Eagles-Giants players won’t have to worry about wind at the Linc — or snowballs
Playing conditions should be excellent, and at least Giants players won't have to worry about being pelted by snowballs.
One thing can be stated for certain about Saturday night’s playoff game at Lincoln Financial Field: Eagles’ fans will not be pelting Giants’ players with snowballs.
Nothing should be falling from the skies, with forecast precipitation probabilities near absolute zero. And neither Jalen Hurts, nor Giants’ quarterback Daniel Jones, nor the kickers need worry about winds, which will be negligible, said Mike Lee, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mount Holly.
“Lucky for us we have nice high-pressure system right over our heads,” he said. “We do our best.”
Neither Hurts nor Jones need worry about getting slammed into a frozen turf, and should anything accidentally eject from beverage containers employed by tailgaters or fans, it‘s not going to freeze.
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That said, Saturday will be in the running for the coldest day of the month so far. Talk about a low bar.
Daytime temperatures Saturday for tailgaters are expected to be mostly in the low 40s, falling into the mid-30s during the game.
All thermal comfort being relative, that might feel colder than the raw numbers would suggest.
Temperatures this month have been running an astonishing 10-plus degrees above normal, closer to where they should be in late fall. Based on hourly climate data, readings have been above freezing nearly 95% of the time during what on average is the coldest month of the year around here.
We won’t bother to mention snow, since there has been none to mention.
Given the fact that fan emotions could approach an overdrive state, it’s probably just as well that snow won’t be a factor.
You’ve probably heard stories about two historic snowball incidents at Eagles’ home games. They are true. Two is indeed a small number, but, having enough snow to roll into projectiles during an Eagles’ home game would be somewhere between infrequent and rare.
The football season doesn’t coincide with Philly’s peak snow periods, and it doesn’t snow all that often anyway. On average, snow of an inch or more accumulates on only one day in December in the city.
Fans did throw snowballs at “Santa Claus” at halftime of the game on Dec. 15, 1968, after just under 3 inches of snow had fallen. Actually, recalled the man wearing the Santa suit, they were at first aiming for the coach of a wretched Eagles team that had started the season 0-11, and then redirected their fire at him.
» READ MORE: Yes, Eagles's fans really did hurl snowballs at 'Santa'
And on Dec. 10, 1989, two days after a snowfall, fans at Veterans Stadium hurled snowballs at players, officials, TV crew members, and the coach of a terrible 1-13 Dallas Cowboys team.
» READ MORE: Don't miss this classic account of Ed Rendell and snowball-gate of 1989
It was so bad that the Eagles banned alcohol from the stadium. Former Philadelphia District Attorney and future Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell later admitted he paid a guy $20 to launch a snowball toward the field that the hurler said landed at the feet of a back judge who earlier got whacked in the head.
No worries on Saturday, Giants, at least about the weather.