Rodgers: Green Bay weather gives us advantage

Heading into December’s slate of NFL games, the Green Bay Packers find themselves a game in front of the Detroit Lions for the NFC North division lead.

At 9-3 and coming off an impressive win over the previously hot New England Patriots on a cold evening in Green Bay, the Packers are in position to grab the division title, particularly with two of their remaining regular season games being at Lambeau Field.

One of those games, the last of the season, is against the Lions, a team that has bested the Packers earlier in the season.

The Packers, led by super quarterback Aaron Rodgers, are also fighting for home field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs. Playing in those frigid Green Bay temperatures, and especially field slick from snow and ice, gives the Packers’ offense an advantage, says Rodgers, even against other cold weather teams.

“It doesn't really matter what team comes in; there’s an advantage based on the footing and the weather,” Rodgers said this morning on ESPN’s Mike and Mike. “I’ve always found in the cold weather, it’s a little bit more difficult to rush the passer. And, the footing favors the offense because, much like on an icy field or a wet field, an offensive player knows where he’s going. You have a slight advantage there.”

We all know that from our days playing backyard football in the snow, right?

If you were running with the ball, you could easily put a move on a defender, who would have to react to your movement, and then slip right on his keister. Anyone who has experienced the joy of football in the snow with their buddies has more than likely been on both ends of that scenario.

OK. Back to Rodgers. He briefly mentioned the effect cold temps can have on the ball, saying “the cold weather does some different things to the football, and if you’re not used to that it can bother you a little bit.”

I was hoping Professor Rodgers would delve in how the elasticity of the ball decreases in the cold. It would have been great to get a cold-weather quarterback’s insight into how the frigid temps affect his grip and the flight of the ball.

Hey, you know what. Maybe I’ll give him a call.

Stay tuned.

-- RAINOUT --

Do the Lambeau shovel

Lambeau Field webcam

It’s that time of year when lots of snow pours down on the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field and the Packers organization asks fans to come out to help shovel the seats and aisles.

With three inches of snow expected to hit Green Bay, the Packers are paying up to 650 folks 10 bucks an hour to shovel snow to prepare the stadium for Sunday’s game with the Steelers.

If you look right now at the Lambeau web cam, you can see the shovelers.

This just in: Aaron Rodgers has not been medically cleared to shovel today.

-- snow --

Rodgers Won't Blame it on the Rain... or Snow... but Maybe Wind

If the Green Bay Packers slip on their way to an undefeated season, Aaron Rodgers is not going to blame the weather.

While discussing on his radio show Tuesday a potential “recipe” for opposing teams to beat the Packers – by the way, that show is a must-listen for any football fan – the Packers’ quarterback told host Jason Wilde that “depending on the severity of the weather, it can have an impact on any game, but I think you have to factor in what opponent you‘re playing, the setting, be it home or away, those are all individual factors as well, so I don’t think you can put weather above those other factors.”

Rodgers also noted, and we hear this from players and experts about this time each year, that nasty weather and slippery fields can be helpful to offenses, a scary thought for the Packs’ remaining opponents.

“I think when you get into a field where it might not be the best footing … I don’t think you can immediately dismiss the notion that it’s going to be difficult to throw the ball,” Rodgers told Wilde. “I think you have to factor in that not only is it going to be difficult footing for the offense, but for the defense, and as the offensive player knows where he’s going, the defensive player has to react. I think that gives you a slight advantage. If you’re able to grip the ball effectively, and not have to deal with severe winds to go along with the cold conditions, I think you should have a good opportunity to throw the ball effectively.”

Rodgers should have no trouble tossing the ball around the field in snow and cold, but as he said, wind could be a problem. The Packers play on the road against the Giants this weekend, where wind typically can be a problem.

However, a quick check of the forecast calls for relatively calm winds with temperatures in the mid 50s under partly sunny skies. That sounds like a recipe for disaster for the Giants defense.

Photo: Associated Press

Yeah, It's Cold in Wisconsin

When you look at the NFL schedule and notice that the Green Bay Packers are playing on a Monday night in December, one question immediately pops to mind: Will there be snow?

According to the National Weather Service, there is a chance, a small chance, of white stuff falling on Lambeau Field. And if it does snow, no accumulation is expected.

Bummer!

