Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell Upset about Game Date Change
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania will do what no other city in the United States, or the world, has been able to do in over 64 years.
They will host the first Tuesday night football game in over six decades.
But Ed Rendell, Democratic Governor for Pennsylvania, seems to be the only Pennsylvanian who has an issue with it.
In a radio interview on Monday, he said, "It goes against everything that football is all about."
But just why is he so upset?
He was aggravated when the NFL decided to move the game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Minnesota Vikings to Tuesday evening, as opposed to the original game time on Sunday night.
The league said that the date change was because of the severe winter weather that was beating down on the East Coast, but they made their decision even before any snow accumulated. About one foot of snow fell on the city of Philadelphia, even though there
was less than five inches of snow on the ground at 8:20 PM Sunday; the scheduled kickoff time.
Rendell called the decision a mandate on the toughness, or shortage thereof, of the United States of America.
"My biggest beef is that this is part of what's happened in this country," Rendell said. "I think we've become wussies."
"We've become a nation of wusses. The Chinese are kicking our butt in everything," Rendell added. "If this was in China do you think the Chinese would have called off the game? People would have been marching down to the stadium, they would have walked and
they would have been doing calculus on the way down."
Rendell was not the only one fumed at this though. Visanthe Shiancoe, tight end for the Vikings, was also taken aback by the league’s date-change decision.
"The roads are bad for East Coast standards," Shiancoe said. "But if this was in the Midwest there would be no way that this would be delayed. No way it would be delayed in the Midwest. No way. ... It's something that baffles me. But I'm not here to make
decisions on when games are played."
"People are free to have their opinions on whether or not last night's Eagles game should have been postponed," Eagles team president Joe Banner said. "That decision was ultimately made by the NFL. Any criticism of the Mayor, who was not involved in this
decision, is completely unfair."
Michael Nutter, Mayor of Philadelphia, called a state of emergency at about 2:00 PM, but said that the decision to move the game or not rested solely with the NFL.
Apparently, Rendell didn’t agree with the league.
"What do you think [Hall of Fame coach Vince] Lombardi would say?" Rendell asked Monday. "He would say that we've become a nation of wusses."
The Tuesday night game between Philly and the Vikes will start at 8:00 PM ET.
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