The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

Who has the greater homefield advanage: Miami hosting the Packers the first week of August or Green Bay hosting Dolphins last week of December?

Green Bay hosting no matter the time of year because it is less about the weather and more about the atmosphere.

Change that to Bills @ Mia vs Fins @ Buff then.  Just interested in weather not crowd noise.

There was a time I think the heat could have been an advantage but I just don't believe it anymore. The modern NFL is too advanced. It feels like several years since I saw the last team completely gassed while Miami ran circles around them, and it was Buffalo. Typically a team has a week to prepare for it. Guys should be hydrating beforehand and teams can basically set up an air conditioner on the sidelines. If the players and staff don't put the wok in I'm not crediting the heat but knocking their lack of preparation.

I said Winter,using temperature alone,the ground is hard,and any breeze/wind exacerbates the feeling.When you factor the possibility of precipitation,snow,and ice in winter...I think it can be huge...

Working in the heat doesn't really give you much of an advantage that working in the cold does.  All working in the heat does is sap your body's energy so that you're not 100% ready for the next week's game.

Very good question.

I say that it's winter.  But not only because of player prep, but because of equipment.  The Dolphins have to pre-plan for every possibility, in terms of length of cleats and all that.  Whereas, the home-team has all that stuff on hand, just in case.

I have argued this several times over the years and people still don't get it.

I don't understand the point. Heat will kill you. Once you dehydrate in the heat you weaken and pass out. Typically teams show signs of struggle in the 3rd and by the 4th quarters have nothing left to give. Unlwss you are prepared days ahead and receiving IVs you don't have much of a chance. I remember JT saying he had three IVs one game. One at half time and two afterwards. I also can't count the number of fans carried out of the stadium during the game form the heat.

I've seen it over and over again in youth sports as well. Teams travel to Florida and can't hack it in the daytime heat even though they are clearly more talented. If the turf is synthetic the heat index can be well over 110. I've seen cleats get soft just from the turf.

In the opposite display I remember my daughter's team was playing the state champions from Delaware in a tournament in NC and it was 19 degrees and raining. (who knew it could rain when it was that cold?) We had a tough as nails English coach who felt long pants and jackets were just a distraction so if you were in the game it was shorts and only a long sleeve jersey.  The team from Delaware was wearing long pants and some even had hoodies under their jersey. If you were to look you would have thought they were the Florida team. We tied 1-1 in case your wondering ... hahaha.

I've worked construction for over 30 years and have seen so many people fail or fallout in the heat that I cannot count. If you aren't used to it there's no way to prepare. 

With that said there are many people who hate to play in the cold but i haven't seen anyone carried off a football field because they got too cold. It is way more of a mental thing than a physical thing.

The thing about the heat is that's it hot up north in the summer too.  So a northern team is used to playing in the hot weather as well as the cold.  Whereas, it's not bitter cold and freezing in the south ever.  Northerners are accustomed to the cold.  When I visit Tampa in November or December and it's in the 60's people are freezing, while I'm walking around in shorts and a tee shirt thinking it's beautiful.

You do realize you are making my point for me with your post. A Miami Dolphins player had 3 IVs in a game and somehow you think that is an advantage? The question isn't what is harder physically, the question is what creates an advantage.

Not the same. It actually gets much hotter in other places around the country. Until you've experienced heat in weather so humid you can slice it with a knife then you have no clue. Didn't you watch the 2016 Olympics in Brazil? Most teams and athletes in any stamina event suffered mightily in the heat and they are all world class athletes who knew what to expect.

Not my point at all. Jason was kicking butt and playing lights out while Denver was throwing up and asking out of the game. Denver lost their lead in the 3rd and never scored again meanwhile I think JT caused a fumble and then ran it back for a TD to seal the game. They had the same technology available to them back then too. 

