12/16 — Here's an early Radar entry for all you weather freaks. The half-hour drive from Providence on I-95 to I-495 to U.S. 1 turned into an hour and a half due to the early buildup of snow and sleet on the highways and byways leading to Gillette Stadium. I'm not a nervous driver, but there were a few times when I felt the Chrysler chariot starting to skid even though I was keeping the speed between 25-40 mph the whole way.

Then into Gillette, where dumptrucks with snowplows were trying to clear the accumulations in the lots. The media lot is normally spacious enough but with the several inches of snow and the poor parking habits of the early arrivers, there was virtually no room in the media lot. And the buildup of packed snow nearly got me hung up as I drove down an aisle between rows of parked vehicles.

I put my car on the end of a row, hopefully out of range of the plows, and as I got out, I heard, "Randy! Randy!" It was Ira from Staten Island. "Remember, '1713!' That was Ira's room at our hotel. It was also the prediction he gave me Saturday night for today's game. I don't have to tell you who's getting the 17.

Finally, I'm in the Gillette pressbox, left corner of the closed end zone, watching the ground crew busy clearing the snow from the tarp covering the field, which, in case you forgot, is no longer the choppy grass of last year's Game 9 meeting here but FieldTurf.

The tarp has been peeled off the far end of the field and that part looks fine, although the rain and freezing rain that will continue to fall into the afternoon will certainly affect the footing.

It's a nice touch by the Gillette operations people to put a burning "Yule Log" on the end zone scoreboard, have the fire effect going up the top of the lighthouse next to the scoreboard, and to have animated flames flickering on the mezzanine boards.

Jerome Boger is our referee today and he makes an audio cameo appearance, pronouncing "Mike check, 1-2-3-4" a few times. This will be the third time Boger has officiated a Jets game. He had last year's 28-20 win at Buffalo in Game 3 and this season's 13-3 loss to the Bills at the Meadowlands.

No players on the field yet. I'll file another pregame Radar entry before we get going around 1:02 p.m.