With Steelers-Bills set for blizzard, a look at some of the worst-weather NFL playoff games
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Perhaps as much as three feet of snow. Possible wind gusts of more than 60 mph. Wind-chill factors well into negative numbers.
It remains to be seen exactly how bad the weather ends up in Orchard Park, N.Y., for Sunday’s wild-card round playoff game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Buffalo Bills.
But in more than a century of NFL history, there are no shortage of postseason games played in inclement winter conditions. The calendar dictates as much for a sport in which the playoffs always have fallen in the dead of winter.
Here’s a look at some previous bad-weather NFL postseason games:
1. Steelers ice Raiders
The official temperature was 17 degrees with a wind-chill of minus-10 for the AFC championship game. Bad, but far from the worst that’s been played. What made this game memorable was the sheet of ice that formed around the inside edges of the playing surface at Three Rivers Stadium. Oakland Raiders coach John Madden implied the Steelers facilitated that on purpose in an effort to slow his team’s wide receivers. The Steelers won 16-10.
2. “The Ice Bowl”
Arguably the granddaddy of all of pro football’s winter-weather postseason games, the gametime temperature was minus-15 degrees with a wind chill of around minus-40. Tales have been told of marching-band members hospitalized for hypothermia and players’ cars players cars not starting, preventing them from getting to Lambeau. The Green Bay Packers beat the Dallas Cowboys, 17-10.
3. “The Freezer Bowl”
In the coldest recorded calculated wind-chill for a game (minus-59, via the method used at the time), the host Cincinnati Bengals beat the San Diego Chargers, 27-7. The Bengals won the game’s opening coin toss and instead of taking the ball (there was no option to defer at that time) instead elected to play with the wind at their backs. Chargers tight end Kellen Winslow, decades later, said he still was suffering lingering issues from frostbite suffered that day.
4. 1948 championship blizzard
There was no scoring until the fourth quarter of the 1948 NFL championship game at Shibe Park. The host Philadelphia Eagles beat the Chicago Cardinals, 7-0, in what remains the lowest-scoring championship game. Fans were told that if they arrived with a shovel, they could watch the game for free. Before kickoff, players from both teams were summoned from the locker room to help remove a tarp that covered the field and was weighed down by snow.
5. The Tuck Rule
In the first of Tom Brady’s record 48 playoff games, an obscure rule that turned what looked like an obvious Brady fumble into an incomplete pass and helped launch the sport’s greatest dynasty. While the snowfall during the Jan. 19, 2002, AFC divisional playoff game was measured at only about 4 inches, the heaviest fall was between 8 to 10 p.m. — right as the game was starting and being played, making for a visual of an even heavier snow for the New England Patriots’ 16-13 overtime win against the Raiders.
6. Rare modern outdoor game in Minnesota
Since 1982, the Minnesota Vikings have called a pair of domes their home stadiums. But for two years while the Metrodome was torn down to make way for U.S. Bank Stadium in 2014-15, the Vikings played outdoors at TCF Bank Stadium. As luck would have it, they hosted a postseason game at the end of the 2015 season — and the thermometer read minus-6 with wind chills at minus-25 for a low-scoring game won 10-9 by the visiting Seattle Seahawks.
7. 1988 Fog Bowl in Chicago
For this New Year’s Eve 1988 divisional playoff game at Chicago’s Soldier Field, the temperature was a relatively balmy 25 degrees with a peaceful 7 mph wind. But what made this game stand out for its weather was a thick coating of dense fog that made visibility virtually nonexistent at times. The Bears beat the Eagles, 20-12.
8. Below zero at Lambeau
Lawrence Tynes’ 47-yard field goal in overtime lifted the New York Giants to a 23-20 win at the Packers in an NFC championship game played at frostbitten Lambeau. While it didn’t quite get as cold as the Ice Bowl played there 40 years earlier, the official gametime temperature was minus-1 with a windchill of minus-23 degrees.
9. Minus-20 wind chill by the lake
At the time the coldest game since The Ice Bowl, the Raiders beat the Cleveland Browns, 14-12, in a 1980 AFC divisional game at Municipal Stadium. Officially 2 degrees with a wind-chill of minus-20, the game became dubbed “The Red Right 88 Game” because of the playcall that all but ended it:a Brian Sipe pass intended for Ozzie Newsome that was intercepted by Oakland’s Mike Davis in the final minute.
10. Cold in Orchard Park
Buffalo has hosted no shortage of frigid games, and a memorably good one came during the 1993 season’s AFC divisional round when there were five lead changes in what ended up a 29-23 Bills win against the then-Los Angeles Raiders. The official gametime temperature Jan. 15, 1994, was 0 degrees with a minus-32 wind-chill.
Exactly one day short of 30 years later, the Bills again will host a playoff game that figures to be remembered for its weather conditions.
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