Jets, Giants kick off bid to host 2014 Super Bowl

Cold-weather Super Bowl? Not a problem, according to Giants quarterback Eli Manning, who enjoyed one of his best career games when the wind chill reached a frigid 23 degrees below zero.

"It's one of my all-time favorite games," Manning said of the 2007 NFC Championship Game at Green Bay's Lambeau Field, where the Giants beat the Packers, 23-20, in overtime to advance to Super Bowl XLII. "Not just because it was the NFC Championship Game. It was being in Green Bay, playing a game in negative 20 degrees. All those factors make a game special."

So Manning believes there's no reason not to have a Super Bowl at the New Meadowlands Stadium, where the owners of the Giants and Jets are attempting to bring the Super Bowl to the New York area for the first time. League owners will decide on May 25 in Dallas whether the New York/New Jersey bid will beat out bids from Tampa and South Florida for the 2014 Super Bowl.

"They say there's a chance of a blizzard," Manning said Wednesday at a joint Giants-Jets news conference inside the Coaches Club Lounge at the new stadium. "There's a chance of a blizzard in an NFC Championship Game. Those experiences make a game more special. They make it memorable for players and for fans."

Said former Giants Super Bowl MVP Ottis Anderson: "I think it would be great to have a Super Bowl where you see the steam and see the breath coming out, that's what excites you as a fan. As a player who played the game, you enjoyed the challenge. As a Giants fan and a Giants player, this is the greatest place in the world to have it."

The NFL has never held an outdoor Super Bowl in a northern city, but the Jets and Giants owners believe they have a legitimate shot at making history. The owners of both teams signed off on their bid Wednesday and now await the vote of their colleagues later this month.

"It's a chance to make history," Jets owner Woody Johnson said. "It would be the biggest event ever in the city of New York and the state of New Jersey, so I think it's an amazing opportunity."

SEE PHOTOSNew Meadowlands Stadium

Jets center Nick Mangold said a cold-weather Super Bowl shouldn't be viewed as a deterrent. "I like the cold and I like having to deal with different things that are posed," he said. "The guys I've talked to in the NFL are excited about playing somewhere that isn't a dome or one of those nice climate areas. I think it would be a good thing for the NFL as a whole to have one of those games."

Jets fans remember Curtis Martin's "Snow Bowl" at the Meadowlands on Dec. 14, 2003, when he carried 30 times for 174 yards in a 6-0 win over the Steelers. Johnson called it "one of my favorite games . . . We'd be lucky if its snows [for the Super Bowl]."

In the event it does snow, Meadowlands officials believe they'll be prepared. Mark Lamping, president and CEO of the New Meadowlands Stadium Corp., said snow removal would not be a problem. He also said fans would be given hand warmers and heated seat cushions, and additional heaters would be placed inside the stadium's concourses.

Lamping pointed to the cultural diversity of New York, and the fact that the area has about 100,000 hotel rooms as additional selling points. Parties are planned for the Museum of Natural History and Liberty State Park, and Super Bowl-related events would be staged at the Jacob K. Javits Center, the James A. Farley Post Office Building, the Meadowlands Racetrack and the IZOD Center.

And he said the stadium's amenities would be exceptional. "We are the only stadium to provide a homefield advantage for both competing teams," he said. "From the outset, our building was designed to house two NFL teams and comes fully equipped with two of everything to provide an equally first-class experience for both Super Bowl competitors, including locker rooms, training rooms, team coaches booths, and premium in-game medical treatment facilities."