How important is home-field advantage?

Home-field advantage used to mean something, and I suspect that it still does. I do though wonder if it still matters as much as it once did. In the case of our Miami Dolphins, there is an advantage to having all the players practice and then play in the heat that exists in South Florida at any given time during the season. The hottest I have ever been at a live game was a playoff game that took place at the Orange Bowl on January 3rd. At that point in the year, it can either be super nice out in Miami or so damn hot you think that there is zero chance that it can be January. It was a game that the Dolphins had to mount a comeback in, eventually defeating the Cleveland Browns. There is no doubt that the Dolphins' conditioning in the heat aided in the comeback.

There is, of course, the flip side. The Dolphins seemed to be holding their own in their second game last season against the Buffalo Bills, in Buffalo, right up until the point where it began to snow like crazy. It was like a switch was flipped, and just like the heat that had worn down the Bills in Miami earlier in the season, the cold, and especially the heavy snow seemed to stifle the Dolphins late in the game. But what about the games where all things are otherwise daily pleasant for both teams? There are those days that are pleasant or pleasant enough in nearly any stadium at the right time of the year. There are also plenty of domed stadiums where the weather plays zero part in the outcome of the game.

So tonight's question is how much do you believe "home-field advantage," if all things are equal outside of the "home crowd," play in the actual outcome of NFL games? Do you think “home-field advantage” is as important as ever, or do you see it as something that is overrated in picking the outcome of games?

Please give us your answers and thoughts on home-field advantage in the comments section below-