Nashville mayor asks Titans to postpone Week 16 game due to rolling blackouts

Update: The Texans vs. Titans game has been postponed an hour to help with the power issues in Nashville. The updated kickoff time is scheduled for 2:02 p.m. ET.

The Tennessee Titans host the Houston Texans on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. ET (12 p.m. CT) and it’s going to be a chilly one. There’s no precipitation in the forecast, but temperatures will be near 20 at kickoff and not getting much higher than the lower 20s the rest of the way. Wind chills are expected to be down near under 10 for much of the game.

The cold weather across the country has led to an assortment of issues, and in Tennessee it has resulted in rolling blackouts. On Saturday morning, the Tennessee mayor asked the Titans “to postpone their 12pm game in solidarity with our neighbors.”

It’s unclear if the mayor brought this request up previously, or if this is a last minute thing, but it seems unlikely to change the status of the game. As a local sports anchor noted, the Titans play again on Thursday and then the stadium hosts the Music City Bowl next weekend.

There’s no real wiggle room for a postponement for this game unless Thursday Night Football was also moved. During natural disasters, the NFL has moved games or at least put out the word that they would move it if local officials needed the extra resources. But that usually happens multiple days in advance.

I don’t recall a local official putting out a call for a game to be postponed the day it is scheduled to take place. That’s not to say the mayor isn’t being serious with this, but it’s odd timing for the request. With kickoff scheduled for two hours from this article publishing, we’ll update this as news comes in.