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Bills vs. Browns: Weather Will Be An Issue

Blizzard-like conditions are expected for this weekend's game pitting the Cleveland Browns against the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park. Many Buffalo Bills rookies have never played in the snow before let alone the blizzard the National Weather Service is predicting with a wintry mix and snow. At Media Day yesterday, many Bills players and coaches talked about how the weather will affect their execution.

Chan Gailey may be from Gainesville, Georgia, but the man has coached in the snow. he has worked for the Air Force Academy, Denver Broncos, and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Still, you have to wonder how it will affect how he calls his game

"I think you always have a plan in place if something goes bad weather-wise," said the coach in his press conference yesterday. "To be honest with you, the wind affects you more then maybe the cold or the snow does. If it’s sloppy with snow, mounds of it, it creates a problem and holding on to the ball is the biggest issue. For the most part wind creates more of a problem than snow or rain or anything like that. I don’t know that I’d say I look forward to it, but I know it’s going to happen and I know it’s part of it."

Ryan Fitzpatrick says he won't wear a glove on his throwing hand no matter how cold the temperature is this weekend. Lee Evans, who is from Cleveland, talked about the 8-0 game the Bills and Browns played.

"It was a shocking game to say the least. To see those conditions be as they were for the entire game was something I had never been a part of. I’ve been a part of plenty of snow games but a blizzard the whole game was a little different. We didn’t win that game but sometimes it’s fun to play in the snow if you’re winning. The whole trip was an anomaly to how we usually do things but we adjusted. And so this week I expect this game to have something to it, whether it’s the weather or something because there always is."

Many Bills players referenced that game from 2007 when discussing this week's predicted Blizzard. Fred Jackson added his thoughts on that game, too.

"Crazy! I’ve never played in anything like it. I don’t even think we were able to come in and watch film after that game, just because it was a blizzard. It definitely had its own theme as one of the games we played that year. Hopefully we don’t have anything like that this year. It was a lot of fun but it’s something I definitely wouldn’t want to be a part of again."

Rookie running back C.J. Spiller might be a little confused about what "cold" is.

"It’s a good thing I spent time in South Carolina, it got pretty cold. This is the most snow I have seen, it’s nothing that I’m freaking out about it. This will be my first time if it does snow Sunday, of course it will be my first time playing in the snow. It’s something that you can’t control and it’s something that I can’t let distract me on how I perform."

Jackson summed up the weather the best of any players:

"You can expect anything in Buffalo. Everybody in here, that’s one of the things we’ve talked about is we have to play in it; they have to play in it, so let’s go play in it."