Pittsburgh Restaurant Calls Buffalo Soft; Ironic Tweet Goes Viral
The Buffalo Bills home playoff game vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers has been moved from Sunday at 1 pm to Monday at 4:30 pm.
The announced was made by New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who also announced a travel ban for all of Erie County, starting at 9 pm tonight.
Hochul and officials site the dangerous travel for moving the game to Monday. The county will get anywhere from 1-3 feet of snow and Saturday will see wind gusts near 70 mph. The wind gusts will be 40-50 mph and the worry was fan and staff safety, getting to the game.
The National Weather Service says driving could be difficult to impossible. Whiteout conditions are expected Saturday night and into Sunday. Emergency personnel resources have to be used for pressing needs. Having 70-80,000 people converge on one area would have caused safety issued for fans and staff.
However, many fans (mainly Steelers and Dolphins fans) are having some fun at Buffalo's expense, saying then game should not have been moved, despite the forecasted dangerous conditions.
Pittsburgh restaurant staple Primanti Bros. posted on X (formerly Twitter) that Buffalo is "soft" and to hashtag, "Let It Snow."
What's ironic is just last week, Primanti Bros. closed multiple locations due to bad/dangerous weather...
Sports social media will always have this kind of banter. It's become the culture; no matter what you say, opposing fanbases will have to respond and bust chops. That will never change.
However, nearly 50 people died in last year's Christmas week blizzard in Western New York. That featured lake effect snow which dropped around 4 feet and 75 mph wind gusts. This shouldn't be as bad but it's most certainly forecasted to be bad enough to cause serious safety hazards for travel.
The issue is not playing the game in snow. The issue is getting to and from the game safely, which would have been the same exact issue if Highmark Stadium was a dome. It's not about the game, it's about public safety and needing emergency personnel resources elsewhere.
The Miami Dolphins play at the Kansas City Chiefs tonight in the AFC wild card round, with wind chills forecasted for -30 degrees.
That also is not safe for fans watching but the NFL said that the conditions don't poser a threat for travel and fans getting to the game, which is why they decided not to postpone that game.
In the end, Erie County and New York State made the final call here. They sided for public safety and it's even more paramount after the lives lost to last year's blizzard and lake effect snowstorm from November of 2022.