As magical as the Steelers Super Bowl XL victory was for me (it is my favorite championship of all-time), it just seemed a little off to watch the team take on the Seattle Seahawks in Detroit at Ford Field. All my years growing up watching and re-watching old Super Bowls played in places like the Los Angeles Coliseum, the Miami Orange Bowl, and the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, I always dreamed of the Steelers hoisting their fifth Lombardi trophy in a sunny climate with a cool, tropical breeze blowing around the confetti they always shoot off right after the Super Bowl ends.
Don’t get me wrong, the “Ride the Bus to Detroit” rally-cry made for a great story, and if I had to re-write the script, I wouldn’t have changed a thing. Jerome Bettis retiring as a Super Bowl winner in his hometown? You just can’t get any better than that.
And in-terms of travel for Steelers Nation, it was just about the most accessible Super Bowl you could possibly imagine. Steelers fans booked rooms in every hotel from Detroit to Toledo, and if you remember Super Bowl XL, it was probably 85% Steelers fans in attendance. That’s why I thought it would have been awesome if the Steelers made it to Super Bowl XVLI since it is being held at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis–another one of those “cold weather cities,” and another very accessible site for Steeler Nation.
All that aside, however, I still prefer to see the Super Bowl played in a warm-weather region, and preferably outdoors.
To me, the Super Bowl is a national holiday, and the people who are lucky enough to attend should be able to bask in the sun and treat it like a vacation; really live it up and party, ya know? Can you really party in Detroit or Indianapolis?
In two years, the Super Bowl will not only be in a Northern city, it will be outdoors at the new MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
There’s obviously a pretty decent chance that the weather will be cold and snowy, and, yes, it would hearken back to the days of old when NFL Championship games were held in places like Lambeau Field in Green Bay and Soldier Field in Chicago, but I wonder if the NFL is prepared for any sort of backlash that could result from some really bad weather.
Remember last year when severe weather conditions in Dallas caused problems for people in the days and even hours leading up to Super Bowl XLV between the Steelers and Packers? And that game was played in a dome. Imagine the problems if it would have been an outdoor event?
If I had my way, I would rotate the Super Bowl between venues in Florida, California, Texas (last season aside), Arizona and, of course, New Orleans (yes, it would be played in a dome, but being able to party for a week or two in that city would more than make up for it).
Oh well, beggars can’t be choosers, and to paraphrase former Steelers lineman Flozell “The Hotel” Adams, they could play the Super Bowl in Siberia, and it still would be awesome.
What about you? Do you care where they play the Super Bowl? Have you ever been to one, and is it more fun to have one in a warm weather city?
Source: Behind the Steel Curtain
