So-Fi Stadium, which will be the site of Super Bowl LVI, is also of course the home field of the NFL's two Los Angeles-based teams — the Chargers and the Rams, both of whom played in L.A. once before, only to relocate to San Diego and St. Louis, respectively, and then return to the nation's second-largest city, and second-largest market (even though Chicago held both of those distinctions until the 1990 Census revealed that the City of Angels had overtaken it).
But there the similarity ends, at least in one respect anyway: So-Fi Stadium is equipped with a retractable roof, and at least thus far, it has been closed for all 11 Chargers home games — and open for all 11 Rams home games!
(Obviously, sooner or later it is going to rain on a day when the Rams just happen to be playing a home game, and their streak will end — most likely toward the end of the season, or even in the playoffs, should the Rams earn home-field advantage therein, because rainfall in California is heavily concentrated in the winter months. But that scenario hasn't arisen yet).
What this means is that neither team is taking the unique advantage that playing in a retractable-roof stadium affords — the opportunity to be equally "at home" playing either indoors or outdoors, and therefore not being at a distinct disadvantage when playing on the road — indoors or outdoors, as applicable.
If anything good has come out of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has resulted in the other five teams who play their home games under retractable roofs — Arizona, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and Indianapolis — dividing their open-roof and closed-roof games much more evenly than they had done previously.
Starting with the Cardinals: after not having opened their roof since 2010, the roof has been open in six of the 10 games played at State Farm Stadium — like a good neighbor, it's there! — in 2020-21.
The Falcons, relative newcomers to the wonderful world of retractable roof play, had their roof open in their home opener in 2017, only to see a malfunction of the roof dictate its closure for the rest of that season. Since then, however, it's been "levels, you devils" as the late British horse racing maven John McCririck liked to say, with 13 open-roof games and 13 closed-roof games at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Moving onto America's Team — who of course had a permanent hole in the roof at Texas Stadium go God could watch his team — they played 40 consecutive closed-roof games at Jerry World after December 2, 2012 and until November 19, 2017 (both games on Sunday night and both games against Philadelphia), but have keep their roof open in 11 of their last 15 home games.
So far as the Lone Star State's other NFL franchise is concerned, the Texans ended their streak of 50 closed-roof games in a row when they left their roof open last November 22 against New England, and the roof has been open twice and closed four times in the six home games they have played since.
Only the Colts have kept their open-or-closed policy more or less unchanged, leaving their roof open in good weather, and closing it either when it is raining or late in the season, when it is too cold to leave it open.
If a team has a retractable roof, clearly they should maximize the advantage it gives them.
But at least in Los Angeles, that is not happening.
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