If a polar vortex could move into southern New England Sunday, that would suit Patriots left tackle just fine.
The rookie who originally hails from Louisiana sounded a little disappointed Wednesday in a slightly mild weather forecast for Sunday night’s Wild Card game against the Los Angeles Chargers. The Chargers aren’t just used to 70-degree weather in January - they also play all their home games in a dome, in So-Fi stadium.
Campbell believes elements tougher than the predicted low temperature of 28 degrees, (according to the Weather Channel), would work to New England’s advantage.
“I think it can help us,” he said at his locker. “Like I said earlier, it’s not even going to be cold this weekend. Obviously, it would be nice if it was. I do not mind the cold. I honestly never have. I would not say that I’m not – I’m not used to the cold. But I do not mind it. But yeah, but I enjoy playing up here.”
The coldest playoff game hosted at Gillette in Patriots history was a divisional round showdown against the Tennessee Titans, on January 10, 2004. The temperature at kickoff, according to Patriots.com archives, was 4 degrees, and the Patriots went on to win 17-14 to start their second Super Bowl run.
DeMario Douglas agreed that playing outdoors in the cold is “definitely” a point of pride, although the Florida native didn’t necessarily always believe that to be the case.
“I used to ask, ‘How come we don’t got an indoor [stadium], how come we can’t get an indoor facility for games?” He said, at his locker. “And it was like, ‘Man, we can use this to our advantage.’ I’m like, man, I didn’t think about that. I didn’t think about how the weather could be to our advantage. But yeah, that’s true.”
Out of 30 NFL stadiums, ten feature a dome, or some sort of retractable roof.
Perhaps in the future, Mother Nature will add a little more bite to the forecast – especially if it’s another dome team coming to town.