It's high 80's, low 90's in upstate NY this week, granted the humidity is a bit lower this week, but the humidity here can be in the 90's easily.  I understand it can be another 10 or 20 degrees hotter down south, but having the proper trainers on your staff to make sure players keep hydrated can balance most of that out.  Going from 75 degrees and sunny in Florida to 20 degrees in Buffalo is a much bigger difference, especially mentally.

My point is this, there is no getting used to the heat.  You said yourself that Jason Taylor needed three IVs in one game.  If he was used to the heat, he wouldn't need those IVs.  There is getting used to the cold.  

I think winter.  For the following reasons. 

1.  A northern team playing in the South in Sept, just finished training camp in July and August in and while Miami in Sept is hotter than Buffalo in August everyone will have practiced in really hot weather.

2.  A frozen ball has a different feel than a defrosted one.  The ball has a significantly dynamics at 0 degrees than it does at 40 degrees.  The difference between a 60 degree ball and a 100 degree ball is not all that different.

3.  Bad weather up north can mean a blizzard (snow and wind) complicating things even worse for the team not use to it.  Bad weather down south (wind and rain) means cooler temps thus mitigating the extremeness that home field adv would have. 

4.  It is easier to duplicate southern conditions.  Crank up the heat in the practice facility in Foxboro in August and you can get that room hotter than anything Miami has ever experienced.  I doubt the air conditioners at Miami's practice facility can get the room down to 32 degrees even on the coldest day. 

5.  I agree with the proposition that the biggest issue with playing in the heat is how long it takes to recover after the game.  So a team that has to play two or more hot weather games in a row might have problem fully recovering and dehydrating. 

6.  Ice can create field conditions that there is no equivalent for. 

It also depends on the type of team you have and what kind of game plan you go with.  A power running team is going to have a lot easier time playing in cold wind and snow than a passing team.  You can also use the no-huddle or hurry up to wear out a defense and then when they're gassed rip them up with the run. 

I can't remember the game. Looking back it must have been 2005 when we opened with Denver. I'll take your word on Denver throwing up but this game was led by Miami from the start as Denver only scored twice and one was in the 4th. The next week Miami traveled to the Jets and lost to a team that won only 4 games. I still have to question the long term advantage versus costs based on the limited research available.

I think that back in the 70's (or the good old days of football as this old man calls that era), I think that especially for the Dolphins, hot weather was definitely an advantage for the Dolphins.  Everyone talks about how back then Shula would condition the team like crazy, making them suffer through HARD 2-A-Day practices in the summer, etc.  Although I was just a kid, even I could see that in the second half of games, teams from the north would just run out of gas playing in Miami in September and even into October.  I was at a game when I was around 10 and still remember how the game reached the end of the 3rd quarter and the ball was in the red zone at one end of the field.  The teams of course had to switch ends of the field for the 4th quarter.  At Shula's direction, the Dolphin players on the field RAN to the other end of the stadium.  The other team (wish I could remember who it was) dragged ass slowly to the opposite end.  The Fins dominated that 4th quarter and won the game. 

Cut to today, I don't think the heat gives a home field advantage very much anymore.  NFLPA rules, etc. have really cut back on the amount of training days, intensity of training, etc. to the point where teams in the hot south can't prepare themselves like they used to.  So now I think I would say that cold weather climates give an advantage to teams that play in cold weather a lot. 

that was the game.  I can't find the article right now about how the heat killed them but there is a quote in this one by CB Travis Daniels. He stated the Bronco WR was bent over and Daniels told him to get up that he was a professional and couldn't be tired yet.  He responded with "I'm tired man. I can't do it". LOL

https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/12/sports/football/after-unspeakably-bad-season-miami-changes-the-tone.html

One thing that no one has mentioned:  in the cold, both teams are equally cold.  But in the hot sun, the home team gets an asymmetric advantage from wearing white.

If the Dolphins are playing the Steelers, that's a huge advantage for Miami.

^ Also, the Dolphins' roof is organized in such a way that the home team has a more shaded bench.

^That's a good point I was going to bring up Dave, but you beat me to it.  If it's cold, it's cold everywhere.  In Miami, if it's hot, the sun is beating directly on the visiting team, in their dark jersery's while Miami is in the shade in their white jerseys.

