The Chill of Victory

January 19, 2008 2:31 PM

The coldest game in football won't be at Lambeau Field (also known as the frozen tundra and the home of the Lambeau leap) tomorrow. It was 13° below zero in 1967 when the Green Bay Packers played the Dallas Cowboys. They called it the Ice Bowl and it had a dramatic finish.

It's only forecast to be 1° above zero (15 below windchill) for tomorrow's playoff game against the New York Giants, and Packers fans worldwide are ready to brave the cold. They're going shopping. Some will pray. Many have superstitious rituals. Some will sing. (And some go too far.)

posted by desjardins (49 comments total)

The Ice Bowl is one of my favorite games to watch. I love those severe weather games, and this was back when the sport was more rough around the edges. Plus, the end is amazing. And it's Landry vs. Lombardi. How much more can you ask for?
posted by krinklyfig at 2:58 PM on January 19, 2008

I gotta say that I'm not much of a football fan, but I really enjoy the Packers. I wish all local sports franchises were run this way.
posted by maxwelton at 3:18 PM on January 19, 2008

That's real football. Yeah.
posted by caddis at 3:22 PM on January 19, 2008

When I was in high school/early college, we held the yearly hangover bowl on a local church's vast lawn. It was cold, it was tackle, and it was on January 1st after dark. I hurt just thinking about it.
posted by davejay at 3:22 PM on January 19, 2008

The Packers haven't done that great in the cold this year.
posted by Ironmouth at 3:32 PM on January 19, 2008

They looked pretty damn good in the cold last week. Against a team that, you know, actually made it to the play-offs.

Besides, fuck the Bears. :)
posted by BitterOldPunk at 3:42 PM on January 19, 2008

Besides, fuck the Bears. :)

Bitter about the sweep?

Enjoy the trip to the Superbowl. The results of last year's game will be pretty much the same as this years ;)
posted by Ironmouth at 3:44 PM on January 19, 2008

Besides, fuck the Bears. :)

i thought they were hibernating
posted by pyramid termite at 3:51 PM on January 19, 2008

I won't say that the prevalence of domed or retractable roofed stadiums is ruining the game - as I don't think nastily HOT weather offers any benefits to the game or fans, and we get that for most of the season here in Houston - but I am really really glad that there are places left like Lambeau field. Football is supposed to be played in the cold and ice and snow, dammit, and if the weather here were ever like that, I'd vote for tearing the roof right off Reliant Stadium.

Speaking of the impact of weather on the game, I am still quite tickled by this play from the Steelers/Dolphins muck-fest played back in November. (Terrible video quality, but the best I could find.) You sure don't see that everyday, ayuh.
posted by John Smallberries at 3:55 PM on January 19, 2008

The results of last year's game will be pretty much the same as this years ;)

Unscramble one of those eggs for me, while you're at it.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 3:57 PM on January 19, 2008

Ironmouth, you seem lost.
posted by desjardins at 3:59 PM on January 19, 2008

2nd-ed maxwelton's comment. IMO all pro sports teams should be at least partially owned by the community, thus mid to small markets (such as Green Bay) could own a team without fear of them being moved at the whim of some individual with a few million to throw around.
posted by edgeways at 3:59 PM on January 19, 2008

Football is supposed to be played in the cold and ice and snow, dammit

Absolutely. I'm a Giants season ticket holder, and was so happy to hear that funding for the roof on the new stadium fell through. I love the cold weather games.
posted by JaredSeth at 4:08 PM on January 19, 2008

Besides, fuck the Bears. :)

i thought they were hibernating

Oohh, they can't give consent if they're hibernating.
posted by louche mustachio at 4:09 PM on January 19, 2008

Football is supposed to be played in the cold and ice and snow, dammit

And on grass!!!
posted by DieHipsterDie at 4:17 PM on January 19, 2008

This is the part where I admit I'm engaged to a Bears fan. Hopefully no one will read this far.
posted by desjardins at 4:23 PM on January 19, 2008

Nothing could be worse than being a Bears fan, except, I suppose, being married to one.

on preview: ooops
posted by Rumple at 4:26 PM on January 19, 2008

Ironmouth, you seem lost.

