The Fog Bowl

This time of year, lots of people are watching the bowl games and the playoff games that are heading up to the big match…the Super Bowl. Most of these games, while very exciting, are played out according to routine. Teams win and teams lose, and the march to the Super Bowl continues on. However, on December 31, 1988, a rather unusual bowl game was played. On that day, the Chicago Bears defeated the Philadelphia Eagles, 20-12, in a playoff game. That isn’t so unusual either, except that the game was plagued by a thick fog that started up late in the first half. The game was being played at Soldier Field in Chicago and the playing conditions soon became problematic. The fog was so thick that fans in attendance and television viewers alike struggled to see the game. Eventually the game was given a new bowl name, when it was unofficially dubbed the “Fog Bowl” by media.

According to the National Weather Service, the unusual conditions occurred when cold air over Lake Michigan was carried by a breeze towards warm air Soldier Field lakefront. Meteorologists described the fog so dense it resembled clouds on the ground. Fred Mitchell of the Chicago Tribune wrote that the game will be remembered as “the best game you never saw.” The field was completely obscured by the fog. Reporters at the game couldn’t see any better than fans who watched the game from their televisions at home. Some said that the game really should have been suspended until the conditions were better.

One football player said that he hadn’t even driven a car in fog that bad, so he couldn’t understand why the game would have been played. I’m sure that is true. The funny thing is that somehow, the players in the game managed to run and score, and the point spread wasn’t really that huge. No one can say that it was a one-sided game. Bears defensive end Al Harris likened the bizarre conditions to playing in a cemetery. “I never saw anything like this,” he said. The NFL actually did consider suspending the game, but the league ultimately deferred the decision to referee Jim Tunney and the NFL commissioner’s representative. Tunney said, “We felt the playing conditions were satisfactory. They were really tough in the middle of the third quarter … No word came to me that either coach wanted to stop play.” That was likely a mistake for the Eagles’ coach.

Of course, this was not the only NFL game or any football game that was affected by fog or weather. In 2017, in Foxboro, Massachusetts, the fog was so dense during a game between the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons that NBC had to use its Skycam for most of the in-game coverage, instead of usual sideline cameras, which proved to be useless. As for the Fog Bowl, it was played as scheduled, because no one called it off, but I wonder if the Eagles wished they had in the end. Nevertheless, the week after the Fog Bowl, the Bears lost to eventual Super Bowl champion San Francisco in the NFC Championship Game, so I guess the game made no difference for the outcome.