If you’re in the Northeast or the Midwest, complaining about the cold is almost an official pastime for 2015. However, the next time you’re grumbling through sidewalk shoveling or bemoaning the fortune you’ve lost on chapstick purchases, be thankful about one thing; you may hate the cold, but at least you don’t have to play football in it.
This weekend, if you have tickets to the AFC Championship (And it’s not too late to save on AFC Championship tickets with ScoreBig.com) you can expect highs of 44 degrees. That’s a borderline Hawaiian climate when compared to these five games.
Here are the coldest games on record in NFL history:
1. The Ice Bowl
The most famous of them all. The Dallas Cowboys and Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers squared off in the 1967 NFL Championship Game (now the equivalent of an NFC conference final matchup). The air temperature at Lambeau Field was recorded at -15 degrees. Whistles froze to referees’ lips, forcing them to officiate the game verbally, and at one point CBS announcer Frank Gifford famously quipped, “I’m going to take a bite of my coffee.” Green Bay won, 21-17.
2. The Freezer Bowl
The Ice Bowl may have sported the lowest air temperature, but this 1981 AFC Championship Game had the league’s lowest wind chill (estimated at just about -60 degrees). The hometown Cincinnati Bengals topped the warm-weather San Diego Chargers, 27-7
3. 1996 AFC Divisional Round
The Indianapolis Colts traveled to Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium, where game-time thermometers were as low as -6 degrees. The frigid conditions made both teams’ air attack all but impossible; the Colts grinded away to a 10-7 win, with a third-quarter Cary Blanchard field goal being the ultimate decider.
4. The “Red Right 88” Game
Cleveland Stadium was -5 degrees during this 1981 divisional playoff game between the Browns and visiting Oakland Raiders. Down 14-12 and within range for a game-winning field goal, the Browns instead opted for the passing play that gives the game its name. Cleveland QB Brian Sipe forced a pass in the end zone that was picked off by Raiders safety Mike Davis, solidifying Oakland’s victory.
5. 2008 NFC Championship Game
It wasn’t quite the Ice Bowl, but things got pretty freezing (between -1 and -5 degrees) for this contest between the Packers and the New York Giants. Big Blue intercepted Brett Favre in overtime (it was the last pass he ever threw as a Packer), which set up a game-winning field goal from Lawrence Tynes. The Giants went on to improbably upset the undefeated Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.
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By Thomas McKenna