For the one place that sign could exist, I'm ashamed to point out that do to a rearrangement of ramps, the Green Bay sign would be next to the Chicago sign.

Also, go Green Bay.
posted by drezdn at 4:34 PM on January 19, 2008

Hah...try being a SAINTS fan.
Then my No. 2 (America's team - THE DALLAS COWBOYS) tanks.
Then the Colts lose!!!

It looks like we'll be pulling for the "PACK."
posted by winks007 at 4:36 PM on January 19, 2008

drezdn: I forgot about that. Goddamn construction.
posted by desjardins at 5:02 PM on January 19, 2008

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has this innate desire for football to be played in the elements. I was positively giddy watching the Packers/Seahawks game last week, with the snow coming down. The Patriots/Raiders game a few years ago? The snow was almost enough to cool my anger at that missed fumble call.

I don't know what it is about snow football that makes me so happy. Childhood memories of schoolyard games of my youth, I suppose. As Joni Mitchell once said, "Now you're romanticizing some pain inside your head.". I don't think that's the kind of pain she was talking about though.
posted by Brak at 6:06 PM on January 19, 2008

Cold football? Try the "Old Met." Lambeau is a domed stadium compared to that.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 6:12 PM on January 19, 2008

winks007, dude do you seriously have multiple favorite teams and assign them priority favorites based on who's left standing in the playoffs?

Whatever happened to sticking with one team and turning off the tv once they're done? I've been a Giants fan since I was a kid (and yes, still, fuck you, Joe Pisarcik wherever you are), and we only get to have fun only every few years, but I'm definitely enjoying this season. Most seasons, we're done by Xmas.

Go JINTS!!
posted by psmealey at 6:14 PM on January 19, 2008

psmealey wrote: winks007, dude do you seriously have multiple favorite teams and assign them priority favorites based on who's left standing in the playoffs?

Whatever happened to sticking with one team and turning off the tv once they're done? I've been a Giants fan since I was a kid (and yes, still, fuck you, Joe Pisarcik wherever you are), and we only get to have fun only every few years, but I'm definitely enjoying this season. Most seasons, we're done by Xmas.


I have lived in the geographic territory of the Detroit Lions for slightly more than half of their era of abject futility. If I did not develop an interest in football beyond when the local team was done, I might never see a professional football contest beyond September 1. Sorry, your model simply will not work for southeast Michigan.
posted by beelzbubba at 6:32 PM on January 19, 2008 [1 favorite]

Okay, how many other people "heard" the first two sentences of this post in the voice of John Fazenda, the NFL Films Announcer in their heads besides me?
posted by briank at 6:43 PM on January 19, 2008 [1 favorite]

I grew up loving the Packers- and the NFL was the best sports league on the planet.
But watching it on TV nowadays is a chore. Too many commercial breaks (and all of the ads are horrible and unfunny) and referee instant replay review time outs. Every season the league finds new ways to bring the action to a grinding halt. And the announcers won't shut up with the promos for other shows on their network.

It's all about how much revenue they can squeeze out of a game- and to hell with the actual quality of the product.

I'm glad I discovered soccer a decade ago. The Premiership and La Liga are the two best professional sporting leagues on the planet. Now I get all of my "football" watching done by 6 PM (sometimes much earlier) on Sundays.
posted by Jay Reimenschneider at 6:57 PM on January 19, 2008 [1 favorite]

But watching it on TV nowadays is a chore.

