Next up, Super Bowl XL—as in extra-large coats

Super Bowl XL is less than a year away. Make your plans, and pack your mittens.

The XL Bowl (that's 40, for the Roman-numerically impaired) will leave the cities known for sun and warmth and head to Detroit. Of course, the game will be in a dome--Ford Field--but that just covers game night (and media day). The rest of the time, media, fans and other football types must brave the elements.

For the city of Detroit, the Super Bowl means a new 5-mile RiverWalk and renovated riverfront. After all, it's always nice to take a stroll by the water in the wind of a Michigan winter. And who doesn't love the view across the Detroit River of Windsor, Ontario?

Fans will be treated to the Motown Winter Blast, touted as a festival of "hip and fun entertainment zones." And it'll be outdoors. Yes, outdoors, you wimp. Go to Detroit for the NFL's annual week of excess, and you'll be able to snowshoe or watch dog sledding or head down a 200-foot slide made of snow. That will wake you up for a night of Super Bowl reveling.

The Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau was giving out scarves in the Jacksonville media center last week. It was a nice gesture; they will be required fashion statements next February. According to Weather.com, the mean temperature for February 5 in Detroit is 27 degrees. The record low is minus 2, set in 1995. Thinking more positively, the record high set in 1962 was 51 degrees. That's right around the temperatures that drew complaints in Jacksonville, which says it's in Florida but had Terrell Owens shivering on the field during media day when the city failed to deliver on its promise of sun and warmth.

Of course, it's unfair to knock Detroit just because of its weather. The city has given us great music and reliable cars. And, for Super Bowl XL, it certainly is trying to put out the welcome mat-just please stomp the snow off your shoes before entering.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Sporting News Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning