Don't count on Super Bowl XLVIII being played as scheduled Feb. 2. NFL officials have a plan in place to change the league championship game's date and time, if necessary.
Why? Because of the element everyone feared when word came down the Super Bowl would be played at MetLife Stadium: winter weather.
According to the Weather Underground, the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks could be in for a difficult night. Kickoff is scheduled to 6:30 p.m. ET, when the temperature likely will be around freezing with sleet adding to the misery.
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Knowing the potential for problems, CBS Denver reports, league officials have alternatives. If forced, they could push the Super Bowl back one day. Kickoff also could be moved up 24 hours. Whether they will, disrupting teams' preparation and, more importantly, television plans, remains to be seen.
This wasn't a problem until NFL officials bit on playing the game in America's largest market. They waived rules that said outdoor Super Bowls must be held in cities with an average game-day temperature no lower than 50.
East Rutherford isn't Pasadena, Miami or Phoenix. Cold was expected; good weather was the hope.
As for a week from Sunday, the Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., reports: "The exact forecast remains something of a crapshoot." It cites meteorologist reports saying snow is possible, cold will remain and a winter storm could hit.
Other reports stayed pretty close to the freezing temperatures, with snow, rain and wind as wild cards.
Nobody expected this Super Bowl would be played in tropical weather. And yet, it was hoped the championship game wouldn't be a repeat of the legendary Ice Bowl in Green Bay, where the Packers defeated the Dallas Cowboys on the Lambeau Field tundra.
Super Bowl XLVIII, it seems, will be played in conditions more suited for the Canadian Football League's Grey Cup.
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