For as difficult as it is to stop looking outside out a window to watch the snow fall, the same goes for sports affected by it as well.
It creates havoc on the playing field by creating environments which can’t truly be practiced beforehand and lets athletes show off how tough they can be playing through the conditions. Never moreso than in football when the images of yard lines shoveled out and cold breaths of air at the line of scrimmage defines the winter season.
Over the next two weeks you can turn on the television and see most Olympics events play out in it, but that’s to be expected.
Seeing as several inches have hit the ground once more in our area, it feels like a good time to reflect back on some of the more memorible sporting events and moments to have taken place with the white powder falling from the sky.
Miguel Cabrera’s home run on Opening Day
Baseball and snow rarely mix, but the Detroit Tigers went on with its Opening Day game against the team formerly known as the Cleveland Indians on April 1, 2021.
As snow blew sideways, one would think seeing a white baseball thrown over 90mph in your direction by baseball’s reigning strikeout king would prove to be difficult. The way Cabrera handled his at-bat in the first inning by blasting a fastball to the opposite field for a home run shows how his vision might be better than yours or mine.
Except that Cabrera slid into second base because he couldn’t see the ball go over the wall. To be fair, it did bounce back onto the field.
Also a shoutout to one of my favorite former first-baseman J.T. Snow, because … Snow.
United States World Cup qualifier against Costa Rica
Running in the snow is a lot like trying to do so on a sandy beach. Now imagine trying to kick a ball at the same time.
That’s what American players successfully did in 2013 during a 1-0 win in Colorado to help qualify for the World Cup. The match was briefly stopped to try and clear the field in the second half, but players agreed to play out the final minutes.
The Leon Lett game
The tradition of Thanksgiving Day involves a meal with family and turning on the Dallas Cowboys afterward.
Dallas is not typically known for its snow, but the open roof at the team’s former home at Texas Stadium allowed for the turf field to be covered in 1993 against the Miami Dolphins.
Having blocked a field goal on what should have been the game-winning play, Lett instead gave the Dolphins the second chance it needed in one of the biggest gaffes in NFL history by chasing after it instead of letting it lay.
The Snow Bowl
One of the most famous Ohio State-Michigan games in the storied history of the rivalry and all of sports happened in 1950.
Players have said they were unable to see more than 15 yards in front of them. Both teams punted on first-down multiple times just to try and not make a mistake with the ball, and Michigan never gained 10 yards on a single possession.
Michigan still wound up winning 9-3 and it led to the hiring of Woody Hayes at Ohio State the next year.