Just hours before today’s scheduled kickoff of the Texans-Titans game, Nashville Mayor John Cooper publicly called on the Titans to delay the game because of the strain on the power grid from the bitter cold temperatures in the area.
The Tennessee Valley Authority is planning rolling blackouts to reduce load on the grid, and the mayor says the Titans should delay the game to cooperate.
“I’ve been informed that TVA’s unilateral rolling blackouts will continue. All non-essential businesses should reduce power usage. I’ve asked the Titans to postpone their 12pm game in solidarity with our neighbors. TVA needs to invest in infrastructure to withstand extreme temps,” Cooper wrote on Twitter.
The NFL usually tries to cooperate with local authorities, but asking a team to delay kickoff the morning of the game, when the forecast has made it clear all week that it was going to be cold enough to put an extra strain on the grid, seems like poor planning from the mayor.
There are other concerns as well: Some fans had surely already left home for the stadium by the time the mayor made his request, and some are already beginning to tailgate. Delaying the game is going to cause those fans to spend more time in the bitter cold. Delaying a game on December 24 also means affecting Christmas Eve plans for tens of thousands of people.
So this may be a request that the NFL and the Titans decline to fulfill. Whether the power grid will be able to function well enough to keep everything running smoothly at Nissan Stadium, however, remains to be seen.
