With the NFL playoffs come some of the coldest games in league history. Unless, of course, you’re lucky to find yourself inside a dome or traveling south.
While snow games bring excitement to fans’ television screens, it’s a completely different ball game when professional athletes are playing in frigid temperatures. Let’s look back on the coldest games in league history.
Revisiting the Coldest Games in League History
Let’s look back on the chilliest games in NFL history, which now includes one of the Wild Card games in the 2023 NFL playoffs.
5. Jan. 20, 2008 | New York Giants vs. Green Bay Packers
- Temperature: -4 degrees
- Wind Chill: -24 degrees
There’s a reason they call Lambeau Field the “Frozen Tundra,” and New York Giants players discovered this firsthand on Jan. 20, 2008. Two of the top five coldest games in NFL history were Green Bay Packers home games.
We’ll get to The Ice Bowl in a minute, but first, we need to talk about the -4-degree contest that took place in 2008. The Giants, who know a thing or two about cold-weather games themselves, ended up defeating Green Bay 23-20 in the 2007 NFC Championship Game.
Eli Manning and Brett Favre combined to throw 75 passes while both teams only ran a combined 50 times. The Giants had two weeks to thaw out before beating the then-undefeated New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII 17-14.
4. Jan. 13, 2024 | Miami Dolphins at Kansas City Chiefs
- Temperature: -4 degrees
- Wind Chill: -27 degrees
This is the most recent game on this list. Arrowhead Stadium now boasts the fourth-coldest NFL game in history.
Not only did the temperatures dip all the way down to -4 degrees by kickoff, but with the wind chill, it felt like -27 degrees.
While this AFC Wild Card contest will go down as the fourth-coldest NFL game ever, it will go down as the most frigid home game in Chiefs franchise history.
Patrick Mahomes threw for 262 yards and a touchdown, Rashee Rice caught eight passes for 130 yards and a touchdown, and Isiah Pacheco ran for 89 yards and a score. The Chiefs defeated the Dolphins 26-7 and went on to win the Super Bowl LVIII.
3. Jan. 10, 2016 | Seattle Seahawks vs. Minnesota Vikings
- Temperature: -6 degrees
- Wind Chill: -25 degrees
Turn away, Minnesota fans. While your beloved Vikings made the playoffs and were on the cusp of a win in the NFC Wild Card round, Blair Walsh missed a 27-yard field goal that would’ve given them a 12-10 lead with 22 seconds remaining.
Can you blame the weather for the missed kick? Sure. After all, it was -6 degrees Fahrenheit, the third-coldest game in NFL history. And when you factor in that Minnesota finished the afternoon with just 183 yards of total offense, there was minimal support for Walsh, who scored all nine points for the Vikings that day.
2. Jan. 10, 1982 | ‘Freezer Bowl’ San Diego Chargers vs. Cincinnati Bengals
- Temperature: -9 degrees
- Wind Chill: -59 degrees
Imagine traveling from sunny San Diego to Cincinnati to play a football game in wind chills of -59 degrees. That’s exactly what happened when the Chargers played the Bengals in the 1981 AFC Championship Game that has since been dubbed the “Freezer Bowl.”
The Bengals’ starting offensive linemen, headlined by Hall of Famer Anthony Munoz, played the entire contest without any sleeves on and coated their arms with Vaseline. The Bengals went on to win the contest 27-7 in front of over 46,000 (freezing) fans.
1. Dec. 31, 1967 | ‘Ice Bowl’ Dallas Cowboys vs. Green Bay Packers
- Temperature: -13 degrees
- Wind Chill: -48 degrees
The “Ice Bowl” holds the distinction of the coldest game in NFL history.
This game was played between the Dallas Cowboys and Packers back in 1967. It was a crisp -13 degrees Fahrenheit, while the wind chill made it feel like -48 degrees. The day before, it was 20 degrees, making it a 33-degree swing.
Neither team anticipated the cold temperatures, but both fought on, as did the 50,861 reported fans in the stands. On what was a frozen playing surface, the Packers beat out the Cowboys 21-17 for their third consecutive championship.
