The Draw Play

I was genuinely surprised to learn recently that The Ice Bowl is still the coldest game ever played. The Ice Bowl always felt like one of those legendary games that earned a nickname because it was impressive at the time but not actually all that impressive by modern standards after some 50 years had passed. Kind of like “The Catch”. Sure, The Catch is a pretty good catch, but if you’ve watched football in the past 5 years you see more impressive catches pretty frequently. I remember when I first saw The Catch. I was like “that was it? That’s what got the moniker of THE CATCH in NFL lore?” So without ever really looking into it, I figured the Ice Bowl was just like the first game to go into negative degrees or something, or it was given a fancy name because it happened to be the Championship, which gave it heightened importance.

Nope. The Ice Bowl remains the coldest game ever recorded to this day, by several degrees. -13 degrees at kickoff, with a -48 degree windchill. The less famous Freezer Bowl is the only game to really come close, as it had a warmer temperature but worse wind chill. The Blair Walsh shank game comes in at #3. Here’s the full top 10 if you are interested.

I went to a game in Buffalo in late December once when I was in college. It was the coldest I have ever been. Despite my wool, double-layered socks, I was unable to feel my feet by the end of the game. That game wasn’t even close to these nightmares. I cannot imagine playing sports in temperatures like that. Yeah, being active helps, but Football isn’t a constant motion game like soccer. It’s start and stop, with a lot of time on the bench when your side of the ball is waiting. Actually playing the game must have felt excruciating.

And yet the final score was 21-17. The two teams actually scored points in a relatively good game. The Packers, led by Bart Starr, would get the go-ahead TD in the final minutes over the Cowboys. Those Packers would go on to win Super Bowl 2. Multiple players got frostbite.

The fact that the record has stood this long does make you wonder if it will be broken. Green Bay is still outdoors and the team still likes to make the post-season for January football frequently. The Vikings are domed again (the Blair Walsh game was a fluke during the Metrodome collapse years). Kansas City is still outdoors, Cincy isn’t likely to build anything new anytime soon. Buffalo is being taken off the list with their new dome.

The big ones I’m surprised aren’t on the top list are New England, Chicago, and Cleveland. All outdoors, all very cold. The Patriots spent two decades playing January football in Foxboro and never managed a top-ten cold game. Cleveland and Chicago feel like worse potential spots, but both teams haven’t played many postseason home games in the past 3 decades. Both are also headed for domes in the coming years; Cleveland is set for a super lame new place in 2029 and Chicago is currently trying to figure out their next move.