By Michael Ventura
DNAinfo Senior Editor
MANHATTAN — The NFL will decide Tuesday afternoon whether to bring the Super Bowl to the "best city in the world" in 2014.
The Jets and the Giants, which will begin playing in a new $1.6 billion stadium at the Meadowlands this fall, submitted a bid for the football spectacle, which would be the first ever held in a cold weather city. Miami and Tampa, Fla., are the two other cities in contention for Super Bowl XLVIII.
Cranky Floridians are already griping about losing the big game.
The Tampa Tribune called the vote "rigged" in New York's favor, and said a Super Bowl being held here would be as bad as the movie "Ishtar," a clear nod to the state's older residents who still remember that movie.
"Tampa Bay remains in the 2014 hunt, still talking up our beaches, our hospitality, our allure as a premier winter destination," the paper said. "New York is talking up Chinatown, Battery Park and Times Square. In February."
Normally, the Super Bowl is awarded to a warm-weather city where the temperature in February doesn't drop below 50 degrees. In its bid, New York's apparently punted on the weather, and listed the average temperature in February as 40 degrees, the New York Times reported.
New York is in the Super Bowl mix because of the new stadium and, if you ask Jets Coach Rex Ryan, because New York is awesome.
"We've got the best city in the world," Ryan told the Associated Press. "I think that's indisputable. We've got arguably one of the top stadiums in the league, a brand-new stadium and it helps two teams."
Ryan added that the Super Bowl is for tough teams.
"I don't see how it's not played here," Ryan said. "The weather, if your team is not built to play in those conditions, that's too bad. I'd just as soon play all those games up north."
Miami and Tampa have hosted 14 Super Bowls between them — 10 in Miami, and four in Tampa.
The last championship game played in New York was the 1958 NFL Championship between the Giants and the Baltimore Colts, played at Yankee Stadium. It was the first sudden-death game, and has been dubbed "The Greatest Game Ever Played." The Colts won.
"If the Giants and Jets win this bid, the city wins," Daily News columnist Mike Lupica wrote. "They would finally stop playing the biggest game there is out of town."
