Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson has some experience throwing in the snow, but it’s not much.
“I never got to play in the snow, except my first time seeing snow in Louisville,” the South Florida native said Monday night. “We had a snowball fight, so that’s totally different.”
With snowfall possible Saturday night in Buffalo, New York, the Ravens could have to battle more than just the AFC East champion Bills in their divisional-round matchup. According to the National Weather Service, the chance of precipitation in Buffalo both Saturday and Saturday night is 30%.
Jackson acknowledged that he doesn’t know to expect. “Saturday would be my first time playing football in the snow, if it does [snow],” he said. “Hopefully, it doesn’t.”
While Jackson’s had to play through pouring rain in his NFL career, he and the Ravens have been spared snow games. The team last played through a significant snowfall in 2013, when the Ravens won in the final seconds of a Week 14 game against the visiting Minnesota Vikings.
Saturday could be a new experience for several other Ravens. Left guard Bradley Bozeman, an Alabama native and former Crimson Tide standout, said he’d never played a game in the snow. He joked that he “preferred playing on grass.”
“Big guys in slippery situations is not always a good thing,” Bozeman said. “I’m going to hope for no snow.”
Safety Chuck Clark, who played high school football in Virginia and college football at Virginia Tech, said he’d only ever practiced in the snow.
“I’m sure we’re going to do everything that we need to do throughout the week of practice so that we all have, on the offensive side, good grip on the ball, all our footing is right,” he said. “So I think we’ll be all right if it does come to that.”
