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harangatang
01-21-2008, 01:44 AM
Watching the Green Bay/Giants game tonight made me think of the 1981 AFC Championship Game or the "Freezer Bowl" in Cincinnati, which was the coldest game in NFL history. I just wondering if anyone was there or had any interesting stories about it. BTW I really like this new sub-forum.

MrCinatit
01-21-2008, 02:48 AM
I didn't see the game - my interest was purely baseball at the time.
From my understanding, one of the reasons the Bengals won was psychological: The Chargers are from a sunnier environment. When they saw some Bengals players show up in short sleeves, they felt they had lost the game.
"I'll never forget the cold that day. I can still feel it," former Bengals linebacker Reggie Williams, who also went bare-armed, told the Boston Globe's Jim McCabe. "It was so cold that day we didn't bother with the pregame warmups, but when we came out for the game and saw the Chargers, we could see it in their faces. They had just a little glimmer of false hope and we knew it was over. They saw us bare-armed; the intimidation factor had worked. It was worth it, from that standpoint."
linky (http://www.canada.com/globaltv/bc/story.html?id=6fe64986-8a66-43bc-ae10-6d61df946d04)

OesterPoster
01-21-2008, 08:40 AM
It certainly didn't help the Chargers that they had to play the epic marathon game against the Dolphins in Miami's heat and humidity the prior week.

redhawkfish
01-21-2008, 08:52 AM
The most amazing part of the weather was the Buffalo playoff game the week before had temps in the fifties.

Yachtzee
01-21-2008, 09:06 AM
I was telling my wife about this last night. She thought it was insane that guys were out there playing football without covering their arms, which is when I told her about the "Freezer Bowl" and how the Bengals were able to gain a psychological advantage over San Diego by coming out in short sleeves. Now it seems every team's linemen com out in short sleeves, all the time.

Note: While the absolute temperature of the "Ice Bowl" between Green Bay and Dallas was colder, the "Freezer Bowl" had a colder wind chill.

westofyou
01-21-2008, 09:47 AM
Watching the Green Bay/Giants game tonight made me think of the 1981 AFC Championship Game or the "Freezer Bowl" in Cincinnati, which was the coldest game in NFL history. I just wondering if anyone was there or had any interesting stories about it. BTW I really like this new sub-forum.

Coldest game I ever went to in my life, ordered a hot chocolate and it was cold by the time i drank my second sip, just miserably cold.

So cold I moved west 4 months later.

BTW That was easily my favorite Bengal team of them all.

redsmetz
01-21-2008, 10:47 AM
My wife and I were married just a few months, living in a drafty old house we were renting and we had friends over to watch the game. There are pictures of all of us sitting on our couch, wrapped in blankets with hats on watching that game. Brrr!!!!

OesterPoster
01-21-2008, 11:02 AM
Looking up stats for that game, and I noticed the official attendance was about 10,000 short of capacity. The Bengals/Bills game a week earlier had 56,000 or so...while the Freezer Bowl only had 45,000 or so.

I guess a lot of people ate their tickets that day, eh?

redsmetz
01-21-2008, 01:36 PM
Looking up stats for that game, and I noticed the official attendance was about 10,000 short of capacity. The Bengals/Bills game a week earlier had 56,000 or so...while the Freezer Bowl only had 45,000 or so.

I guess a lot of people ate their tickets that day, eh?

They burned them to stay warm. :D

pedro
01-21-2008, 01:48 PM
I was there. Freaking cold.

I've been a big fan of football on TV ever since.

Roy Tucker
01-21-2008, 01:53 PM
The worst part were the restrooms. They all froze-up solid. Nothing flushed and 60K people drinking beer. A giant pee-sicle. Gross doesn't even begin to describe it.

Coldest game I've ever been to. I was dressed for it (electric socks and everything) but I still was cold by the end of the game.

traderumor
01-21-2008, 01:59 PM
I was fortunately watching it on TV, but then had to go to work that night. That day has always been my standard of cold that has yet to be topped in this area, experientially anyhow.

Heath
01-21-2008, 02:06 PM
I love sporting events that have 45K of actual attendance, while 150K claim to show up.

I watched it in front of a roaring fire next to my grandpa. I was only 8 - what do you expect?

Hoosier Red
01-21-2008, 06:40 PM
My parents went with their friends, they all agreed they came in time for opening kick off, sat down with their layers and layers of blankets to keep warm(relatively) and didn't move until the end of the game.

GAC
01-21-2008, 08:44 PM
That Green Bay-Giants game was one heck of a game to watch yesterday. Thoroughly enjoyed the game. Especially when the wind chill was 20 below. How these guys could perform at the level they did was amazing.

A very bad 4th quarter by GB did them in. The only thing that kept them in the game at that point, and even sent it to OT, was the Giants own miscues.

Still - a solid game to watch.

klw
01-22-2008, 06:40 AM
"The Sea was angry that day my friend"