It’s going to be colder than a brass toilet seat on the shady side of an iceberg when the Vikings and Seahawks meet in Minneapolis for Sunday’s playoff game.
The latest forecast, via The Weather Channel, calls for the game-time temp at noon Sunday to be 3-degrees below zero, with a windchill around 20-below.
The National Weather Service portrayed the incoming temperature plummet with a graph that resembles the the 2008 stock market crash.
Big change in store this weekend-coldest air of the season arriving. Wind chills -15 to -30 possible. #mnwx #wiwx pic.twitter.com/GJMloyaHmD
— NWS Twin Cities (@NWSTwinCities) January 6, 2016
What does Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer think about playing in the cold?
“The wind effects things more than anything does,” Zimmer said Wednesday. “The cold is the cold. The ball’s gonna be harder, a little more slippery. … A lot of concentration when guys are out on the field. They gotta concentrate. Don’t worry about the cold, worry about playing.”
If the temperature is 2-below or colder at kickoff the game will go down as the third coldest game at kickoff in NFL history, according to NFL.com.
The three coldest at kickoff of all time?
- 13-below zero: 1967 NFL Championship, Packers and Cowboys
- 9-below zero: 1981 AFC Championship, Bengals and Chargers
- 1-below zero: 2007 NFC Championship, Giants and Packers
The first two on that list are now referred to as the “Ice Bowl” and “Freezer Bowl,” while the Giants-Packers game in 2007 is best remembered as the game Brett Favre threw a game-losing interception and coach Tom Coughlin looked like this.
"When we get in these cold games we want to use it to our advantage." – @teddyb_h2o
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) January 6, 2016
Saw the frigid temps forecast for #Vikings–#Seahawks. Someone will have to tackle Adrian Peterson or Marshawn Lynch in that weather. OUCH.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 6, 2016
For those of you going to the game, bundle up and use Zimmer’s advice. “They need to be loud and make sure they have some tailgating before they come out so they stay warm.”
