DALLAS - Greetings from Nome, Alaska.
OK, it just feels that way.
When you think of Super Bowls, your first thought isn't cold, snow and ice, but that's the reality of Super Bowl XLV right now. It's, as Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas said at a press conference Thursday, "as cold as hell here.''
The temperature was in the single digits Thursday, factoring in wind chill. Even Fergie wore a jacket.
It's really a shame the cold weather has become a big issue for what's supposed to be a week of fun for fans. After spending just one day here, it's evident the Super Bowl XLV planning committee was not well prepared for the winter blast Texas received earlier this week.
The Dallas Love Field Airport on Wednesday night was a scene of chaos with travelers searching through piled-up luggage, and people waiting in long lines for taxi cabs and shuttles.
"It's never like this,'' a Dallas-area native said. "It's because of that football game.''
After being re-routed a few times on my trip on Wednesday due to canceled and delayed flights, I was so happy to be in the Super Bowl city I wanted to kiss the ground on my arrival. But I may have gotten stuck to the ice-covered sidewalk.
Even the media hotel is cold. Many media members are complaining about how they can't get their rooms warm, and you have to wear a coat while walking through the lobby to get to the media center.
Not many people are on the streets downtown, either. If it weren't for Super Bowl decorations, such as the big Troy Polamalu/Aaron Rodgers poster on the Omni Hotel building, you may mistake this city for Detroit.
But at least in Detroit they know how to deal with this type of weather and embraced the cold weather during the week of Super Bowl XL in 2006. Here, they throw sand on the ice, they had to borrow snow plows, and on a trip to Fort Worth Thursday for Steelers interviews, Tom Landry Highway was speckled with cars that had slid off the freeway onto the side of the road.
For some reason, I don't recall J.R. Ewing shoveling snow out at Southfork Ranch. And the Cowboys never had to play a home game during a winter storm, right?
Actually, the Cowboys did when Leon Lett foolishly pounced on a live ball against the Miami Dolphins many years ago and ended up losing the game for the Cowboys. But that game was in the recently-imploded Texas Stadium, which wasn't a dome.
The roof in the elaborate Cowboys Stadium in Arlington will be closed on Sunday for the game between the Steelers and the Green Bay Packers, so weather will not affect the actual game.
They won't have to play on a frozen tundra, which the Steelers and Packers probably wouldn't mind.
So, really, the cold weather is just a minor inconvenience. The temperatures are supposed to rise by Saturday, and all of the snow and ice will most certainly be gone, anyway.
But the next three Super Bowls could all be under the same weather watch as this one, with the games being played in Indianapolis, New Orleans and New York.
I guess a Super Bowl trip is no longer a definite winter break for fans in the Northeast. Whatever happened to Miami, San Diego and Phoenix?
Buck Frank can be reached at 946-7461 or bfrank@altoonamirror.com.
