The Kansas City Chiefs are leaning on the cold weather knowledge of CFL players to help prepare for their AFC Wild Card matchup with the Miami Dolphins on Saturday.
According to a report from James Palmer on NFL Network, Chiefs’ safety Justin Reid has been reaching out to friends north of the border for guidance on how to handle a snowy playoff game.
“He contacted some of his friends this week that played in the CFL, the Canadian Football League. They gave him some info and he gave it to the rest of the Chiefs team,” Palmer told NFL Gameday host Rich Eisen.
“This is what they told him: ‘Keep your core temperature going by moving constantly.’ Look for guys to be jumping and moving on the sideline. They told him don’t use the heaters to heat your core, use the heaters on the sideline for your hands and your feet. Secondly, ‘Don’t wear too many layers.’ That can have a chance to where it cuts off some circulation to some places and then the cold affects you even more. And the last piece is this: ‘Make sure you don’t let it affect you mentally.’ They told him the team that usually complains more about the cold is the team that loses.”
Temperatures are expected to reach as low as -20 degrees Celsius at Arrowhead Stadium during Saturday’s playoff game, with wind chill threatening to make it feel like -35.
The record for the coldest CFL game ever played took place in the 1993 West Final between the Calgary Stampeders and Edmonton Football Team, in which temperatures bottomed out at -21.3 degrees and felt like -32. The 1967 “Ice Bowl” between the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys claims to be the coldest in that league’s history, with temperatures of -25 degrees Celsius and a windchill of -44.
It is unclear which players Reid consulted for advice about the conditions, though he does have one former college teammate in the league in Calgary Stampeders’ defensive end James Vaughters Jr. The Chiefs have plenty of ties north of the border, as star tight end Travis Kelce was college roommates with Winnipeg Blue Bombers quarterback Zach Collaros, who has experience in some rather frosty Grey Cup games.
With record freezing temperatures affecting large chunks of North America, NFL Wild Card weekend is expected to be one of the coldest in NFL history. An incoming blizzard and travel ban has already caused the postponement of Sunday’s matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Buffalo Bills to Monday.
The Chiefs (11-6) and Dolphins (11-6) will get no such respite, as they are expected to kick off on time in Kansas City, Mo. at 8:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, January 13.
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