Freezer Bowl

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Freezer Bowl is the unofficial name for the American football final of the American Football Conference of the National Football League between the San Diego Chargers and the Cincinnati Bengals in the Riverfront Stadium of the Bengals on January 10, 1982 , which took place at an air temperature of −22 degrees Celsius and with a wind chill of −51 degrees Celsius. According to Windchill, it's the coldest NFL game to date.

prehistory

The Bengals had won 12 of their 16 season games in the regular season and had defeated the Buffalo Bills just 28-21 in the first playoff game in the club's history . The Chargers (10 wins of the season) had defeated the Miami Dolphins away with 41-38 after extra time in the first round (the game went down in history as "The Epic in Miami"), with an air temperature of 30 degrees Celsius and almost 100% humidity was one of the hottest NFL playoff games ever. Although the Bengals had clearly defeated the Chargers by 40-17 in the regular season, a close game was generally expected.

In the week before the game, there was a major snow storm over Hudson Bay . Due to an extremely low pressure area over Northeast America, gusts from this hurricane were sucked 2,500 kilometers across the border to Cincinnati. They blew through the stadium at 70 km / h and cooled the already cold game day (−22 degrees Celsius) down to what felt like −51 degrees Celsius with the wind chill.

Before the game, Bengals coach Forrest Gregg (who himself played in the similarly cold 1967 Ice Bowl ) swore his team to treat this game like a visit to the dentist: "It will hurt, but we have to go anyway." Bengals running back Hank Bauer said that when you went out the cold knocked you down "like 100 knives". Several teammates wore earmuffs and / or face masks, but some did not use heat protection at all: they argued that it was so cold that any protection (sweater, thick gloves, long johns, etc.) was futile, so that they could play the whole game bare upper arms and only denied in normal trousers, only with a thin layer of petroleum jelly over the arms. Bengal Guard Jack Lapham wore a plastic bag and another pair of socks over his socks.

game

From the start, the home side from Cincinnati didn't give the guests from San Diego a chance. After a field goal from kicker Jim Breech and a touchdown throw from quarterback Ken Anderson on tight end ML Harris, the Bengals quickly led 10-0. Chargers quarterback Dan Fouts countered with a long touchdown pass to tight end Kellen Winslow , but in the Chargers' next attack Fouts underwent an interception that Cincinnati running back Pete Johnson used several plays later for another touchdown. After another breech field goal and a touchdown from tight end Don Bass , the Bengals won 27-7.

An important factor was the different offense philosophy of the teams. While the Chargers relied on long throws - which were difficult with gusts of 70 km / h and cold, heavy air - the Bengals specialized in short, fast plays that are easier to implement in bad weather. Some journalists later pointed out that the Chargers had played at 30 degrees Celsius a week earlier and reacted particularly badly to the cold shock of what felt like −51 degrees Celsius.

As the ground was completely icy, the players' feet froze. If a player went down after a tackle, they hit "like concrete". Bengals kicker Breech, who kicked five successful field goals or point-after-touchdown kicks, suffered in a different way: the cold made the football so hard that it felt “like a brick” and he hit a thick one for days Sore foot swelling.

The different performances of the quarterbacks were noticeable. While Ken Anderson (Bengals) - the reigning Most Valuable Player - gained 161 yards of space, 14 of his 22 throws were successful and he scored two touchdowns (no interception), his counterpart Dan Fouts threw for 185 yards, but only completed 15 of his 28 Throws and suffered two interceptions on only one touchdown. Fouts had trouble gripping the football throughout the game (he had skipped gloves because he couldn't throw them) and later reported that he "couldn't get his helmet off because it was frozen." Anderson benefited from his large hands, with which he could grasp the egg more easily, and from his ability to throw the egg with almost stiff hands with the necessary twist so that it flies smoothly through the air. Fouts later admitted watching Anderson "with respect".

Scoring

  • CIN 3: SD 0 - CIN field goal by Jim Breech from 31 yards
  • CIN 10: SD 0 - CIN touchdown by ML Harris after an 8-yard throw by Ken Anderson (kick from Jim Breech successful)
  • CIN 10: SD 7 - SD touchdown by Kellen Winslow after a 33-yard throw by Dan Fouts (kick from Rolf Benirschke successful)
  • CIN 17: SD 7 - CIN Touchdown by Pete Johnson after a 1-yard run (Jim Breech kicked successfully)
  • CIN 20: SD 7 - Jim Breech's CIN field goal from 38 yards
  • CIN 27: SD 7 - CIN touchdown by Don Bass after a 3-yard throw by Ken Anderson (kick from Jim Breech successful)

referee

Referee Fred Silva, Umpire Art Demmas, Head Linesman Burl Toler and the four judges Walt Peters, Dave Parry, Jim Poole and Bob Lewis led the game. Demmas and Parry sneaked to a small open stove with every timeout and didn't even notice that the flames were burning their hair and parts of their clothing. The referees were so cold that they ended up cutting up garbage bags, smeared them with petroleum jelly and wrapping them around their bodies in several layers. NFL supervisor Art McNally offered them in turn to "suspend several plays", but in the end no one took up.

spectator

The 46,302 spectators at Riverfront Stadium also had a tough time. The cold froze car batteries, shattered thermos flasks, the halftime show was canceled, and the black market, which usually flourished at an AFC final, was so thinned out that tickets changed hands for just ten dollars.

Consequences

Players on both sides suffered frostbite or frostbite. Kellen Winslow believes that to this day he has been damaged by the cold “on the big toe and right thumb”.

A little later, the Bengals played Super Bowl XVI against the San Francisco 49ers , where they lost 21-26.

The "Freezer Bowl" was ranked 4th in the "worst weather during an NFL game" poll by NFL.com. Game cancellations are still unknown in the NFL today. The game is played in all weathers.

See also

proof

  1. ^ The NFL's Coldest Games , forbes.com
  2. ↑ a b c Top Ten Weather Games: 1981 AFC Championship . NFL.com.
  3. ↑ a b c d Cold reality: '81 AFC title game a struggle from start to finish , ESPN.com.
  4. ^ Freezer Bowl ( Memento August 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), referee.com.
  5. ↑ Our History: Freezer Bowl - when beer froze ( Memento of March 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), cincinnati.com.
  6. ↑ 'Missing Rings' featuring '81 Chargers debuts Sept. 18 , NFL.com
  7. ↑ This Day in Sports: So Cold In Cincy That Even the Skyline Chili Froze Over , ESPN.com.

Web links