BUFFALO, N.Y. — The NFL and the Governor of NY announced that the playoff game between the Buffalo Bills and the Pittsburgh Steelers will now be played on Monday at 1:30 p.m. PT, airing on CBS stations due to an ongoing weather emergency in western New York.
"Due to public safety concerns in light of the ongoing weather emergency in western New York, Sunday's Steelers-Bills game has been rescheduled to Monday at 4:30 p.m. ET [1:30 p.m. PT] and will be televised by CBS," the NFL and the Bills announced on Saturday.
The game was initially scheduled to be played on Sunday in Buffalo at 1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT) as part of the NFL weekend lineup.
In a tweet, NY Governor Hochul posted, "I’ve been in communication with @NFL commissioner Roger Goodell regarding the dangerous conditions in Buffalo this weekend. In consultation with our emergency response teams, @BuffaloBills leadership, and the NFL, the Bills game will be postponed to 4:30 pm Monday."
Hochul and other officials said they were making the change for safety’s sake. “We want our Bills to win, but we don’t want 60,000 to 70,000 people traveling to the football game in what’s going to be horrible conditions,” Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said at a news conference in the Buffalo suburbs.
The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning lasting through 7 a.m. Monday, saying that “travel will be very difficult to impossible at times,” with the combination of snow and very strong wind causing near-zero visibility.
According to the Associated Press, the Steelers have pushed back their travel plans and will now head to Buffalo on Sunday.
The Bills are familiar with weather-related schedule changes. In 2022, a lake effect storm led to Buffalo’s home game against Cleveland being moved to Detroit in November. A month later, a massive blizzard forced the Bills to delay their trip home, forcing them to stay overnight in Chicago on Christmas Eve.
