It was so cold that Patrick Mahomes’ helmet shattered on a hit, Andy Reid’s mustache froze on the sideline, and fans and players huddled for warmth, trying their best to grit their way through the fourth-coldest game in NFL history.
The Kansas City Chiefs managed to handle the adversity well on Saturday night, and handled the Miami Dolphins quite well, too.
Mahomes threw for 262 yards, found Rashee Rice eight times for 130 yards and a touchdown, and made several daring runs for key first downs, while Isiah Pacheco pounded over the frozen turf for 89 yards and another score, as the Chiefs shut down a prolific Miami offense in a 26-7 victory in the wild-card round of the playoffs.
Photo: AFP
“Guys came with that attitude, that mentality — we knew it was going to be cold,” Mahomes said. “All week we were preaching: ‘Let’s come in there with that fire and just get after it and see what happens.’”
Meanwhile, the injury-depleted Dolphins (11-7) looked nothing like the same dynamic offense that led the league in yards. Tua Tagovailoa was pressured relentlessly by the NFL’s second-ranked defense, wide receiver Tyreek Hill had a 53-yard touchdown catch, but was otherwise shut down in his return to Kansas City, and the Dolphins finished with 264 yards in all.
“Losing is never fun, and when the stakes are higher — when it’s playoff time — you feel that maybe 10 times more,” said Tagovailoa, who was just 20 of 39 for 199 yards passing with an interception. “We’ve got to live with that loss.”
Photo: Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY
It was minus-20°C at kickoff, easily setting a record for the coldest game at Arrowhead Stadium, but it was wind gusts, whipping through at more than 40kph and driving the wind chill to a bone-rattling minus-33°C, that made the weather truly miserable for just about everyone.
That included pop star Taylor Swift, who once again turned up to see her boyfriend, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
She at least got to watch from an enclosed suite. Most fans bundled up outside in parkas, ski goggles and snow pants, while players huddled around heaters on the sidelines as if they were oases in the cold.
Photo: Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY
The National Weather Service even issued a warning for what it called “dangerously cold” weather that had blanketed the midwest.
“The spectators need to be prepared. Think cold ski trip or ice fishing,” said Sarah Spelsberg, who teaches in Northeastern University’s Graduate Program in Extreme Medicine. “If it’s me, I’m wearing ski goggles, too. There would not be a millimeter of my skin showing in these temperatures. I had frostbite one time and I never wanted to have it again.”
About six hours before kickoff, stadium workers began to plow snow from the tarp covering the field, scoop it into trucks and drive it away. The field itself is heated, and it appeared to thaw out as game time approached.
The cold might have made Mahomes’ helmet brittle enough that a hit in the third quarter knocked a chunk of the plastic shell from it. Once officials saw the fist-sized hole, they made Mahomes get a backup helmet from the bench.
“We have to talk about where we store the backup,” Mahomes said with a smile. “It was like, frozen.”
As for the fans, the Chiefs had numerous warming stations throughout the stadium, and they bent some of their rules to help them deal with the weather. Fans were allowed to carry in blankets, provided they had no zippers or compartments, and could use portable chargers to power heated apparel.
Fans also could bring cardboard to put under their feet, a useful tip Chiefs safety Justin Reid passed along this week.
“I’ve been thinking of ways to add warmth all week and did find a pair of ski goggles that I plan to wear, said Lauren Bays, a Chiefs fan from Smithville, Missouri.
Not every fan is a diehard. Ticket prices on the secondary market plummeted throughout the week as fans tried to unload their seats. The price to get in was less than US$30 by Saturday morning, or about 10 percent of what it would normally cost, and empty seats were visible at kickoff.
The coldest game in league history remains minus-25°C for the 1967 NFL championship, when the Greenbay Packers beat the Dallas Cowboys at Lambeau Field in a game that came to be known as the Ice Bowl. The wind chill that day was minus-44°C degrees.
In Houston, the Texans dominated the Cleveland Browns 45-14, as rookie C.J. Stroud became the youngest quarterback to win a playoff game, throwing for 274 yards and three touchdowns.
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