Too Cold for a Super Bowl Halftime Show?

It's never too early to start talking about Super Bowl XLVIII, right? It's a pretty significant one. The first time the NFL will play on of the biggest games on the sports world's calendar in a cold climate in an open-air stadium.

Since the announcement, there have been grumblings about playing a football game in the Meadowlands in early February. The weather could be 50 degrees and sunny or 10 degrees and snowy in the New York City area.

The game has evolved into a week long event that includes media day, the host city's economy gets a nice jump, all leading up to the big event on Sunday. The pregame, the actual game, and the halftime show. Oh wait! The halftime show.

Today, reports surfaced that the NFL was having doubts about being able to put on a halftime show in next years Super Bowl. You know Beyonce wouldn't be wearing that outfit she wore Sunday if she performed at Super Bowl XLVIII. A heavy jacket, pants and boots would be a proper and warmer attire for New Jersey in February.

The league realized today that it might be hard to book a performer with the catch that it might be mild or really cold on Super Bowl Sunday. Now, I know that there are some groups that don't mind performing in the cold. B.E. Taylor performed the national anthem and performed at halftime when the Steelers hosted the Browns back on December 30 on a cold, snowy day. But, not all performers are like B.E. Taylor. Performers known world-wide (not a knock on B.E. Taylor) might refuse to perform in cold conditions. The crew that sets the stage for halftime could have trouble in the event of inclement weather. How did the league not think about that when they announced the game a few years ago?

The league is trying new things and is attempting to expand its biggest event to colder climates with stadiums that don't have a dome or retractable roof. Popular opinion would show that the Super Bowl should be played in a warmer climate or in an indoor stadium in a city like Minneapolis or Detroit.

The halftime show is one large part of why Super Sunday is so popular. It brings in viewers that rarely watch football, and since Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction, it gives us another talking point on Monday morning. You know Beyonce's outfit was brought up at some point the next day, along with half the lights going out at the Superdome.

A mild weekend in February is the hope of the league, and booking the performer for next year could be difficult. Maybe a local high school marching band is available? Create a "blast from the past" themed show when we remind everyone what the halftime show was like in the infant years of the Super Bowl. The University of Michigan and Ohio State marching bands can have a battle at halftime.

It's a test by the NFL that may result in a few bad marks, and it may not happen again. But hey, wasn't it a risk by the league to play a championship game against the old American Football League at the L.A. Coliseum on two TV networks in front of a crowd that filled only two-thirds of the stadium? Maybe almost 50 years later, the big game changes again?   

If you're gonna play any game in a climate like that, make it the Pro Bowl. Let's see how much these guys really want to play when you take them away from the warm, sandy beaches of Honolulu for the joke of an All Star game that it has become. Then we might take an interest in the game.