Bedlam football: Phoenix weather looks nice

Here’s a scene you never want to see. A beautiful giant cactus in Arizona, covered with plastic to protect it from the cold. But that’s what we saw last year in Phoenix. I spent five or six days in Greater Phoenix a year ago, leading up to the Fiesta Bowl. Froze  my butt off.

Most days, the high was in the low 50s. One day, I don’t think it reached 50. It was crazy.

I think things are going to be better this year. I leave for Arizona on Tuesday, so it’s close enough to start checking the weather, and I like what I see for the Fiesta and Insight bowls. The high Tuesday is 66 for Scottsdale and Phoenix, but 68 on Wednesday and then low 70s the rest of our time in Arizona.

That’s more like it. Phoenix is one of those destinations where there’s not so much to do as it’s just really cool to be. Great weather for winter, interesting feel. But if it’s going to be 51 degrees at 3 p.m., you might as well be in Oklahoma City.

University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, where OSU will play Stanford in the Fiesta Bowl next Monday, is not heated. Think about it. No reason for the stadium, which has a retractable roof, to be heated. Except at the OU-Connecticut Fiesta Bowl, it was cold. And it wasn’t just last year. Fiesta Bowl Media Day for the OU-West Virginia or OU-Boise State, or maybe it was Media Day for the Giants-Patriots Super Bowl, I forget, was one of the coldest experiences of my life. The stadium serves as an icebox when it gets chilly in Phoenix. A concrete bunker.