Sports fans will go to great lengths to support their favorite teams. Face painting, tattoos, elaborate tailgates, and memorabilia-laden man-caves are just a tiny part of what a fan will do to celebrate their team. That is before actually buying tickets, purchasing gear, and traveling, often to other cities, to support their heroes.
Sometimes rabid fans can be a bit much, however. Boorish behavior is not unusual at soccer matches and Major League baseball games, and sometimes, fans can even cross the line in the NBA. The National Football League is different, however. Of all American sports leagues, fans are most passionate about the NFL. Actually, it isn’t even close. The NFL is far and away the most popular sports league in the country, if not the world.
Much of the passion for the game lies in the fact that each team plays just one game a week, so an NFL game is an event. Compare that to the NBA and Major League Baseball, whose seasons seem to drag on for an eternity, and it’s easy to see why folks get so amped up for the NFL. Naturally, with a testosterone-laden sport like football generating so much excitement on a weekly basis, fans often want to stretch out the experience and tailgate. It isn’t uncommon to see fans setting up, sometimes as early as the night before, to enjoy food, drinks, and the excitement of game day with their friends and family.
Since the league plays primarily in the fall and winter, the elements can come into play not only for players but also for fans. There are only a handful of domed stadiums, and places like Green Bay, New England, Chicago, and even as far south as Cincinnati can see some brutal weather. In fact, Green Bay and Cincinnati are the respective sites of two of the coldest games in league history.
The 1967 NFL Championship game, otherwise known as the “Ice Bowl,” played in Green Bay, Wisconsin, is the coldest on record at -13 degrees with a wind chill at a brutal -48. Not to be outdone, in 1981, the Cincinnati Bengals defeated the San Diego Chargers in a game forever known as the “Freezer Bowl.” That game featured an air temperature of -9, with an absurd wind chill of -59. Both games are legendary for their brutality involving both players and fans, with long-rumored fan deaths from the Cincinnati contest.
Despite the promise of global warming, yet another legendarily cold game took place in January at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. The hometown Chiefs hosted the Miami Dolphins with a game-time temperature of -4 and a wind chill of -27, making it the fourth coldest in league history. Now, reports are coming in regarding the effects the brutal cold had on some fans.
Dr. Megan Garcia, Grossman Burn Center Medical Director, said: “The patients who had their frostbite injuries along with the Chiefs game, they are just getting to the point now we are starting to discuss their amputations that might be necessary.”
Those include one man who took his gloves off for a mere five minutes to erect a tent before tailgating. Some have been able to save some digits, but Garcia continued: “It’s still a lifelong process. They’ll have sensitivity and pain for the rest of their lives and always will be more susceptible to frostbite in the future. So we are also educating them to make sure they stay warm for the years and months to come.”
Football is an outdoor sport in its purest form, even though teams continue to push for inside venues. However, even a domed stadium doesn’t help fans when they tailgate in sub-zero weather. It’s quite a sacrifice to lose fingers in support of your team, and maybe one some Chiefs fans regret.
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