However, it is Green Bay in December, so you know it’s going to be frostier than Thanksgiving dinner at Elin and Tiger’s house. At the moment, the 10-day forecast is calling for temps to dip to about 25 degrees.

Hold on.

Ok. Vince Lombardi just called and said that sounds like a heat wave.

Anyway, Tom Silverstein has a story in the Journal Sentinel today about the Packers’ remaining frostbitten schedule, which includes road games in Chicago and Pittsburgh and a game back at Lambeau against the Seahawks.

And Kevin Cowherd of The Baltimore Sun advises Ravens players to stay close to the bench heaters Monday night.

The photo above is from the AP. Thanks, guys.

Bears Heat Up in Record Cold

How cold was it in Chicago last night? Cold enough to be the coldest Bears home game since the NFL began keeping such statistics in 1963. The cold, hard facts about Monday’s night’s weather says the temperature was 2 degrees, and the wind chill made Soldier Field patrons feel as if it were minus 13 degrees as they watched the Bears slip past the Packers in overtime. The Chicago Sun-Times web site has a list today of the Bears top 5 coldest games. The Packers have been the opponent in four of those games.

Green Bay Just Got Colder

Brett Favre, who played his home games on the Frozen Tundra and once was regarded as the best ever cold-weather quarterback, called it a quits today after 17 NFL seasons that included three MVPs and a Super Bowl title. Somewhere John Madden weeps and Frank Caliendo giddily works up new comic material.

Benchgate Mystery Closed

I just got an update on the Giants cold benches situation Sunday night. Remember Pam Oliver mentioned during a sideline report that the Giants heated benches were not working and uttered the words bench gate? Holy cow! G. Gordon Liddy hates it when people suffix the name of a controversy with the word "gate." Anyway, I just read Neil Best's column in Newsday, and Best wrote that the G-Men rented high-powered heated benches for their own and the benches stopped working only momentarily. Oliver, however, never mentioned the situation again, leaving TV viewers to wonder if the Packers had pulled the plugs on the benches. (Hold on. Donovan McNabb is on the phone. What's that Donovan? No, I think Pam Oliver is a fine sideline reporter.) Anyway, the New York Post, which is still taking credit for the Giants win over the Cowboys, confirmed in a report today that Big Blue had rented four heated benches from a Cleveland construction company and the benches "malfunctioned early in the game before the situation was corrected." Mystery solved.

To Sleeve Or Not To Sleeve

Brandon Jacobs and the Giants offensive linemen made good on their promise not to wear sleeves Sunday in the NFC championship game. In case you missed it, the guys from New York – technically New Jersey – won the NFC title game over the Packers in a zero-degree contest in Green Bay. Jacobs, knowing the forecasted temperatures, said before the game that he would play sleeveless because sleeves gave him less control of holding the pigskin. He also said he would have played in -50 degree weather for a shot to play in the Super Bowl. Easy, Brandon. As you know, the famous 1967 Ice Bowl was played in -13 degrees with a wind chill of -46. One person died at that game from exposure to the extreme cold. By the way, Packers officials say that about 12-15 peopled were treated Sunday night for cold-related ailments. Back to the sleeves, no-sleeves issue: It appeared that about half the players on both teams wore sleeves.

Bikini Weather At Lambeau

I've been away from my computer for the past several days and haven't had time to post anything about the frostbitten NFC Championship game from Sunday. I wasn't at the game, but all accounts indicate it was kinda cold at Lambeau Field. The images broadcast on my TV made Lambeau look like quite a cold place to be. But don't tell that to these girls. I was warm and comfortable in my living room.

Anyway, as you know already, last week was filled with media reports about football and weather. It was nice to a point, but I have to admit that even I, a sports weather junkie, got a bit of an overdose. But I did enjoy the game and all the in-game weather talk built into the broadcast.

That reminds me, at one point there was a report from the Giants sideline about the team's heated benches not working. (I think I heard Pam Oliver toss out the word Bench-gate. Jeez!) But I never heard any more about this. I probably just missed further explanation. I did hear G-men punter Jeff Feagles this morning on some radio show (Mike and Mike or Czabe, I can't remember) talking about having heated benches. So, I'm guessing the benches eventually got some juice. If anyone knows more about this, drop me a note in the comments section.

That's it for me. Have a good day and stay warm. It's an un-Lambeau-like 36 degrees in my neighborhood.

