The biggest game in the United States will finally be performed on the United State's biggest stage.  The world's biggest stage for that matter.  The NFL decided Tuesday to play the 2014 SuperBowl in the New Meadowland's Stadium.  The big debate is over whether or not a game of this magnitude should be played in a cold weather climate, potentially creating an unfair environment. We've discussed this here as well.  But it's all said and done now.

Of course the fun prediction now is that it will be a NYJ vs. NYG SuperBowl in NY.  While that would be fun, if we are predicting SuperBowls 5 years away, then I'd definitely say the NFC representation could only be the Panthers.  I'm not sure how that would fit our team.  We are somewhat a warm weather team, but come November it begins getting pretty cold at night.  Of course it doesn't get anywhere as near as cold as NY has the potential to be in February.  But then again with our run focused offense, I'd tend to think we'd have some what of an advantage over many teams, especially those that are pass-centric or in warmer cities.

Another idea I also hear being thrown around is to have a Final 4 in some of these cities that cannot get, or have had trouble being selected for the SuperBowl.  Meaning both Conference Championships would also be played in neutral locations.  Unfortunately, there are too many newer and larger stadiums for Charlotte to even be considered for this.

The official tag line of the New York/New Jersey bid was "Make Some History," and it did. It will be the first open-air stadium in a cold-weather region to host a Super Bowl. In their presentation to the membership, the Jets and Giants reps showed a video that included clips from historic cold-weather games, including Adam Vinatieri's forever field goal for the Patriots in the 2001 divisional playoffs in Foxborough, Mass. -- aka "The Snow Bowl" and "The Tuck Rule Game."

"An old-school matchup in a new-school stadium," the voice-over says.

There could be a record-low temperature at kickoff. The current record is 39 degrees in 1972 at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, and that would be considered a warm February day in East Rutherford, N.J.

There's never been snow in a Super Bowl game and that could happen, too.

http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/nfl/news/story?id=5219486

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Everyone already knows that I think replacing 9+ starting vets with guys who have never started before does not bode well across the board for the Carolina Panthers in 2010.  I tend to think that while we'll see an improvement at some spots like QB, others will be a wash, and some will take longer than one off-season to improve the position... if at all.

I think I am pretty 50/50 with my pluses and minuses, but most think I'm the negative extreme... So for this post I'll assume that role.  Some other CSR members on the positive extreme, seem to think we'll improve at every single spot.  Which hypothetically would be great because as young as these guys are, we wouldn't need to replace another starter for like 5+ years.

But 9 times out of 10 the truth usually lies between the extremes.  And at this point none of us know anything for sure, and we'll have to wait and find out in September.  So in the meantime, here's a look at the numbers of 8 of our lost veteran starters, and what their replacements will have to accomplish to actually improve the position.  To be fair to both extremes, I'm averaging numbers from the last 2 seasons... A strong 12-4 season and a mediocre 8-8.

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Taken from this USA Today Article.

A couple months ago we were very divided on how keeping Jake Delhomme as a backup would effect the team.  Some of us thought it wouldn't be good to have the loyalty-ridden vet looking over Moore's shoulder... That it might even cause tension due to many deep friendships.

Others thought he knew this team so well, and was due so much money, that it only made sense to keep him as a backup.  And that there's no way a guy like Jake Delhomme could ever be a distraction.

Well the verdicts out, and John fox has weighed in on the subject... And in Foxy's own words:

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