Giants At Vikings: National Football League Rules Regarding Weather Emergencies

Well, after scouring the interwebs in an effort to find some sort of clarification on what the NFL can do in light of the Giants' travel difficulties, I found this at NFL.com.

Subject to the points of authority listed above, League personnel and referees will be guided by the following procedures for starting and resuming games that are affected by emergencies.

If, because of an emergency, a regular-season or postseason game is not started at its scheduled time and cannot be played at any later time that same day, the game nevertheless must be played on a subsequent date to be determined by the Commissioner.

If an emergency threatens to occur during the playing of a game (for example, an incoming tropical storm), the starting time of the game will not be moved to an earlier time unless there is clearly sufficient time to make an orderly change.

All games that are suspended temporarily and resumed on the same day, and all suspended games that are postponed to a later date, will be resumed at the point of suspension. On suspension, the referee will call timeout and make a record of the following: team possessing the ball, direction in which its offense was headed, position of the ball on the field, down, distance, period, time remaining in the period, and any other pertinent information required for an orderly and equitable resumption of play.

For regular-season postponements, the Commissioner will make every effort to set the game for no later than two days after its originally scheduled date and at the same site. If unable to schedule at the same site, he will select an appropriate alternative site. If it is impossible to schedule the game within two days after its original date, the Commissioner will attempt to schedule it on the Tuesday of the next calendar week. The Commissioner will keep in mind the potential for competitive inequities if one or both of the involved clubs has already been scheduled for a game close to the Tuesday of that week (for example, a Thursday game).

For postseason postponements, the Commissioner will make every effort to set the game as soon as possible after its originally scheduled date and at the same site. If unable to schedule at the same site, he will select an appropriate alternative site.

So, there you go. According to league spokesman Greg Aiello via Twitter, the plan is STILL for kickoff tomorrow to take place at noon Central time, even if the Giants arrive in Minneapolis in the wee hours of Sunday morning. That really strikes me as being quite unfair to the Giants.

I suppose the alternatives would be to push the starting time back to 3 PM Central time, or even push it back to Monday night if they have to. Again, we'll have more on this story as it continues to develop.

In the meantime, if you're in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, the entire city (from my understanding) has basically shut down. . .FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DON'T TRY TO TRAVEL ANYWHERE. I don't care how long you've been in Minnesota or how much "experience" you have with this sort of thing. If you don't have to leave your house, don't leave your house.