Packers Warn Fans of Hypothermia

Packers fans are the best, aren’t they? Well, with the exception of that dude who taped a Packers jersey to his son. Anyway, Pack fans prepared Lambeau Field for Sunday's NFC title game with the New York Giants by shoveling snow out of the stands Thursday night. I guess it's that or sit on snow, right? Packers fans do this about every year, but I think this is the first time I've mentioned it here. Hell, weather is all the sports media are talking about this week, so I'm not telling you anything you haven't heard already. In the meantime, the Packers are urging fans to dress for super cold temperatures Sunday. Kickoff is scheduled for 5:42 Green Bay time and the forecast calls for a low of zero. If you need some tips as to what to wear, check here. The instructions are thorough. Below is an example. Sounds scary.

Dress appropriately: Hypothermia and frostbite can occur even without subzero temperatures. Wear loose, dry layers, but don't overdress. Give yourself the opportunity to shed layers to adjust to weather changes. Try a mix of cotton or wool underneath, with something waterproof on top.

Another Gallery Visit

Most everyone likes to watch football games played in ankle-deep snow and see the occasional tarp-whipping wind blow through a ballpark. That's one reason I started this sports weather blog. Bad weather sporting events often provide us with some uber cool images. I've mentioned a couple of times the NFL.com photo feature of bad weather football games. This week SI.com is featuring its own NFL bad weather photo gallery. SI's 12-photo gallery begins with the 1967 Ice Bowl between the Packers and Cowboys, mixes in a few other historical snowy and muddy pics and concludes with this season's snow games in Cleveland and most recent playoff contest in Green Bay. The gallery is worth clicking through as it contains a handful of shots that you normally don't see associated with these games. For example, the Ice Bowl photo is not the usual pic of Bart Starr diving for the game-winning touchdown.

Pitchers and Catchers To Follow

I mentioned below that pitchers and catchers report to spring training in about a month partly because I'm jonesing for some baseball and partly because I like searching for and posting baseball rain delay photos like the one you see here. This year I may run a pool taking bets on which MLB ballpark will suffer the first rain out. Maybe not.

Anyway, I'm still very much into the NFL playoffs and the potential for another bad weather game in Green Bay Sunday when the Packers host the New York Football Giants. I'm not sure which team I want to win, but I'll be rooting for the NFC in Super Bowl. I have a strong feeling Brett Favre and the Packers will get the job done against the G-Men and Eli Manning, who usually has trouble playing in bad weather conditions, particularly when it's windy. I think I've written about that before. Scroll down and check me on that.

T.O., Cowboys and Popcorn Sales Plummet

For all of you disappointed Cowboys fans out there who also are die-hard football fans, look at things this way: At least now you and the rest of us will have an opportunity to enjoy another cold, wintry game at Lambeau Field. Saturday's Pack win over the Seahawks provided some great images, like the one here. We hope Sunday's NFC title game will do the same. Of course the game is still a week away, but early forecasts are calling for a high of 11 degrees, a low of 8 and a 40 percent chance of precipitation when the Packers and Giants kickoff at 5:30 Green Bay time. I can't wait. Get your popcorn ready!

Performance Enhancing Pants

Seattle kicker Josh Brown will be packing heat Saturday… in his pants. Brown and the Seahawks face the Packers Saturday in the NFC divisional playoffs at Green Bay's Lambeau Field, where temperatures are expected be in the high 20s. The kicker said Wednesday on a radio show that he plans to wear the battery-operated heaters in rain pants that he normally wears on the sidelines, not in his football pants. "Not in my uniform. That would be crazy," Brown told reporters Wednesday afternoon. Brown says he's not looking to gain an advantage, just stay warm.

The Snow Has Arrived

The forecasted bad weather has arrived for today's Spy vs. Spy game in Foxbrough. Check out this photo captured at 9:26 a.m. from a Web cam inside Gillette Stadium. I don't know about you, but I'm rooting for an upset. J-E-T-S, Jets! Jets! Jets!

Speaking stadium snow captured by Web cams, Lambeau Field is banketed with white stuff this morning. Alas, the Packers are playing in the controlled climate of, uh, that dome in St, Louis, whatever it's name is. I'm rooting for the Packers, and especially Brett Favre, who is leading my fantasy team into the playoffs today.

