The Fog Bowl
The Fog Bowl is a pretty well-known piece of NFL lore but if you haven’t actually looked it up, I’d suggest doing so. NFL films did a great 40 minute piece on it that’s available on youtube.
In case you are a zoomer or something and haven’t heard of the Fog Bowl, in the divisional round in 1988 between the Bears and Eagles in Chicago a freak weather event put a fat cloud right on the field and nobody could see jack shit for the exact perfect timeframe to interrupt the football game. It was a combination of freak weather conditions coalescing at the perfect time. With all the current technology we have available, it makes me wonder how things would go if this happened in modern times. I’d expect it to be delayed, because how can you accurately and fairly judge a game where you can’t see 10 feet away?
If you’ve never experienced fog like this in real life, it’s one of the most surreal things you can imagine. One of the few types of things that’s genuinely weirder than anything in the movies. I saw it once in Bar Harbor, Maine on a lazy afternoon during a family vacation. It rolled up main street from the waterfront and it was like a genuine wall of mist that instinctively makes you want to run from it as it glides over the ground. Went from a beautiful day to suddenly not being able to see across a two-lane street to the other side. I can’t imagine playing football in that. I was actually worried for anyone driving because that’s an impossible situation to drive in.
Do a comic about the jets first super bowl win with an aging joe namath
But only if it ends with a panel where he sloppily puts the moves on an interviewer.
I’d expect it to be delayed just because Fox would throw a fit
This has actually happened recently. October 22, 2017 Atlanta Falcons visiting the New England Patriots for a Super Bowl rematch. It wasn’t quite zero visibility conditions, and it was a shit game so it’s not really remembered other than for the use of non traditional camera angles during live game action. The cameras that capture the normal broadcast angle were unable to see through the fog necessitating the use of other cameras that are normally only used for highlights, instant replays, and between plays shots.
Dave made a comic about that: https://www.thedrawplay.com/comic/the-fog-obscures-the-falcons-pain/
Yeah that was my immediate thought while reading this. Pretty sure he even made a comic about it as well lol.
Check out the wreck that happened on I-75 in Tennessee.
A dense fog combined with moisture from a paper mill in the valley at 7am. People couldn’t see what they crashed into.
Cop that worked the wreck said he could barely see his own feet.
I think I can see Mike Ditka and Buddy Ryan lovingly embracing each other in the 2nd panel… 😯
Also, this one time on a Boy Scout camping trip, a similar kind of fog rolled in, and one of my buddies and I were running to find each other in the middle of the field we were camping on. We were both sprinting out of terror, and the visibility was so bad we didn’t see each other until miliseconds before we collided head first, which sent both of us to the ground for several minutes, just like a WWE match. I probably got a concussion from the ordeal. On an entirely unrelated note, that was also the day I started hating everything.
I live in the Bay Area. Someone actually named the thick fog, Karl. Karl the Fog. The fact that there somehow haven’t been numerous Raiders, A’s, Giants, and/or Niners games that looked as bad as the Fog Bowl is an unexplained miracle.
Completely blew the opportunity to name it Kermit.
I’ve been to a giants game where at the end the fog is just rolling over the right field wall from McCovey cove. Didn’t take over the whole stadium before the game was done, but it was pretty cool to see in person
Well most of the NFLs games take place at times when its hardly ever foggy (midday or afternoon) To get realistic chances for a fog game you need to play in either the postseason or the evening game slots at 8
This is probably the comic you finished drawing in fastest time.
“how can you accurately and fairly judge a game where you can’t see 10 feet away?”
Considering that the value of judging a game fairly and accurately fluctuates wildly in the NFL, I have a hunch this may not have been the hitch you think it to be 😛
Much lower stakes, but my favorite weather game will always be Bills-Browns in 2007. Something like 15 inches of snow fell just during the game, Joe Jurevicius accidentally caught a 25 yard pass that bounced off of Braylon Edwards’ facemask, and the most important play of the game was a safety off a bad snap on a punt.
Mad Respect to the Kickers who were able to Kick Field Goals in the Thick Fog.
And to Randall Cunningham who somehow threw for 407yds
DANG, Marshawn! Hot boxing the whole stadium! …oh wait this is the Fog Bowl.
That Lions/Eagles 2013 game in a fucking Blizzard is one of the greatest football games of all time. Nick Foles was on his white hot streak, and Lesean McCoy absolutely beasted.
I’d figure the most terrifying part would be not that it’s hard to see where your receivers are.
But it’s hard to see where the defenders are coming from…
You can hear the footsteps…but by the time you see them coming…they’re already dragging you under.