Marketplace of Ideas Blog

Last week, the home team won just five of 16 NFL games.

In this decade, the Packers have lost three home playoff games, including the disastrous January loss to the New York Giants. This season, the Packers are 3–2 at home.

Why?

Perhaps, according to ESPN.com’s Bill Simmons, home field advantage is disappearing in the NFL:

So how far away is the average NFL home game from turning into a neutral-site Super Bowl? Closer than you think. The following home-field “advantages” work as long as the teams involved are legitimately solid (and not mediocre, like we saw with the Bills [Nov. 17]: Minnesota, Buffalo, Oakland, Green Bay, Kansas City and the Jets/Giants. Of the [13 teams with new stadiums since 1999], Seattle and (to a lesser extent) Denver can make the field cameras shake for big moments. But because of the prices, TV timeouts and cold weather — not to mention the BlackBerry generation of people who get bored in three minutes — home cooking doesn’t matter like it did. And the numbers back this up.