Super Bowl 2013: Joe Flacco Calls Cold Weather Super Bowl “Retarded”

To quote Heath Ledger’s Joker: very poor choice of words Mr. Flacco.

The Baltimore Ravens made their first media day appearance of the week yesterday, and quarterback Joe Flacco must not have gotten his peanuts on the way down as he was a little bitter when he spoke in front of the cameras. When Flacco was asked what he thought of next year’s Super Bowl being hosted in a cold weather stadium, and likely more to follow, he was less than pleased with the idea.

“Yeah, I think it’s retarded,” Flacco said. “I probably shouldn’t say that. I think it’s stupid. If you want a Super Bowl, put a retractable dome on your stadium. Then you can get one. Other than that I don’t really like the idea. I don’t think people would react very well to it, or be glad to play anybody in that kind of weather.”

Very well spoken, especially for a representative of the Maryland Special Olympics.

Let’s not run with Flacco’s gaff here, but is does deserve mentioning. While teammate Brendon Ayanbadejo is using his stage to raise awareness for gay rights and to stop bullying, Flacco sort of let a not so accepted term roll off his tongue. Perhaps he didn’t know just how global a scale the Super Bowl is on, but you don’t just show up and started dropping derogatory terms like that.

It was just a slip of the tongue, so let’s not attack him on Twitter, but still — c’mon Joe.

Nevertheless, a cold weather Super Bowl is only a good idea to people who are still nostalgic about Vince Lombardi  and Ice Bowls. To the modern day player, the notion of playing the biggest game of their life in a less than cozy environment isn’t something they dream about, but it comes with the territory. Should we really tailor the weather to suit the most comfortable playing environment for the players in the Super Bowl?

If it rains, should we move the game back? If it’s too windy should we change the rules?

Part of playing football is dealing with outside factors. If the crowd gets too loud for Flacco or any of these guys, should we make them be quiet? Bad weather happens, get over it. Blaming the weather on losing a game is as poor of an excuse as blaming the hot dog man for getting into your line of sight during a big play. Sure, it’s a bigger factor but let’s not water this game down anymore than we have to.

Players who throw down big hits like to justify it as “throwback football”, but it doesn’t get anymore vintage than a cold weather Championship game.