Snowplow Game

Lore & Background

The game took place during the 1982 NFL season, which had been interrupted for eight weeks due to a player's strike. The December 12 game between the New England Patriots and visiting Miami Dolphins was the sixth game for each team. New England, led by head coach Ron Meyer, came into the contest with a record of 2–3, while Miami was 4–1 and led by head coach Don Shula. The night before this game, heavy rains soaked the AstroTurf surface at New England's Schaefer Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. The field froze over, and conditions were made worse when a snowstorm hit during the game. Attendance at the game was 25,716 people, the smallest crowd for a regular-season NFL game at the venue to that point in time; there were 8,961 no-shows.

Given the weather conditions, an emergency ground rule was put into play where the officials could call timeout and allow the grounds crew to use equipment to clear the yard markers. Despite this, the grounds crew could not move snow often enough to keep the field clear. The teams remained scoreless late into the fourth quarter. With 4:45 remaining, Patriots head coach Meyer motioned to equipment operator Mark Henderson to clear a spot on the field for placekicker John Smith. As Henderson drove across the field—his equipment was a tractor with a snow sweeper—he veered left and departed from the yard markers, clearing a patch of ground that gave Smith a clean spot from which to kick. The kick was good.

As the Dolphins drove down the field for a potential game-tying field goal, Henderson stayed near them, remaining at the ready for the call from the referee to clear a spot for Dolphins kicker Uwe von Schamann. The referee later noted, 'We very clearly told coach Shula we would also have swept their area.' The Dolphins advanced the ball to just inside the Patriots' 20-yard line, but on a third-down-and-nine play, a pass from quarterback David Woodley was intercepted by linebacker Don Blackmon. With less than a minute left to play, Miami used their timeouts to stop the clock and forced New England to punt after three rushing attempts, but a Dolphins Hail Mary pass on the game's final play was intercepted by the Patriots' Roland James. The Patriots won by a final score of 3–0.

Reader's Guide

The Snowplow Game is significant for its controversial use of a snow-clearing tractor to aid the Patriots' field goal attempt, a move that prompted immediate protests from Dolphins coach Don Shula. Shula recalled protesting the act under Rule 17 (the unfair act clause), which allows the league commissioner to overturn the results of a game if an event extraordinarily outside the realms of accepted practice, such as 'non-participant interference,' has an effect on the outcome of a game. Commissioner Pete Rozelle responded that, while he agreed wholeheartedly, without a rule explicitly barring the use of such equipment, there was nothing he could do. Meyer, who was also interviewed, said that he didn't see why it was such a controversy at the time, saying, 'The only thing I could see (the Dolphins) arguing about was "unfair competitive advantage."'

The game itself was the longest that any NFL contest after the AFL–NFL merger (1970) went without a score. The record stood for 25 years, until 2007. Coincidentally, the Dolphins were also the visiting team and losing team in the game that superseded it, falling to the Pittsburgh Steelers, 3–0, on Monday Night Football, with Steelers kicker Jeff Reed registering the only points with 17 seconds left in regulation. The most recently that any NFL game has ended in a scoreless tie is 1943.

Before the end of December 1982, the NFL banned the use of snow-clearing equipment on the field during a game. Until 2018, teams were given a sideline warning on the first offense if a non-player attempted to clear the playing field before being penalized, a situation that came up during the 2017 'Snow Bowl', an Indianapolis–Buffalo contest played in a heavy snowstorm. In 2018, the rule was adjusted, making it 'impermissible for the grounds crew or other team personnel to clear away snow', with a 15-yard penalty being immediately enforced for a violation. NFL rules now further prohibit attempts to improve field conditions—during a 2022 game, the Chicago Bears were assessed a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty when, prior to a field goal attempt during heavy rainfall at Soldier Field, holder Trenton Gill attempted to use a towel on the field to create a dry patch for kicker Cairo Santos.

The incident is commemorated with an exhibit at the Patriots Hall of Fame within the Patriots' current home, Gillette Stadium. The equipment, a John Deere Model 314 tractor with sweeper attached, hangs from the ceiling.

Did You Know?

• The equipment operator, Mark Henderson, was a convict on work release who joked, 'What are they gonna do, throw me in jail?'
• The game had the smallest crowd for a regular-season NFL game at Schaefer Stadium to that point, with 25,716 attendees and 8,961 no-shows.
• Both teams qualified for the playoffs; the Dolphins eliminated the Patriots in the first round, 28–13, en route to Super Bowl XVII.