A Federal Aviation Administration ground shutdown that lasted more than four hours and canceled more than 7,000 flights Friday affected the travel plans of several teams in several sports.
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Several college football games had to be rescheduled to accommodate new travel plans, while a handful of NBA teams changed their flights following the ground shutdown. Meanwhile, every NFL game will be played as scheduled, as all road teams were scheduled to travel on Saturday.
Some substitute referees for the NFL
Every NFL game will stick to its original start time, a league spokesperson confirmed to NBC News. Teams playing Sunday typically don’t travel until Saturday, meaning the league was not largely affected by Friday’s ground stop.
The New England Patriots and Detroit Lions, who play in Munich, Germany, both traveled overseas well in advance of the stop.
Although the league’s teams and players will arrive as scheduled, the NFL has had to modify its officiating crews for Sunday’s games.
“Due to the continued impact of nationwide air travel this weekend, the NFL has adjusted its officiating assignments for Week 10 games, reassigning officials to games within driving distance of their hometowns,” a league spokesperson said.
Three alternate referees – Duane Heydt, Barry Anderson and Don Willard – will be used on Sunday. Heydt was assigned to a game in New Orleans and Anderson to a game in Tennessee, while Willard will be the side judge for the games in Indianapolis and Cincinnati. (The kickoffs for these two games are more than seven hours apart and the stadiums are less than 120 miles apart.)
“Each of the league’s 17 referee teams has an identified alternate referee, and that individual trains throughout the year to work in the referee position if the need arises,” the league spokesperson said.
Many college football games have been postponed
The travel plans of more than a dozen teams were affected by the shutdown, according to The Athletic.
Some schools opted to fly out Saturday morning for games scheduled for the same day, while others — including the Alabama Crimson Tide playing at Vanderbilt — took a bus to their destination.
Several kickoffs were pushed back to Saturday to accommodate new travel plans, including games between Baylor and BYU, Arizona State and UCF, and Utah and Arizona.
The game between Oklahoma and Ole Miss, however, was pushed back to Sunday after Ole Miss couldn’t figure out its time travel — and it drew a strong response from the Sooners.
“We were told Ole Miss explored every avenue to travel to Norman and play Saturday as scheduled. But unlike every other team traveling for tomorrow’s competition, they were unable to find a solution,” Oklahoma athletic director Roger Denny said in a statement. “After several conversations with the league office, (SEC) Commissioner (Greg) Sankey informed us of his decision to move our game to Sunday, over our strong objection. After continued discussions, he further informed us that our failure to play Sunday at the designated time would result in a forfeit.”
Denny’s statement added: “The postponement of the game has a significant impact, particularly on our fans. Those who have made travel, lodging and personal plans around a Saturday game are now facing unnecessary disruption and hardship. Their time, commitment and investment deserve greater consideration than was given to them in tonight’s conference decision.”
No major problem for the NBA and NHL
A few NBA teams — like the Cleveland Cavaliers and Chicago Bulls — have had to reschedule their flights from Friday night to Saturday morning, but otherwise it’s largely business as usual for the league.
An NBA source confirmed to NBC News that all games would take place as scheduled on Saturday morning, while noting that there were many moving parts.
“Flights are late, they’re getting stuck on the runway, as is the case in the normal commercial world of aviation, so that’s just part of it,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said before the team’s game Friday. “We’ve all been part of it. You just have to adapt.”
Atkinson’s star guard Donovan Mitchell wasn’t excited about the new plan because Cleveland can quickly go to another game on Saturday.
“It’s unprecedented,” Mitchell said Friday, according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. “Second. Three hours of flight. That was already going to be difficult. But if they say we have to play, then we have to play.”
Mitchell added that he would have liked the game to have been canceled.
The NHL, for its part, has not announced any changes to its schedule. The league only played two games Friday night, allowing most teams to travel for their away games before the shutdown, according to The Athletic.
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