ATLANTA – A few of us boarded the first media bus to get to the Rams news conference Thursday morning. The bus driver, a woman working for the NFL and a couple of older writers began chatting.
They complained about the 20-something temperatures in Atlanta. And you know what came next.
"At least we're not in Minnesota," the woman said. "I don't think they should ever have the Super Bowl anywhere it's cold."
Atlanta was unusually cold earlier this week. Temperatures have risen to highs in the 40s and 50s the past couple of days. Whether it was cold or warm this week, the end of every weather-related sentence around the Super Bowl this week seems to be " ... at least it's not Minneapolis."
There is another sentence you hear often about the Minneapolis Super Bowl: "Minneapolis did a great job ... considering."
The Super Bowl is a massive corporate event fans can attend if they are rich, or if they are willing to go into debt. They arrive at the Super Bowl site hoping to find a sense of place, a place to party, and a place where they can walk around without their face hurting.
That's why the best solution to windchill at Super Bowl cities is also one that will never happen:
The NFL should refurbish the gawd-awful Superdome and hold every Super Bowl in New Orleans, the greatest convention, food, entertainment, party, street music and Super Bowl city in America.
The league won't do this because it doesn't want to spend its money that way, and because it likes having cities compete for the Super Bowl by building new stadiums.
But this would be the right thing to do — for fans, sponsors and the great, battered city of New Orleans.
JIM SOUHAN