Steelers Chiefs game being rescheduled due to weather

[Retro Rider]

There was no scheduling change made. The 12/27/77 Dallas Morning News said that the Broncos-Raiders game would be played starting at noon because "the NFL feared extremely low temperatures as well as snow and wind might become too great a factor with a late game at Mile High Stadium." There was no report at the time of weather like that arriving, and with 20-20 hindsight, they wouldn't have had an issue had they had Oakland-Denver as the late game.

Considering the probability of New Year's Eve hangovers (i.e. the Tooz) a later start might have benifited Oakland. They started slow, but came on late in typical Raider fashion. Then their defense runs out of gas in the final three minutes as the Broncos rush for a pair of first downs to run out the clock.

[jeckle_and_heckle]

One gets the feeling this is actually an excuse for NBC to air the game in prime time.

This is the only thought I had when I saw the announcement this morning.

My first thought was the ice storm. It's not like the NFL and network tv has ever needed an excuse to schedule prime time games. But no; got to be a conspiracy.

[ChrisBabcock]

As for the '77 playoffs, the weekend prior to the CCs included another oddity with the first two divisional-round games (both AFC) being on Saturday with the other two (NFC) being two days later on Monday due to Christmas being in-between.

This was the only time each conference had its divisional round games on the same day, instead of one on each day of the weekend. Makes sense since then each winner would have that same amount of days rest before the championship game.

[Rupert Patrick]

Oh, ok, wasn't sure of the details. Heard of it a while back, most-likely on this site. As for the '77 playoffs, the weekend prior to the CCs included another oddity with the first two divisional-round games (both AFC) being on Saturday with the other two (NFC) being two days later on Monday due to Christmas being in-between.

This was intentionally done because Christmas in 1977 fell on a Sunday, and the NFL did not want to olay on Christmas, which meant two Divisional Playoff games Saturday (the 24th) and two Divisional games Monday (the 26th). They also did not want to give the NFC and AFC winners on Saturday a two-day advantage over the teams who won Monday's games that they would have to face in the following week's Conference Championship game, so they held both AFC games on Christmas Eve and the NFC games on the day after Christmas. This way both AFC teams who won (Denver and Oakland) had the same amount of time to prepare for their Championship game, same for NFC teams (Dallas and Minnesota), although the NFC teams had two days less or preparation time than the AFC teams did.

The NFL did the same thing in 1983 when Christmas fell on a Sunday, which was Wild Card weekend. The AFC game between Denver and Seattle was on Christmas eve Saturday while the NFC game between Dallas and LA was held on Monday the day after Christmas. In seasons after that where Sunday and Christmas intersected, it fell in the regular season and the NFL shifted most of the games to Christmas Eve Saturday and had only one or two on Christmas Day Sunday like they did in 2016.

[Rupert Patrick]

One gets the feeling this is actually an excuse for NBC to air the game in prime time.

This is the only thought I had when I saw the announcement this morning.

My first thought was the ice storm. It's not like the NFL and network tv has ever needed an excuse to schedule prime time games. But no; got to be a conspiracy.

After thinking about this, I believe we might have seen the last of the 1PM playoff games. Starting next season, I expect we will have prime time games on Saturday AND Sunday night for the Wild Card and Divisional games, and keep the Conference Championships at 3:30 and 6:30 Eastern like they currently do.

Which brings me to another semi-related question I have always had concerning Super Bowl XXXVI being moved into February because of 9/11 which bumped the playoffs a week forward. After this happened, the NFL moved all future Super Bowls into the first Sunday in February. Was this already scheduled to happen with Super Bowl XXXVII (Bucs vs. Raiders) and Super Bowl XXXVI between the Patriots and Rams was supposed to be the final Super Bowl to be held in late January, or did the NFL realize it made more sense just to push the game into the first week of February? I believe the date of the future Super Bowl games are made public when they award the locations of the games, and that would have meant moving the dates of the future Super Bowls.

[74_75_78_79_]

Starting the season the 2nd Sunday of September instead of Labor Day weekend (to avoid bad ratings) assists in the now-February SB. But, then again, the '03 season started Sept 4th yet the Pats & Panthers played on Feb 1st anyway. As with championship games starting at 1 & 4 EST respectively, I also miss the January SB. Football season that starts in the fall should be over by February.

[BD Sullivan]

Football season that starts in the fall should be over by February.

But then the network broadcasting the game wouldn't be able to exploit the fact that the game was played during a Sweeps period.

The 1988 Wild Card games were also sandwiched around Christmas: the Browns and Oilers had their rematch in Cleveland on the 24th and the Rams and Vikes played on the 26th. The following year, the NFL finally relented on their unofficial Christmas Day ban by playing a MNF game (Cincy at Minnesota) and the holiday hasn't stopped them since. Of course, they don't dare start a game until late afternoon for fear of outraging religious groups, etc.

[James]

With Sunday's Steelers Chiefs game being moved from the early Sunday spot to 830 PM Sunday due to an ice storm, it got me to thinking, is this the first time a postseason game has moved due to weather? If the weather is going to be so bad in KC at 1PM, why wouldn't they postpone the game until Monday, instead of playing the game seven hours later so those who attend have to drive home in dark and cold as the ice probably isn't going to melt much between the early afternoon and the evening hours. One gets the feeling this is actually an excuse for NBC to air the game in prime time.

Okay, the game was supposed to be noon Central time, 1:00 PM Eastern time on CBS, so why then is the game now on NBC at 7:30 PM Central time and not on CBS like it was supposed to be originally?

[JWL]

With Sunday's Steelers Chiefs game being moved from the early Sunday spot to 830 PM Sunday due to an ice storm, it got me to thinking, is this the first time a postseason game has moved due to weather? If the weather is going to be so bad in KC at 1PM, why wouldn't they postpone the game until Monday, instead of playing the game seven hours later so those who attend have to drive home in dark and cold as the ice probably isn't going to melt much between the early afternoon and the evening hours. One gets the feeling this is actually an excuse for NBC to air the game in prime time.

Okay, the game was supposed to be noon Central time, 1:00 PM Eastern time on CBS, so why then is the game now on NBC at 7:30 PM Central time and not on CBS like it was supposed to be originally?

It was always a NBC game. The Michaels-Collinsworth-Tafoya-Cox crew is doing the game.

[James]

With Sunday's Steelers Chiefs game being moved from the early Sunday spot to 830 PM Sunday due to an ice storm, it got me to thinking, is this the first time a postseason game has moved due to weather? If the weather is going to be so bad in KC at 1PM, why wouldn't they postpone the game until Monday, instead of playing the game seven hours later so those who attend have to drive home in dark and cold as the ice probably isn't going to melt much between the early afternoon and the evening hours. One gets the feeling this is actually an excuse for NBC to air the game in prime time.

Okay, the game was supposed to be noon Central time, 1:00 PM Eastern time on CBS, so why then is the game now on NBC at 7:30 PM Central time and not on CBS like it was supposed to be originally?

It was always a NBC game. The Michaels-Collinsworth-Tafoya-Cox crew is doing the game.

Really? Wow did not know that. I just assumed that it was on CBS at noon as the Packers-Cowboys game is on FOX like a typical Sunday.