A blizzard in the Midwest has prevented the New York Giants from reaching Minneapolis today. The Giants are scheduled to play the Minnesota Vikings at 1 p.m. ET Sunday.
The Giants got as far as Kansas City before blizzard conditions forced them to stop. That is where they will spend the evening, according to a report from the Star-Ledger’s Mike Garafolo.
The plan is still for a 1 p.m. ET kickoff, even the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport is currently closed and the Giants will apparently have to fly in from Kansas City in the morning. Provided, of course, that the airport opens.
Via NFL.com, here are some of the rules regarding weather.
If, because of an emergency, a regular-season or postseason game is not started at its scheduled time and cannot be played at any later time that same day, the game nevertheless must be played on a subsequent date to be determined by the Commissioner.
If an emergency threatens to occur during the playing of a game (for example, an incoming tropical storm), the starting time of the game will not be moved to an earlier time unless there is clearly sufficient time to make an orderly change.
All games that are suspended temporarily and resumed on the same day, and all suspended games that are postponed to a later date, will be resumed at the point of suspension. On suspension, the referee will call timeout and make a record of the following: team possessing the ball, direction in which its offense was headed, position of the ball on the field, down, distance, period, time remaining in the period, and any other pertinent information required for an orderly and equitable resumption of play.
For regular-season postponements, the Commissioner will make every effort to set the game for no later than two days after its originally scheduled date and at the same site. If unable to schedule at the same site, he will select an appropriate alternative site. If it is impossible to schedule the game within two days after its original date, the Commissioner will attempt to schedule it on the Tuesday of the next calendar week. The Commissioner will keep in mind the potential for competitive inequities if one or both of the involved clubs has already been scheduled for a game close to the Tuesday of that week (for example, a Thursday game).
At this point, no one even knows for sure if the Giants can get to Minneapolis on time for a 1 p.m. kickoff. The other question, of course, is whether or not it’s even fair — or safe — to ask them to try.
We will have more on this as it develops.