The Ice Bowl
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. EDIT: apparently, the new Highmark Stadium is not actually a dome, I was positive they approved a dome, and I am happy it is not.
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.
That’s incredible, it’s amazing how a single game can become so iconic. The weather conditions must have been absolutely brutal for the players.
The new Bills stadium doesn’t have a dome. It does have massive heating elements to help fans, but will be open air still
Oh shit, I thought it was domed. That’s awesome
Yea, the new Highmark Stadium is open air. It’s modeled after the Spurs stadium in England, so the seats are covered from snow, but the field is exposed.
Ironically enough, the Bills were very close to building a domed stadium in Lancaster, N.Y., back in the early ’70s before they chose the Ralph site and design. I think it ended up being too cost-prohibitive.
I was at #5, Bears vs Vikings, as a 12 year-old. That wind chill was vicious. The Vikings had converted refrigerator dollies with two acetylene tanks strapped on them and a fan-shaped nozzle at the front pointed downwards, and they used them as mobile blowtorches to defrost the playing surface.
HC Bud Grant did not allow the Vikings players to have sideline heaters of any kind. He said being cold made you keep active and on their toes, and that if the fans had to endure the cold, so did they. We fans loved Bud so much.
Speaking of toes and getting back to the game, you have to remember that we didn’t have modern fabrics back then, just lots of cotton and wool. You had to wear multiple layers to keep warm. Everyone looked like the Michelin Man. Frostbite was common, including me. My two pairs of socks and snow shoes didn’t save my left little toe from frostbite and a week later, amputation. My mother was not pleased with my father. My father thought it was brilliant. I remember that game almost every time I put on socks or a pair of sandals. Freaks people out at poolside too. I’m happy, there’s one fewer nail to trim. Happy days.
Bud Grant, after winning the NBA Finals, coached for our Winnipeg Blue Bombers; and we’ve basically always been open air, and further north. So we’re very cold (-40 is the same in C and F). Although our season wraps up in November (I don’t really watch CFL, but my wife gives her dad bombers tickets each year for his birthday so I’ve been going more regularly).
I agree, there have been better catches. And you know football better than most people, but have you ever seen The Catch from multiple angles, specifically the live play? It’s infamous from that back end zone shot, which makes it honestly seem…..meh.
If you haven’t, watch this. I think it makes The Catch 100x better.
https://youtu.be/xLsFSsHnoxM?si=tJvsAerRAkv3p3JY
I’m with Dave, The Catch, from any angle, is very meh. Nearly every week now there are better catches.
Of course I’ve seen every angle of the catch, they play every angle of the catch when it comes up. Like I said: it’s a great catch, but you’ll see catches like that every week now. The reason The Catch is what it is is entirely due to the fact that, like the Ice Bowl, it was the Championship game, so it got lore.
I think it’s not “The Catch” because of the catch itself but because of the context–down 27-21, 3rd and 3 at the end of a drive that started at the 11 yard line of the Niners. And watching it, it really looked like Montana was just throwing the ball away to avoid a sack, and then Clark comes out of (seemingly) nowhere to make the catch. And, in retrospect, it became a turning point from the 70s dominance of the Cowboys to the 80s of the Niners and Washington, and later the Giants.
Exactly. Context is everything. Montana has 3 guys in his face, clock’s ticking away, it’s 3rd down, and up to this point in football history, it’s worth noting – a lot of these guys were not “athletes” in the sense that we know them today. They were drinking beer and eating hot dogs at half time, a lot of them barely worked out during the off season. To that point, it was a cool looking play at a cool looking moment. The NFL didn’t have 15 of those things every week, you certainly weren’t watching games outside of your market, so people watched less, the players were less athletic… this was genuinely amazing at the time, and like you said, GreeneSwannandHam, it was the moment that momentum shifted to the 9er dynasty, so people bookmarked it. By today’s standards, yea, the catch itself was meh. I’d still rate The Helmet Catch the best actual CATCH of all time (I’m biased, but c’mon now).
I still have to go with Swann’s catch against Dallas in Super Bowl X–admittedly a biased choice.
I can understand the Helmet Catch as painful as it is, is certainly a high watermark for Giants fans.
Personally I think the Edelman Falcons Superbowl catch would have to be my greatest catch. Just ridiculous. Although I can also see the catch that Butler gave up in the Superbowl with 1:15 or whatever it was that was left was great, although that was pretty flukey.
Much like when people scoff at “The Fog Bowl”, because of course fog is something that teams have played in before. When the reality is the “Fog” at that game (Eagles @ Bears, Dec 1988 – back when playoff games were that early) was more like a giant dark cloud. It was eventually so thick that the players couldn’t see more than a couple of yards in any direction, the sideline staff had no idea what plays were being run, the crowd and announcers were completely blind, and even the TV cameras could only catch snippets.
Also, Dave, do you have a tag for all of your Laterals comics?
https://www.thedrawplay.com/comic/the-fog-bowl/
Doh! And this is why the laterals need a tag. :p
Agree with the alt-text. It’s depressing how many domes there are. Football in the snow is the best and it hurts that we have less and less opportunities for it every year.
Lambeau will be the last stadium to become a dome if the other 31 get there first. I put Buffalo second least likely and New England third. I don’t count warm weather stadiums because who cares about them.
Imperial or metric, once it hits -40 you know it’s fuckin’ cold!
Oh dear lord, that new Browns stadium is hideous! It looks like a modern art sculpture vomited onto a football field! Taxpayers are being made to fork out $600 mil for that!?
Congrats Cleveland, you managed to make US Bank Stadium look like a masterpiece in comparison.
Mass doesn’t get that cold (like the great lake regions) because there is little altitude and it is between the Hudson River and the ocean which makes it a bit more temperate compared to inland Maine, NH, Vermont, the Adirondacks and the finger lakes region.
The exterior of Cleveland’s upcoming stadium looks like the trash left on my floor after unpacking my surround sound system. The interior is beautiful though–except for all the Browns logos.
The Lipton commercial never got to win a SB.