KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins performed the fourth-coldest sport in NFL historical past on Saturday evening, with bitter wind chills that made it really feel even colder at kickoff and intrepid followers bundled up in parkas, snow pants and ski goggles.
The temperature for the wild-card playoff sport was minus-4 levels Fahrenheit (minus-20 Celsius), and wind gusts as much as 27 mph made for a wind chill of minus-27 levels. That shattered the document for the coldest sport in Arrowhead Stadium historical past, which had been 1 diploma, set in a 1983 sport towards Denver and matched in 2016 towards Tennessee.
The coldest sport in league historical past stays minus-13 for the 1967 NFL championship, when the Packers beat the Cowboys at Lambeau Field in a sport that got here to be referred to as the Ice Bowl. The wind chill that day was minus-48 levels.
The bitter chilly Saturday didn’t appear to trouble followers, although. Among them was pop superstar-turned-Chiefs fan Taylor Swift, who arrived sporting a puffy winter coat designed to appear to be the jersey of her boyfriend, Kansas City tight finish Travis Kelce.
Many followers started displaying up on the parking gates greater than 12 hours earlier than kickoff Saturday, starting their tailgating proper on the street. And whereas there was much less tailgating than common, the scent of pregame barbecue nonetheless wafted by the parking tons.
“We definitely had that initial shock when we looked at the forecast,” mentioned Chiefs season ticket holder Keaton Schlatter, who drove from West Des Moines, Iowa, for Saturday evening’s sport. “We thought about maybe posting our tickets for sale and if they don’t sell, then we would go. But we decided that it’s all part of the experience.”
At least Chiefs and Dolphins followers may make it to the stadium.
The NFL was involved that no one may make it to the Bills’ sport towards the Steelers on Sunday in Buffalo, the place a blizzard was anticipated to drop a few ft of snow. So, the league and New York state officers determined to postpone the wild-card sport till Monday, when the brunt of the snow was anticipated to have ended.
“We want our Bills to win,” Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz mentioned at a information convention in suburban Buffalo, “but we don’t want 60,000 to 70,000 people traveling to the football game in what’s going to be horrible conditions.”
The snow wasn’t the issue in Kansas City, the place extra fell Saturday morning however tapered off earlier than kickoff. Rather, the massive concern was what the National Weather Service referred to as “dangerously cold” wind chills, which have been anticipated to make a forecasted temperature of minus-10 levels by the end really feel extra like minus-30.
“The spectators need to be prepared. Think cold ski trip or ice fishing,” mentioned Dr. 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 earlier than kickoff, stadium employees started to plow snow from the tarp protecting the sector, scoop it into vans and drive it away. The area itself is heated, although, and it appeared to thaw out as gametime approached.
Dolphins large receiver Tyreek Hill, who was again at Arrowhead Stadium for his first sport since Kansas City traded him away, walked out for pregame warmups sporting a short-sleeve shirt. Chiefs linebacker Leo Chenal, who grew up in Wisconsin, arrived sporting shorts. Several different gamers, together with Kelce, additionally had pores and skin displaying when the Chiefs took the sector for his or her opening drive.
As for the followers, the Chiefs had quite a few warming stations all through the stadium, and so they bent a few of their guidelines to assist them take care of the climate. Fans have been allowed to hold in blankets, offered that they had no zippers or compartments, and will use moveable chargers to energy the type of heated attire that Schlatter was bringing to the sport.
Fans additionally may deliver cardboard to place beneath their ft, a helpful tip Chiefs security Justin Reid handed alongside this week.
“Trying to figure out what to wear that will be the warmest has been the concerning part,” mentioned Lauren Bays, a Chiefs fan from Smithville, Missouri. “I’ve been thinking of ways to add warmth all week and did find a pair of ski goggles that I plan to wear.”
Not each fan is a diehard. Ticket costs on the secondary market plummeted all through the week as followers tried to unload their seats. The worth to get in was lower than $30 by Saturday morning, or about 10% of what it will usually price, and empty seats have been seen at kickoff.
The climate in all probability put a chill into the Dolphins, whose loss to Buffalo final week price them a possibility to host a house playoff sport this weekend. They practiced all week in Miami, and it was 86 levels on Friday once they stepped on the airplane to Kansas City. It was 10 levels with a wind chill of minus-6 once they arrived, an nearly 100-degree distinction.
“You can’t prepare for a game like that with that kind of weather, so it’ll be new,” mentioned Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who grew up in Hawaii and performed his faculty soccer within the relative heat of Alabama.
“Cold’s cold. For you, me — it’s cold,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid mentioned. “But you go do your thing. That’s how you go play.”
