The Browns are in the planning stages of building a new stadium in the suburbs of Cleveland.

Why a new stadium? Why the suburbs? Who should fund this project, the taxpayers of Cleveland and/or Ohio or the Browns owner, who, like most NFL owners, is clearly pocket-poor?

And a dome? You mean to tell me the new Browns stadium is going to be a domed venue? You’ve got to be kidding me, right? Actually, I’m not kidding, the Browns want their new palace to be an actual palace, complete with a roof.

I must say, I like it, I like it a whole lot. Yes, I’m a Steelers fan who lives in Pittsburgh, but I’m not so much of a purist that I think football was meant to be played in the dirt, mud and snow. I think it was meant to be played on a field that’s 100 yards long and 53.3 yards wide (look it up). It’s meant to have two endzones that are 10 yards deep (deeper in the CFL) with a goalpost at the back of each that is a certain height and width (I didn’t look that up).

Who said the elements ever had to be a part of football?

OK, maybe it’s fun for some of the players, but let them deal with the cold and snow. Let them try and find the proper protection for their head, hands and feet. I will not be attending. You might. You may love to sit in the stands with no shirt while waving a towel and screaming into the camera, but I’ll repeat a conversation that reportedly took place on the sideline between Cowboys’ players Don Meredith and Walt Garrison during the legendary Ice Bowl, aka the 1967 NFL Championship Game played in minus-13 degree temps at Green Bay’s Lambeau Field on December 31, 1967: “Meredith,” said Garrison. “We’ve got to the dumbest sons of b**tches in the world to be out here in this.” Dandy Don then pointed up into the stands and said, “Nope, we are being paid to be here. They had to pay to get in.”

Should the NFL have postponed that game? Perhaps, but it was a different time. People simply didn’t know any better back then. Heck, that was two years before America put a man on the moon (or didn’t depending on which websites you visit). People smoked on planes in those days. They smoked in restaurants. Parents blew cigarette smoke up their childrens’ nostriles while they wiped germ-filled dirt off of their faces.

Lots of stuff involved smoking cigarettes back in 1967.

We are more enlightened now as a society than we were in 1967, 1977, 1987, 1997, 2007 and 2017. People shouldn’t have to sit out in the cold and snow to “enjoy” a sporting event such as football. There is nothing fun about that. I’ve repeated this several times, but I’ll do it again for the purposes of this article: I still have frostbite in my right big toe from a Steelers/Bengals game I attended at Heinz Field in December of 2013. I’ve never been so cold in my life, and I vowed that night to never go to another sporting event where the temperature dips below 32 degrees.

And to be honest, anything below 50 is a stretch for me.

If the Steelers ever decide to play their home games in a dome, I’d seriously look into buying season tickets. I’d certainly say yes to more invitations to attend games for free or even for fee. Why? Because I know I’d enjoy myself, that’s why. I wouldn’t be looking up at the game clock, counting the seconds until I was back in my warm house.

If you live in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Baltimore, New York, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, Green Bay, Boston, etc., you should demand that your NFL team build a dome.

The game of football may be a tough sport to play, but it shouldn’t be uncomfortable to sit through.