In a scene reminiscent from several winters ago, the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills will play a regular season game at Detroit’s Ford Field field after a severe lake-effect snowstorm punished Buffalo and surrounding areas.
Sources tell me the game will be Monday between the Jets and Bills in Detroit #NFL #Bills #Jets #buffalosnow
— Dianna Russini (@diannaESPN) November 20, 2014
The team’s home base in Orchard Park has been blanketed by more than 5 feet of snow since Monday. Snow continued to fall on Thursday, with projected accumulations ranging between 1 and 3 feet.
Earlier in the day, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said it would be impractical for the game to be played on schedule.
The snow also has affected the Bills preparations after the team canceled practice for a second straight day.
NFL games have moved to neutral cities before because of natural disasters.
Per The Big Lead
In 2010, the Minnesota Vikings had three different games impacted by weather. First, the home game against the Giants was originally moved from Sunday to Monday night, December 13th, because of a snowstorm, and when the Metrodome Roof collapsed because of the snow, it was also then moved to Detroit. The next week, the Monday night home game against Chicago was played at the University of Minnesota because of the Metrodome collapse. Then, the road game in Philadelphia was moved to Tuesday, December 28th because of a blizzard in Philadelphia.
In 2008, the week 2 home game for the Houston Texans against the Baltimore Ravens had to be moved because of damage from Hurricane Ike. The NFL gave both teams a bye, moved a game that was scheduled for November 9th between Cincinnati and Houston to October 26th, when both those teams had a bye scheduled, and played the Baltimore-Houston game on November 9th, when Baltimore originally had a bye.
The 2005 game with Kansas City traveling to Miami was moved up to Friday night, October 21st, in anticipation of Hurricane Wilma hitting Florida on Sunday.
Of course, that wasn’t the biggest hurricane impact that year. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Saints had the first home game moved to New York against the Giants, and then played subsequent home games in Baton Rouge and San Antonio for the rest of the season because of damage to the SuperDome.
In 2003, a Monday night game between San Diego and Miami was moved to Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona becausee of the California wildfires.
In 1992, the New England Patriots-Miami Dolphins season opener had to be moved because of cleanup efforts after Hurricane Andrew. The game was moved to October 18th, when both teams had an originally scheduled bye week.
In 1989, the October 22nd San Francisco home game against the Patriots was moved to Palo Alto and played in Stanford Stadium because of the Bay Area Earthquake.
