Weather. The Great Equalizer

Right. Because the receivers know where they're going and the slipping-and-sliding DBs dont.

 

Wind affects the passing game more than rain.

 

Weather does have an impact, but it's hard to say how. I've seen rain games where the losing team said the rain impacted them because it negated their speed. I've seen rain games where losing teams said it impacted them because the slippery field made it hard to keep up with the faster players on the other team. I know I've seen games where the field gets churned up between the hashmarks and speed-based line players became useless because it was just a mosh pit in there.

Oh, and cold can be a story. I remember covering a I-AA playoff game where it was FREEZING cold. Here's the catch: the home team was from the deep south, the visiting team from the mountains. The visiting team was used to the weather and looked comfortable. The home team looked absolutely miserable.

Another game, opposite effect. It's hot. Damn hot. Southern team and northern team play a close first half. In this stadium, players have to climb either stairs or a grassy embankment to get to the locker room. At half, the southern team ran up the embankment, looking fresh. The northern players struggled up the hill, several stopping for air. They were spent. You knew the game was over at that point. And it was.

 

Should weather be mentioned if the game's played in a dome?

 

I believe the Astros had a game rained-in during either the '70s or '80s. The teams were at the Astro Dome, but the umpires couldn't get there because of a massive rain storm, so the game was postponed.

 

Here's one to consider if weather has to be mentioned:
I was covering a high school game on a Friday night that started clear, but around the second quarter a fog rolled in, and the players were barely visible from the press box. By the second half, though, the fog had rolled off.
There's no way I could have kept that out of the story, is there (by the way -- and I'm not lying about this one bit -- this actually happened on Friday the 13th)?

 

Yeah, Steak ... it looked a lot like that.

 

Tim Brando says yes.

 

Rain definitely has an effect, and it doesn't have to be just in the passing game. I'm covering a league championship tomorrow, and one team runs a shotgun, five-wide set (yuck for rain) and the other runs a shotgun, spread option that's 80 percent run. And that's not fun to run in the rain, either.

The shotgun, spread team played a game in the rain earlier in the year and its offense was crippled. They played a dive-option team that wasn't nearly as good as them, and the dive-option team won the game with solid fullback play.

So yes, weather matters sometimes.

 

Rain can definitely be a factor, especially in high school. Count the number of mishandled snaps. You'll usually have a couple on either side in a rain game. Even if they're not turnovers, they often come into play by killing drives.

 

Jim Cantore, Dick Clark and Christiane Amanpour would like a word out in the hall.