jeff Fisher respectively lead The Arena League and Arena Football One as commissioners.
It’s obviously far from a perfect system, as the talent and budgets behind such indoor squads certainly leaves plenty to be desired. But if playing indoors is meant to be the great equalizer its proponents herald it as, why wouldn’t they go to see football played in its supposedly purest form?
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
