NFL Confident Steelers-Bills Game Won’t be Moved

The NFL expects that the rescheduled Steelers and Bills game will play as scheduled on Monday at 4:30 p.m.

The NFL is moving forward with the game as planned. As this point, nearly three feet of snow will likely fall in the Orchard Park area and the gusts of up to 50 miles per hour have created whiteout conditions.

The heavily falling snow in narrow bands due to high winds coming off Lake Erie will make travel very difficult in unpredictable sections of the area to the south of Buffalo.

“The safety of the fans that attend the game and the staff involved is tantamount,” said Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz, who joined Hochul in making the announcement. “I’m very glad that the NFL agreed, as well.”

The Steelers have had a playoff game moved recently due to weather. Their road playoff game against the Kansas City Chiefs in 2016 was moved to a later time on the same day.

The last time the Steelers had a game move days was when their game against the Baltimore Ravens in 2020 was postponed multiple times due to COVID-19 issues on the Ravens. That game ended up being played on Wednesday afternoon.

There have been some reports that the game could be moved to Tuesday due to the conditions. There are still expected flurries on Monday, but not the same type of lake effect snow that will create whiteout conditions. Gusts could still reach up near 20 miles per hour.

Travel bans in the area are in effect as is a state of emergency. The Steelers are scheduled to take off for Buffalo around 3 p.m.