It’s only Monday, and we’ve already found someone to replace Peyton Manning in the can’t-play-in-cold-weather narrative.
According to Jim Baumbach of Newsday, concerns about the frigid and possible snowy weather made advertisers ground one of the staples of game days — blimps.
The decision was made months ago, actually, as the giant bags of hot air (don’t pick the low hanging fruit, even if I pulled the branch down for you) usually stay in warmer climes this time of year.
Of course, the fact Super Bowls are usually in warmer climes may have made this piece of news more suprising to me than it should have been — especially since MetLife, the company with its name on the Super Bowl host stadium, owns a pair of them.
“It’s all the stuff that surrounds cold weather, the conditions that happen to make snow, ice, even rain,” spokesman Shane Winn said. “All of those things add to the risk of flying because they can add considerable weight to the airships. It makes flights treacherous. . . .
“They’re not up here. If MetLife could put its blimp up in the air here during Super Bowl week here in New York and New Jersey, we would do it.”
A Goodyear spokesman said their two blimps were in San Diego and Florida, getting aerial shots of a golf tournament and a Miami Heat game.
One of those is played inside a building. Which makes even less sense than being surprised at the lack of blimps over greater New York.