There aren’t too many NFL games that have been colder than Saturday night’s playoff matchup between the Chiefs and Dolphins.
When the two sides kicked off at Arrowhead Stadium temperatures dipped well-below zero degrees with wind chills as frigid as -27°.
Only three games in the history of the league can say they were colder than tonight’s action and only one since the turn of the century. Those games are:
1. The ‘Ice Bowl’ – -13° temperature; -48° wind chill factor
1967’s NFL Championship between the Packers and Cowboys is where Lambeau Field earned its nickname “The Frozen Tundra” from the great John Facenda.
The coldest game in NFL history didn’t stop fans from packing Lambeau Field to see Vince Lombardi’s Packers take on Tom Landry’s Cowboys, or from bearing witness to the gutsiest call in NFL history when Lombardi famously called a game-winning QB sneak as time expired to win the game and secure their third-straight NFL Championship title.
The Ice Bowl ❄️🏆
A look back at the 1967 @NFL Championship Game between the @packers and @dallascowboys.
It was and remains the coldest game in NFL history with a wind chill of 36 below zero. pic.twitter.com/o66fMojyaC
— Mitchell & Ness (@mitchell_ness) January 12, 2024
2. The ‘Freezer Bowl’ – -9° temperature, -59° wind chill factor
There’s a reason Boomer Esiason wasn’t impressed by tonight’s conditions. In the 1981 AFC Championship, Esiason’s predecessor Ken Anderson led the Bengals in the AFC Championship Game amid 30 MPH gusts that nearly dipped to -60° in a 27-7 win over the Dan Fouts and the San Diego Chargers.
Unfortunately, Dan Fouts and San Diego never stood a chance and it was the closest the Hall of Fame QB would ever come to a Super Bowl.
8-YEARS AGO TODAY: #Vikings kicker Blair Walsh missed a 27 yard field goal in the playoffs that would’ve sent Minnesota to the divisional round.
Was one of the 3 coldest games in league history.
LIFE GOES BY REALLY FAST
pic.twitter.com/dNZWCbp2HU— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) January 11, 2024
3. The ‘Wide Left’ Game – -6° temperature, -25° wind chill factor
In a rare outdoor home game for the Vikings as their new stadium was being built, Minnesota was a 27-yard Blair Walsh field goal away from taking down the Seahawks in the 2016 wild card round.
That kick went inches to the left though, abruptly ending their playoff hopes yet again.
That would be Walsh’s final game with the Vikings and the Seahawks would reward him with a contract next season.