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The city of Buffalo, New York was absolutely hammered by a five-day snowstorm snow last week and when everything was said and done there was about seven feet of the white stuff on the ground. The sheer volume of the precipitation caused some roofs to collapse and the snow was blamed for more than a dozen deaths. It played havoc with the city as well as the scheduled NFL game between the hometown Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets which was set for Sunday, November 23 at Ralph Wilson Stadium.

The weather also forced the NHL to postpone the home game between the Buffalo Sabres and Ottawa Senators at the First Niagara Center. That contest will now be played on February 20th and oddly enough it’s the second times the Senators have had a game postponed this season. Their home tilt scheduled for Wednesday, October 22nd against the Toronto Maple Leafs was pushed back until November 9th after an armed man attacked the Canadian Parliament Buildings and killed a guard. The terrorist was the shot dead by security forces.

However, the Bills and Jets didn’t have to wait long to play their game since the NFL scheduled for the next night, November 24th, in Detroit, where it will be played indoors at Ford Field. The Bills had hoped to play their game as scheduled at home and they hired people to shovel the snow at their stadium for $10 per hour as well as free game tickets. The plan proved to be futile even though the Bills planned on removing the snow 24 hours around the clock. The NFL finally stepped in a few days before the game and announced the new date and venue.

Ralph Wilson Stadium might not be ready for next week’s contest either as the Bills are scheduled to play at home again on Sunday, November 30th. This is because a couple of days after the snow stopped Buffalo was then hit with quite a bit of rain which added more weight to the remaining snowfall. It also melted some of the snow and this brought along the added risk of flooding. Also, the Bills players needed to reach the airport to fly to Detroit and this wasn’t an easy task since many of the city’s roads were closed down and a driving ban was imposed on residents.

The Bills solved this problem by taking snowmobiles to a central meeting point where the players were then taken by bus to the airport. Players who didn’t have their own snowmobiles or access to oe of the machines were picked up by representatives of the club and driven to the meeting point.