Despite preparations for a lake-effect blizzard, Sunday’s game is scheduled for 13:00 local time (18:00 UK time); Complicating any possible delay is the fact that the Bills are due to play the Lions on Thanksgiving Thursday, just four days after meeting the Browns.
Buffalo is expecting historic snowfall in western New York over the next four days – up to 48 inches expected by Sunday – ahead of the Bills’ home game against the Cleveland Browns.
The NFL has postponed games in the past due to winter weather. In 2010, a game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Philadelphia Eagles scheduled for a Sunday night in late December was rescheduled for Tuesday due to a snowstorm. In early 2017, an ice storm delayed the start of a playoff game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Kansas City Chiefs by more than seven hours.
Complicating matters for the NFL and any potential postponement in Buffalo, however, is the fact that the Bills are due to play the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving Thursday, just four days after they hosted the Browns.
The Bills were in a snow game as recently as 2017 hosting the Indianapolis Colts on December 10, 2017, despite a massive snowstorm that dropped 16.7 inches onto the playing field. The Bills ultimately won the game 13–7 in overtime.
Recalling that game, Bills head coach Sean McDermott said that after he and the team left the field after the warm-up, when they returned from the locker room to kick off the game, they saw a completely different scene at field level.
“I saw the amount of snow already just in the time that passed between the entrance and the exit, and I said: “Is this normal?
“You hear stories when you move here, but when we were going down and I was getting ready for the game, someone said no.”
The bills are making plans for players and staff affected by this week’s snowfalls.
“We have a lot of guys from Florida, a lot of guys from the south and even from the west who have never seen snow before,” McDermott said.
