Our guy Shawne Merriman has his own MMA circuit, Lights Out Extreme Fighting, and LXF 21 is coming up this weekend in SoCal, so he jumped on with the Junkies Wednesday for a little promotion and explanation on how he got into that game.
But, after hearing Austin Ekeler explain how, as a long-time Charger, he had to get used to playing the cold and is grateful to be practicing in the elements every day now in Washington, the Junks had to ask Merriman – who also played for the Chargers but spent time in Buffalo, too – about that notion.
And specifically, y’know, that lake-effect blizzard the Bills and 49ers played through Sunday night.
“I’m a weather guy, and it baffled me how big that storm was, and they paid fans $20 an hour to come shovel out the stadium,” Bish said to Merriman. “I don’t get it, because how do you get stadium workers into the stadium in a storm? What was the biggest storm you played in when you were in Buffalo?”
“It wasn't that big but it was close to it, and the thing about the city of Buffalo, they are honored to get that opportunity to come out there and clean that stadium,” Merriman responded. “There was an article I think last year about people being disgruntled, and I'm gonna tell you, playing in Buffalo and knowing those people there, they were happy as hell to get that opportunity to go out there and be a part of that. That’s their team, that's their city, so they're happy to go out there and do things like that.”
The problem isn’t playing in those conditions…it’s living in them?
“It was trying to go to a grocery store or you had something to go up the street for, and then the blizzard happened,” Merriman said. “You can play in the cold, or do anything for three hours, but man, living in a blizzard like that is a lot.”
Especially when, you know, you gotta get to the stadium to play!
“A lot of the guys who played in Florida or Texas, who never really had to drive in snow, we used to have to go drive them,” Merriman laughed.
“I’m coming from Maryland, so I’ve been through the blizzard in ’96 and others back in Maryland, and we would have to go pick those guys up because they didn't know how to drive in the snow.”