A nationwide flight ground stop issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Friday, November 13, disrupted air travel across the United States and raised concerns about possible delays for professional and college football teams preparing for weekend games.
The temporary telecommunications and communications outage affected multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers. The FAA’s directive began at approximately 4:00 p.m. ET and instructed that “all departing traffic should remain ground stopped until further notice.” An advisory listed 11:00 p.m. ET as the estimated end time, but the ground stop was lifted at about 8:15 p.m. ET. Even after flights were cleared to resume, aviation operations had not returned to normal.
The disruption left thousands of passengers stranded at airports and prompted questions about whether teams traveling for upcoming games could reach their destinations on schedule. The NFL had not changed any game times as of November 13, though league officials were monitoring the situation.
“It’s too early. We could address the issue at the appropriate time, if necessary,” an NFL spokesman said.
The White House said there was no indication that the outage resulted from a cyberattack or an act of terrorism. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy attributed the problem to aging technology and an overload of data affecting the air traffic control system.
“What we have is an incredibly old air traffic control system,” Duffy said. “Our routers actually got overloaded with data and … they started to give us inconsistency in the data from those routers. And because of that, we shut the system down.”
The service interruption created travel uncertainty for people with work, personal and sporting commitments. For NFL teams, the potential effects varied depending on where they were traveling from and how much time remained before kickoff.
The Los Angeles Rams were scheduled to fly to Arizona on Saturday for their Week 10 game against the Cardinals. The Los Angeles Chargers were set to travel east to Baltimore on Saturday afternoon ahead of Monday Night Football. If the Rams’ flight plans were disrupted, a chartered bus could offer an alternative for the roughly 390-mile trip. However, a six- to seven-hour drive less than 48 hours before kickoff could interfere with the team’s preparations.
The San Francisco 49ers also faced a considerable distance if they could not fly to Dallas. The road trip would cover about 1,724 miles, compared with an approximately 1,440-mile flight. The Seattle Seahawks, scheduled to play the Raiders, would need to travel nearly 1,125 miles by road to Las Vegas rather than flying roughly 876 miles.
Some teams had already reached their destinations before the ground stop began. The New England Patriots and Detroit Lions, who were scheduled to face each other in Germany, arrived safely in Munich. The Patriots landed on Thursday, and the Lions followed on Friday before the FAA issued its directive.
Other Week 10 teams had shorter or more manageable travel plans, making major travel-related disruption less likely. The Cincinnati Bengals were scheduled to play in Pittsburgh, the Buffalo Bills were headed to the New York Jets, and the Minnesota Vikings were visiting the Green Bay Packers.
## College Football Teams Also Face Travel Uncertainty
The flight disruption also raised questions about travel for college football programs. Games scheduled for Friday, November 13, were considered less likely to be postponed or canceled because many teams traveling for those matchups had already reached their destinations on Thursday. Teams still scheduled to travel for Saturday games, however, could face delays or changes to their plans.
Several programs were reported to be waiting on flights. The teams listed as being in travel limbo included Baylor, Kansas State, Utah and Arizona State from the Big 12; Ole Miss, Tennessee and Texas from the SEC; and Minnesota, Purdue and Washington from the Big Ten. Oregon State, Wyoming and North Texas were also reported to be affected.
All visiting teams in the ACC had reached their destinations, according to the update. The status of other teams depended on how quickly flights could resume and whether airlines and airports could work through the backlog created by the ground stop.
The FAA’s decision to halt departures was intended to address inconsistent data from overloaded routers in an aging system. But the timing—just before a busy weekend of football—left teams, passengers and league officials watching closely as travel operations resumed. At the time, the NFL had not announced any changes to its schedule, while the travel plans of several college teams remained uncertain.
