Carolina Panthers: A Winter Wonderland?
The conditions and not the football have been the major discussion in the lead up to the Carolina Panthers taking on the Arizona Cardinals.
The Carolina Panthers will take the field this evening to face the Arizona Cardinals in the NFC Championship Game. The run up to the game has had the same quiet storylines, people are still not comfortable with the Panthers or people have given up and just bought in. Yet the major story line going into tonight’s game is the weather.
In fact it is the environmental conditions that have dominated this playoff matchup. While the other game is Manning vs Brady 39: To Be Settled in Barcelona, the Panthers-Cardinals game has been the story of snow falls and field conditions. How are the Panthers working to get the field ready? Would the Cardinals be able to fly into the city?
The week started with a move of gamesmanship by the Seattle Seahawks. Having lost to the Panthers in the divisional round, the Seahawks identified the field as the culprit and sent information to the Cardinals equipment staff on what kind of cleats to wear. This was remarkable to me since the Seahawks and Cardinals are supposed to be divisional rivals. Does that mean the Seahawks see the Panthers as a bigger rival than their main divisional competition?
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So with the field under question, the obvious thing to do was to drop snow on it. So the snow fell for the last two days at certain points. The stadium staff cleared the field and covered it with a tarp. They got some assistance from some Charlotte Motor Speedway folks to get that done. Then the tarp was removed Saturday for the field to air out.
Then the issue became plane travel. No fear for the Cardinals did arrive yesterday afternoon in the Queen City. Coach Bruce Arrians lamented the fact that few Cardinals fans would be able to travel to the game. That is true, though I wonder how many visiting fans would have been able to find tickets if they had come.
So the field is set. The Cardinals are here. The Seahawks are on the couch. The weather will still be cold, just not freezing when the game starts. The Carolina Panthers are still holding Jared Allen out of the game. Kickoff is at 6:40 PM.