The Crack in the Mexico City Stadium is Fake News, but the NFL Should Move the Pats-Raiders Game Anyway
Edificios importantes sufren daños. El #EstadioAzteca presenta cuarteaduras y suspenden vuelos en #AICM. https://t.co/MahiTJo46w#Nacionales pic.twitter.com/yReXxW4Yn7
— Plano Informativo (@Planoinforma) September 19, 2017
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PFT – An earthquake that has killed more than 200 people in Mexico City has the NFL reviewing whether it can play there in two months.
NFL V.P. for International Mark Waller said today that the league is looking into whether the planned November 19 Patriots-Raiders game can go on as scheduled. Waller did say, however, that Estadio Azteca appears to have made it out of the earthquake unscathed, and that social media images showing what some thought was a crack in the stadium actually showed a safety feature that allows the stadium to withstand an earthquake.
“The initial information from that review is the stadium is remarkably in good shape …” Waller said.
Since it’s 2017 and nothing “goes without saying” anymore, I’ll say it: All that matters right now in Mexico is treating the injured, recovering the deal, taking care of the survivors and rebuilding. The time to rant about the impractical lunacy of having a regular season football games in foreign countries just to satisfy Roger Goodell’s master plan for world domination will have to be some other day. The only priority should be rescue and recovery.
Which is all the more reason to move the Raider-Patriots game to Oakland, now. I’m glad the Twitter photos are Fake News and Estadio Azteca made it through in one piece thanks to the engineering miracle that are those anti-earthquake gaps. But Jesus Christ, the last thing these people need is for NFL guys in ties and hardhats walking around the piles of rubble with a punch list to see if the Raidahs-Pats game is still on.
Just out of respect, they should announce the move back to Oakland immediately. Not tomorrow. Not after breakfast. NOW. Forget about the impact on the local economy. Sell out the stadium in Oakland, give the game proceeds to a JJ Watt-style relief fund and you’ll do a lot more to help Mexico City re-build than sending a bunch of fat guys in silver and black face paint and shoulder pads down there to buy Coronas, churros and hookers.
I just find it hypocritical that most NFL owners will blackmail the taxpayers of their market to build them a new stadium every 20 years or so because they get “obsolete” so fast. But they’ll gladly let the league schedule games in a 50 year old place in an earthquake zone with chain link and barbed wire separating the cheap seats section. All in the name of “growing the game.” Fine. That’s the way they choose to do business. But just do it some other year.