Cold weather takes centre stage in Green Bay
Temperatures well below freezing are the only certainty heading into Sunday’s playoff match
The Green Bay Packers may be about to host the coldest game in National Football League history, eclipsing their own record set during the 1967 game known as the Ice Bowl.
The coldest air in 18 years might arrive in Wisconsin the night before the Jan. 5 first- round playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers at Lambeau Field, according to Cameron Moreland, chief meteorologist at TV channel NBC 26 in Green Bay. The forecast is a factor in slow ticket sales, according to resellers.
“Cold weather in Lambeau Field, it’s a tough place to play,” Packers fullback John Kuhn said. “I’m sure they’ve got all kinds of ideas and plans of how they’re going to prepare for the weather, so it’s going to come down to execution on game day and whoever does that best.”
If an Arctic blast reaches the city before the 3: 40 p. m. local time kickoff, the temperature will rival that of the Dec. 31, 1967, NFL Championship game between the Packers and the Dallas Cowboys, which started at the same stadium with the temperature at - 25 C, Moreland said. Green Bay won that game, 21- 17.
“The big question is which one of those computer forecast models are correct,” Moreland said in a telephone interview. “It’s a difference between a cold game and a historically cold game.”
Moreland’s forecast for the day after the game is a high of - 25 C with wind chills of - 45 degrees possible, which would be in the top 10 coldest days in Green Bay’s history, he said.
The term “frozen tundra” that became associated with Lambeau Field was attributed to NFL Films narrator John Facenda’s reference to the Ice Bowl. Heating coils placed under the turf before that season froze during the game, turning the field into a sheet of ice. The Packers won when Bart Starr scored a touchdown on a quarterback sneak with 16 seconds left in the game. By then, the temperature had fallen to - 28 C.
In the second- coldest game, the temperature was - 22 C on Jan. 10, 1982, when the Bengals beat the San Diego Chargers 27- 7 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. The wind chill made it feel like - 50 C. The third- coldest was the New York Giants 23- 20 overtime win in - 18 C weather in Green Bay on Jan. 20, 2008, in the National Football Conference Championship game.
The approaching cold front is affecting the Packers’ attempts to sell out the game and avoid a television blackout that would be mandated by league rules. Read the latest sports news at vancouversun. com/ sports