Perhaps having the Super Bowl in Detroit wasn’t such a bad idea after all. Remember five years ago when Super Bowl XL was held at Ford Field?

The temps were in the 40s in the week leading up to the game won by the Pittsburgh Steelers. In fact, they had to make snow for the Winter Blast activities downtown. Sled dogs brought in for mush demonstrations had no snow to mush on.

The airport was open, the roads were clear and the people were all friendly.

There’s always talk of only holding the Super Bowl in warm-weather cities, but what constitutes warm weather?

You can wipe Dallas off that list. Not only have the temps been in the 20s this week leading up to Sunday’s game but the Dallas folks don’t know how to deal with ice and snow. Apparently they don’t have salt trucks or if they do, they are keeping them out of sight.

Sports writers covering the big game have complained not so much about the weather, but how the city is handling it -- or should we say not handling it.

The icy roads and sidewalks are treacherous and on top of it all the cab drivers are on strike and the Dallas area is quite spread out.

Should weather play a role in the NFL’s consideration of where to hold the big game?

Next year it will be in Indianapolis where they know how to deal with snow and ice. Lucas Oil Stadium is downtown, walkable from many hotels.

In 2013 it’s at the New Meadowlands Stadium in New Jersey which is walkable from nowhere. While New Jersey knows how to handle winter weather, it could be a test of the road plowing systems in the greater New York area. Or it could be unseasonably warm.

When Super Bowl XVI was held at the Silverdome in 1982 it was 12 degrees with a wind-chill of minus-27. Everyone just dealt with it. Saginaw Street in downtown Pontiac was turned into “Bourbon Street North” and was full of partiers and drinkers every night. A little cold couldn’t keep them away.

All the planning in the world makes no difference if Mother Nature dumps on the Super Bowl city.

The NFL shouldn’t restrict the Super Bowl to warm-weather cities and I don’t think they will. The Super Bowl and all the money it brings into a metro area is one reward for building a new stadium. That’s how it came to Ford Field.

It’s almost funny that Dallas is a more miserable winter destination than Detroit. Funny only because I’m not in Dallas.

(Follow me on Twitter @PaulaPasche.)