The nation’s most popular sports league kicks off tomorrow night, with an NBC primetime clash featuring the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles.

The National Football League, spanning from September to February, features games all across the country and over several different seasons. From the humid, tropical Floridian summers to the barren Green Bay winters, sometimes the weather might act as another force on the field.

With so much weather possible on the field, how can teams adapt to rain, snow, wind, and more?

 

 

Rainy days can be a bummer for anybody, but soggy conditions can have a game-altering impact on the gridiron. Wet weather can impact both the player and the field, making it easier for players to slip while running routes or in coverage. Gripping the ball can also be a challenge. Snaps can be botched, catches can be dropped, and quarterbacks’ throws can be messed up by something as simple as a slipped grip. Across the board, less emphasis is placed on quarterbacks, and more strategy is put into running the ball and “winning the trenches”.

 

 

These issues only get more prominent during snowfall. Due to the flakes’ color and size, visibility can drop heavily. Long passes downfield would be illogical to make, and kickoffs are harder to field. For kickers, especially, snow games are tough to manage because field goals become hard to kick through the thick layer of snow on the ground. Compared to rain games, snow games feature even less scoring and more prominence on the run game.

Precipitation aside, extreme temperatures on their own can have a greater impact on the individual rather than the game. In the dead of winter, any physical activity outside can be particularly taxing on the muscles, which can become tight. Tight muscles limit movement, grip strength, and flexibility. This increases injury risk. Safety mechanisms within an athlete’s equipment, such as the helmet and pads, can also be more brittle. Due to this, injury rates have been shown to increase in brutally cold weather.

 

 

Warm weather can also impact the athlete. With high temperatures and high humidity, fatigue can come much quicker, necessitating rest. Athletes can become dehydrated quickly and need cool air after intense physical activity on the field. While weather typically bodes poorly for on-field activity, kicking can actually get a boost in particularly hot weather, because air becomes less dense. Kickoff temperatures in the 80s played a small part in a historically long 70-yard field goal that Jacksonville Jaguars kicker Cam Little punched in during the preseason.

 

 

Some of the craziest football moments have come in high-wind events, from poor punts to wacky field goals. Long-distance plays become a game of chance, with swirling winds within the stadium blowing passes in several different directions while in the air. Chicago, hence its nickname, tends to be quite windy, with winds coming off Lake Michigan. In any windy game scenario, long passing plays tend to get axed in favor of conservative, strategic run plays.

 

 

While snowfall is special to anyone watching the game, it will by far produce the sloppiest type of football- hard, physical run places with the added chance for turnovers and fumbles. As you may have thought, “no weather” is the best weather for athletes to play a game. Temperatures in the “goldilocks” area between the low fifties and upper sixties are cool enough to prevent constant sweating, but warm enough to keep muscles loose. Light winds and a slim threat for rain additionally limit any crazy scenarios from unfolding.

The NFL season kicks off tomorrow, September 4th, at 8:20 pm on 21 WFMJ.