I think shade is relevant, color of jersey not so much.  I don’t notice much difference if I am wearing a black vs white shirt in the summer.  The type of fabric will have an effect.

If you are wearing a black cotton shirt vs a white cotton shirt in Florida you will know the difference.  Northern summer is not even close the same as down here.

Edit:  I Googled it - July is the hottest month in New England with an average temperature of 70°F (21°C).  July is the hottest month in Florida with an average temperature of 82°F (28°C).  It is in the 90's a whole lot down here.

I can't tell a difference in color either, for a shirt. White sidewalk and blacktop road, yes.

Fabric color makes an even bigger difference somewhere like Vegas.  Miami hasn't had a 100 degree day since 1942; Vegas averages sixty of them each summer.  When you're out in the sun and it's a dry 105, black clothing is physically painful to wear.

Good point. I was just in Vegas and the difference to here is noticeable. Sweat evaporated off me there in a way that kept me and my clothes dry. Here the humidity keeps everything damp and sticky.

I am comfortable with the heat.  I like to sit outside in the sweltering months of summer and I'm fine with it.  The humidity makes it bearable.  When I go to Vegas, walking outside physically hurts.  It's weird.  It's so dry that the wind burns you. 

I felt like I was in a convection oven standing in the monorail terminal

Sitting outside in the sweltering months of summer is fine.  Doing yard work, digging ditches, those poor roofers, anything that has to do with physical exertion, not so fine.

People always complain about heat+humidity, and I've been in Miami when it's 90 degrees and raining... it's definitely disgusting.  But 100+ with wind is no picnic either; it's like a hair dryer in your face as a heat lamp shines on you.  When you're wearing dark pants and you have to continually rub them to cool them down enough to stop burning you, that seems at least as bad as any humidity I've ever been in.

Southeast heat vs. Southwest heat basically comes to what your preference is (or isn't): sauna vs. oven.

The monorail in Vegas isn't air conditioned??

The first time I stepped off the plane in Iraq it was 118.  Someone said it was a "dry heat".    I replied, "An oven is dry heat too, but I don't want to spend the next 6 months in one of those, either."

Not the terminals

I've never been to Las Vegas but I do realize there is a reason they don't hold sporting events in the desert. hahaha

Some one needs to tell that to FIFA.

They knew that too but felt the bribes made it worth risking.  :o

Hopefully the Raiders will build a domed stadium or at least one with a retractable dome.

http://bfy.tw/JgU6

With the Dolphins opening the season 2-0, it got me a little optimistic so I decided to look at their schedule.  I was happy to see their only cold weather game this year is the last week of the season against the Bills.

Patriots sideline topped 120 degrees yesterday in Jax even though the game started at 4:20 pm. Not sure if it hurt them but it certainly didn't help them. 

Jax was wearing their darks, so NE was better off than they might have been.

I thought I saw a graphic that Brady is like 1-8 when the temperature is over 87 degrees.

EDIT:  It's 1-6...here's a graphic from before the JAX game...also look who's on that list the most :D

(https://preview.redd.it/b1tb6cry1om11.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&s=28440394ed3d19ad61b1c08594a0b7c023746b39)

Not exactly a shocker that most of Brady’s hot weather games are in Mia rather than Buffalo or NJ. 

I am also okay with the idea Brady’s archillies heal being hot weather as it is rarely an issue in the post season. (AFCCG against Colts being an exception)

Patriots recovered from several of those games to later in the season hoist a Lombardi later in the season so I am not sweating the lose.

Following the Dolphins win over the vaunted Bears Defense yesterday, the talking heads this morning were putting a lot of credit to the heat.  Rex Ryan in particular called early season games in Miami one of the best home field advantages in the NFL that's rarely talked about; pointing out how the visiting team is in the sun the entire afternoon.  They indicated they believed the Bears' defense was gassed in the second half, which led to a big advantage for Miami.