GREEN BAY, Wis. — Today’s NFC championship game at Green Bay isn’t likely to be the coldest ever in the NFL, although temperatures are expected to be near zero at kickoff.
The coldest game in NFL history was the 1981 AFC championship game, played Jan. 10, 1982, at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium. The temperature was minus-9, and the wind chill plunged the readings to minus-59 as the Bengals beat San Diego 27-7.
Next was the Ice Bowl on Dec. 31, 1967 for the NFL title at Lambeau Field. The Packers beat Dallas 21-17 on Bart Starr’s quarterback sneak in the final seconds. It was minus-13 that day and the wind-chill factor was estimated at minus-48.
Projections for today are temperatures reaching a high of 3 degrees, and with kickoff set for 5:30 p.m. local time, the thermometer almost certainly will register below zero during what amounts to a night game. And wind could be a significant factor.
By Green Bay standards, the weather for the AFC championship game at New England will be downright balmy.
The forecast for today’s game between the San Diego Chargers and Patriots called for a temperature of 24 degrees, a wind chill of 13 and a slight chance of flurries. Kickoff is 3 p.m.
“I’m from Florida. I can handle the weather. They’ll handle the weather,” Patriots fullback Heath Evans said this week. “I’ve said it before, sometimes we wish we could play the weather because that’s pretty easy to beat — you can get warm.”
The coldest game ever at Gillette Stadium was on Jan. 10, 2004, when the Patriots beat the Tennessee Titans in 4 degree temperatures.
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