Frosty reception awaits Seahawks
Seattle players, coaches shrug off concerns over freezing temps in Minnesota
When the Seattle Seahawks take the field Sunday in Minneapolis, the temperature figures to be around -18 C.
This might pose a problem to some. It won’t to Richard Sherman.
“They always say think warm thoughts,” says the irrepressible Seahawks cornerback. “I’ll be on the beach in Tahiti somewhere.”
The weather for Sunday’s wild-card game has emerged as a storyline equal to the Seahawks’ defence of Vikings running back Adrian Peterson or the Vikings’ ability to contain quarterback Russell Wilson.
With the forecast pegged for a high of -15 C and a low of -20 C, the game won’t quite get to the level of the NFL’s two most celebrated, coldweather games — the ’67 NFL title game between Green Bay and Dallas, when temperatures hit -26 C at Lambeau Field, and the ’82 AFC championship between Cincinnati and San Diego, when the wind chill hit -50 C at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium.
But it will still get the attention of the Seahawks and the Vikings.
If it doesn’t, helpful media folks will be there to remind them.
“We’re well aware of what we’re going towards and everybody’s prepared,” said Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll. “It’s not going to be an issue for us going forward. We’re just going to go and play football and do the things that we know how to do, regardless of the conditions.”
But what about the challenges of preparing your team for the elements?
“It’s already done,” Carroll said. “I think we’ve already addressed it.”
We’ll know soon enough if that’s wishful thinking.
In an unfortunate bit of timing, the Vikings have been forced outdoors to the University of Minnesota, while their new indoor home, U.S. Bank Stadium, awaits completion. The Vikes played indoors at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome for 21 years before it was demolished in January 2014.
The new park is being built on the site of the HumpDome, as it was known to locals, but won’t be ready until the 2016 season. That leaves the wild-card game, where the presumption is the Vikings will be more accustomed to the Arctic temperatures.
“We’ve had a lot of these kind of games,” said Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer. “We played Carolina last year when it was pretty cold (a 35-13 Vikings win when it hit -11 C), played the Giants on Sunday night (a 49-17 Vikings win in -11 C) when it was pretty cold. Last week in Green Bay (a 20-13 Vikes win) was not as cold, but it was still cold.” Over to you, Seattle. “We’re kind of built for it,” said offensive co-ordinator Darrell Bevell. “We’re a running team, a running philosophy, so we know that to hand the ball to the running backs 25, 30 times is exactly how we want to play the game. You can still throw the ball, but you have to protect the ball, be smart with it and that’s what we plan on doing.”