Fans of the Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers were upset Saturday afternoon after New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced a travel ban starting Saturday night at 9 PM in Erie County. Hochul made a joint decision with the NFL and the Buffalo Bills to postpone the Bills Wild Card matchup to Monday afternoon.
Travel will be extremely dangerous in Western New York tonight. A full travel ban starts at 9pm in Erie County.
Even if snow is not falling, stay home & don’t try to drive. Snow can pick up in an instant & create whiteout conditions.
Get essentials now before snow starts.— Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) January 13, 2024
The weather conditions are expected to be too dangerous to travel on Sunday afternoon when the game was originally scheduled. The NFL had been monitoring the weather in Buffalo this week but determined Friday afternoon they wanted to keep the kickoff at its original scheduled time of 1 PM Sunday.
The travel ban killed that idea.
Buffalo Bills fans react to Hochul’s travel ban
Many NFL fans were upset by the “soft” decision of Hochul and the NFL to make a schedule change for weather, especially since the “dangerously cold” Kansas City Chiefs game is still scheduled for Saturday night. Fans have been messaging me all week that the league doesn’t historically make changes in the playoffs due to cold and snowy weather.
That’s not true.
Per the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the first-ever playoff game was moved indoors because of wintery conditions:
“From the start of the National Football League in 1920, each season’s champion was determined based on the regular season standings. Then in 1932, the Portsmouth Spartans and the Chicago Bears finished their regularly scheduled games tied for first place. So, for the first time in NFL history, a one-game playoff was staged on Dec. 18, 1932, to determine the league champion.
A blizzard with deep snow and sub-zero wind chill blew into Chicago and made it impossible to play the game at Wrigley Field. So, the game was moved indoors to Chicago Stadium and played on a modified field — only 80 yards long and 30 feet narrower. The end zones were not regulation size and the sidelines butted up against the stands.”
Regardless of the true tradition about the NFL rescheduling games due to frosty fields, fans went after Hochul hard on social media Saturday afternoon. Many fans called her a “communist” and “radical” for the travel ban. Here is a small sample of the vigor Hochul received on Saturday.
Doubling down on tyranny.
— Meredith (@Opportunitweet) January 13, 2024
Nobody would have died had this travel ban not been implement.
“Governor” Hochul is another radical Democrat who wants to her 15 minutes of fame by ruining #football weekend by canceling the Steelers-Bills game.#NFL #NFLX #BillsvsSteelers #Steelers #Bills #NFLTwitter
— George (@anaveragegeorge) January 13, 2024
Good thing we got the government to tell us where & when we can travel.
Where would we be without @KathyHochul to tell us what is 'extremely dangerous'
These are the same people who said the 'vaccine' was SAFE & EFFECTIVE https://t.co/8MdC8nys0z
— Carl Anderson 🍉 – A Walk in the Woods (@Carl_3rdgenvet) January 13, 2024
50 people died in Buffalo last year in these types of conditions. You really think Kathy Hochul wants that to happen again?
— aimee louise (@AimeeAg9541) January 13, 2024
Kathy hochul is a communist dictator
— Bob Bobberson (@Bobberson2_0) January 13, 2024
Commie pig
— Rev (@reverendbob716) January 13, 2024
Why do you hate football and freedom of choice?
— Florida Dad (@FloridadadD) January 13, 2024
Kathy Hochul is a communist.
— TinyToothDoc 🦷 (@ToothDocDMD) January 13, 2024
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