Editor's Note: I'm glad I'm my own editor.
You know when the NFL should cancel games?
When the President is shot.
(The NFL played on when JFK was assassinated. Bad call by the NFL.)
A 9/11 Level Tragedy
(The NFL cancelled the games immediately following 9/11. Good call by the NFL.)
Other than those 2 examples, the NFL should always play. Period. The NFL is a violent sport, played by violent men, under any conditions.
Well, except--
Waaaahhhh! Too Much Snow:
Browns at Bills 11/20/22 - Moved to Detroit
Jets at Bills 11/19/14 - Moved to Detroit
Waaaahhhh! A Hurricane:
Patriots at Dolphins 9/6/92 - Hurricane Andrew caused the game to be postponed a month.
Titans at Dolphins 9/12/04 - Incoming Hurricane Ivan caused the game to be moved up a day.
Waaaahhhh! The Field is Too Wet:
Chiefs at Rams 11/19/18 in Mexico City - Torrential Rains made the field "unplayable." Game moved to Los Angeles.
Waaaahhhh! The Air is Too Smoky:
Dolphins at Chargers 10/25/03 - Game moved from California to Tempe, Arizona due to air quality associated with the Cedar Fire.
Waaaahhhh! The Pope is Coming
Eagles at Redskins, Redskins at Eagles 10/21/79 - Game was flip-flopped due to a visit from the Pope-
"Fred Hunt, you're awful cold today. WTF?"
Here's the deal. I really do understand why the NFL moved the game from Buffalo to Detroit, I'm just being a smart ass. But there's an underlying current that I want to point out here. I heard on 3 different Sports Talk Radio shows that the NFL could be sued if a Buffalo fan or vendor died trying to get out to the stadium. Technically a fan or a vendor could die on the trek from their home to the stadium at any time.
But the game was seemingly moved not so much for safety, but for the fear of litigation.
And the more I thought about it, the more it bothered me.
I'm not up to speed on the rules of rugby, I don't know how someone doesn't die every week in that sport. If you asked me the most dangerous (mainstream) sport, I would probably say rugby.
The point is, if you watch rugby and don't know the rules of the sport, it just looks like a bunch of guys trying to injure each other and step on one another.
Same thing with the NFL. Because I grew up watching football, I know the nuances and the subtleties of the sport, even if the Cleveland Browns aren't good at them. For someone not familiar with the NFL, they are probably amazed that players aren't carried off on stretchers on every play.
Bottom line, the NFL manages the violence that they market to fans. Their business model is violence. Whenever they cite safety, it is laughable. If the NFL was really worried about safety, they would address these 2 critical issues regarding player safety:
Why is the average players' lifespan 20 years shorter than the average American's?
Why do 99% of NFL players have CTE post-mortem?
If the NFL's angle is that players are trading years off their life for money, that's awful cold. Maybe they should just admit that. And worrying about people dying en route to Highmark Stadium seems like a public relations ploy more than anything. To me, the NFL looks like a company that doesn't care about its workers and only cares about its customers enough so they don't sue them.
"Hey stupid Fred Hunt, you just described every company in America."
Yeah.....