Slacker Update

To all my loyal international readers, I apologize for being a slacker and not making many posts over the past month. It is, you know, the holiday season, and that's always a busy time.

There have been plenty of football games with rain and some with snow and ice. (Did you hear the Packers had fans shoveling snow at Lambeau Field last week? That would have been a perfect post for this blog. Oh, well.)

I didn't fell like posting photos of soggy football games just to update the blog. However, that's sort of what I'm doing today. In fact, that's exactly what I'm doing today.

The above photo is of the other football – we call it soccer here in the States – and it features Wayne Rooney of Manchester United during an EPL game with Derby County at Old Trafford Saturday. ManU won 4-0.

I promise to chime back in later with more sports/weather news. Good night, Dubai.

Battle For Weather Extremes

Tonight's the big game that could decide which team, Packers or Cowboys, gets home field advantage in the NFC Championship come Jan. 20. Much of the talk this week has been centered on, not the action on the field, but the number of American households that do not receive the NFL Network, thus leaving millions of fanatical football folks without a chance watch on their TV sets. But that's an issue for other blogs. Here, the focus is on weather. Not tonight's weather in Irving, where temps will be around 48 degrees with partly cloudy skies, but the projected weather for that late January NFC title game.

Today's Dallas Morning News provides a chart listing the record highs and record lows for both Green Bay and Irving for Jan. 20. Looking at the extremes we find that the record high for Irving is 83 degrees, set back in 1972. Ok, fine. Now the good stuff. The record low for Green Bay was a brain-numbing -25 degrees in 1985. I'm no math major, but it doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to realize that a total of 108 degrees in temperate could be on the line tonight at Texas Stadium. Quick, call your cable provider and tell them you have to have the NFL Network. And tell them Jerry Jones sent you.

Almost As If It Never Happened

I give up. Late last night I sort of promised to make mention today of the 13th anniversary of the Monday Night Football game on Halloween, 1994 in which the Packers blew past the Bears 33-6 in monsoon-like conditions at Soldier Field. And after days of searching, I can't find a single photo of the game online. As you know, a sports weather blog is useless without the visuals to drive it. I'm not sure this Internet thing is all it's cracked up to be. I do have the game on VHS tape, but it's probably still in my parents' basement. But you do remember the game, right? The weather, with gales up to 36 mph, seemed to affect the home team more than the visitors. The Bears had only 95 yards of offense through the first three quarters and didn't score until the fourth when the Packers, who had the wind at their backs for the first and third frames, had put the game out of reach. Green Bay and the driving rain also forced five turnovers out of the Bears, while the Pack had none. More than 19,000 fans who had tickets to the game opted to stay away from Soldier Field that Monday night and settle for watching from the dry cozy confines of the own living rooms – or man caves, right Ty? I wonder how many kids went trick-and-or-treating in the driving rain that night in Chicago.

Staying Alive

Wow, the clock on the wall says it’s about a half an hour from midnight, and I just realized I had not posted here today, jeopardizing my consecutive week days posting streak. It’s been a slow day, but there could be a few stories on the horizon worth keeping our weather-watching eyes open for. Tropical Storm Noel could cause some soggy conditions on college football games this weekend depending on which path she chooses to take. Also, tomorrow is Halloween and the 13th anniversary of a very soggy and windy Monday Night Football game at Soldier Field in which the Packers, wearing throwback unis, sloshed past the Bears, 33-6. I may write something about that tomorrow to commemorate the anniversary. But for today, well, this is it. I guess you could call this a throw-away post done for the sole purpose of keeping my streak live. This is the equivalent of putting Cal Ripken Jr. into a couple of innings so he could keep his games played record alive and kicking, right? Right! Good night America. You too, Istanbul (not Constantinople).

Snow Is A No Go

I'm going to be a way for a bit and I hate to leave a soccer story atop the blog. Nothing against soccer, but that last item (See below) was not the most exciting story ever posted here. With that said I'll leave you with the forecast for tonight's Monday Night Football game between the Broncos and Packers in the Mile High City. Alas, no snow… and no World Series Game 5. Skies will be partly cloudy when you tune in for kickoff tonight with low temperatures in the 50s. There's a 10 percent chance of precipitation. In other words, nothing's gonna fall from the sky except maybe a SkyCam. Oh, wait. That was NBC. Never mind.