Playing a September road game against the Miami Dolphins sounds miserable.

Not because the Dolphins are good — they're not — but because of the weather.

It will come as no surprise that South Florida is hot and muggy this time of year, a recipe for miserable conditions on a football field. Both teams play on the same field in the same weather.

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But the Dolphins have found a way to weaponize that smothering heat against their opponents at Hard Rock Stadium, to tilt home field advantage in their favor.

The canopy design

Hard Rock Stadium's open air canopy, added in 2016, was engineered so that during a typical 1 p.m. game, of which the Dolphins play many, the angle of the sun shadows the Dolphins' south sideline while beaming direct, unfiltered solar radiation onto the visiting sideline.

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During a mid-October 2022 game, thermometers indicated that the home team's sideline in the shade was about 90 degrees, while the away sideline thermometers read 122. That's a radiant heat difference of over 30 degrees.

The uniforms

Apparently, nobody told the Dolphins not to wear white after Labor Day, because that's pretty much all they wear.

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Generally, NFL teams wear their team color jerseys at home and their white ones on the road. Miami, on the other hand, chooses to wear their white jerseys at home if it's hot and in the afternoon, which is most of their games, most of the season. That means the opponent has to wear their team-color jersey, usually a pretty dark color.

Dark colors absorb almost all wavelengths of visible light and convert that light energy into thermal energy, heating up the opponents' jerseys. Light colors, like white, reflect most of those wavelengths away, keeping Dolphins players cooler.

With the combination of the relentless sun with the darker jerseys, the weather has taken a toll on several Dolphins opponents in recent memory. It shouldn't be much of a problem for the Kansas City Chiefs, however, as they take the field at Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday afternoon for Miami's home opener.

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