It Might Be 25 and Snowing, but It’s Still Jaguar Weather

Much is being made of the cold weather in Massachusetts and its effect on the Jacksonville Jaguars. In the Jaguars’ two years of existence, the coldest game-time temperature they have had to endure is 42 degrees, and that was in December 1995 in Jacksonville.

The forecast for Sunday in Foxboro calls for temperatures in the mid-20s, winds of 18-25 mph and a possibility of snow.

But Jacksonville Coach Tom Coughlin is borrowing a page from George Allen, who, when he coached the Rams in Los Angeles, used to insist that all weather everywhere his team played was “Rams weather.”

“We are so much in tune, so much in the zone in terms of what we have to do,” Coughlin said, “that weather will not be a distraction.”

*

Two days before kickoff, New England Patriot Coach Bill Parcells was worried about media distractions.

Parcells closed his locker room at noon Friday after practice, even though league officials had designated that time for interviews.

“I wanted to give my players 48 hours of rest before the game,” Parcells said.

Of course, since Sunday’s game won’t start until 4 p.m. EST, it was actually 52 hours before kickoff.

Surely even Parcells, had he realized the error of his calculations, would have agreed that speaking more than 50 hours before a game wouldn’t cause a serious drain on his players’ energy.