I couldn't agree more--that's why I record most games now, and start watching 90 minutes or so after kickoff. (Of course, you have to be careful not to stumble on any information about the game if watching other TV or online.) And even with a 90 minute delay in starting, sometimes I still catch up to the live broadcast before the game is over.
posted by LooseFilter at 7:15 PM on January 19, 2008

I really wish the NFL would let the reigning champions host the next Super Bowl. I want the game in New England or Green Bay.
posted by Marky at 7:24 PM on January 19, 2008

Nothing could be worse than being a Bears fan

try being a lions fan - i gave up decades ago
posted by pyramid termite at 7:34 PM on January 19, 2008

I'm living in Dolphins land. Top that.
posted by casarkos at 8:16 PM on January 19, 2008

I grew up loving the Packers because I liked the way green and yellow look together. Yet I am hetero, and from New England. Go figure.
posted by not_on_display at 8:19 PM on January 19, 2008

One freakin' da-gree? Holy schnikeys. Neither team can really be prepared for that.

GO PACK GO!
posted by diastematic at 8:25 PM on January 19, 2008

Though they're getting on in years and my dad's health has been going to shit, they make it a point to go to a local sports bar (dubbed "the Packer Bar") to watch pretty much every game, regardless if it's available to watch at home or not. If he's well enough to go to church, he's well enough to go to the bar. They've made lifelong friends in other Green Bay expats at the bar, many of whom are half their age. The last couple of years have been tough for them - my dad's missed (read: had to watch at home) quite a few games due to his aging body falling apart.

I am digging this guy. More power to him.
posted by caddis at 9:37 PM on January 19, 2008

I was born in Green Bay raised in the area and live there now. My dad and his dad were both born and raised here too. The old man was a punk teenager during the Lombardi years. He and his friends used to rush the gates and "sneak" in most home games. The security guards couldn't catch them all.

He claims he was at the Ice Bowl, but if everyone who claims to have been at that game was actually there then attendance must have been in the 350-400k range. I guess either they are lying or they were standing on each others shoulders.

I missed the first two Superbowls (alive but too young to remember) and for me the Packers were always the team I loved but who always disappointed me until Brett Favre came to town.

Watching the 96 team was incredible as a fan but this year I'm just hoping Favre can get one more trip to the big game.

That having been said.

God himself couldn't beat the Patriots this year. Bastards.
posted by Bonzai at 1:45 AM on January 20, 2008

they make it a point to go to a local sports bar (dubbed "the Packer Bar")

I think I know that bar. Nick's?
posted by Cyrano at 4:28 AM on January 20, 2008

My college roommate and I had dinner at the house of a guy who boasted he'd played for Green Bay in that game, a lie we easily confirmed after the fact even in the pre-Internet days; but then, this same guy boasted about running guns for various revolutions on two continents...shoulda been a novelist rather than a salesman.
posted by pax digita at 4:46 AM on January 20, 2008

Sorry, your model simply will not work for southeast Michigan.

Bah! That's the price we pay for fandom, though, isn't it? I started rooting for the Giants in about 1975, and they were terrible for most of that stretch. When they won the Super Bowl for the first time in the 1986 season, the joy was indescribable. Not like was going to automatically start rooting for the Jets, or God forbid the Steelers or "America's Team", like so many fair-weather fans did in that era.

Seems to me the Lions went to the playoffs at least a few times in the Barry Sanders era.
posted by psmealey at 5:12 AM on January 20, 2008

Item, you're not the lady who pranked her insanely Packer-memoribilia-collecting dad with the "cast of Vince Lombardi's lower teeth" for Christmas a few years ago? Because that would be awesome. "BUT I HAVE A LETTER!!"

I'm from Green Bay, and I also remember The Dark Years. Savor it. Ten hours to go... squee!
posted by mimi at 5:17 AM on January 20, 2008

Indulge this non-sports fan: does football ever call a game on account of cold? I mean, I guess not, if -15 is kosher. It just seems like it would be seen as a public health issue at a certain point, having some many thousands of people sitting immobile for hours at such temperatures, not to mention the hazards of getting to and from the game if there's just been an ice storm or a blizzard.

(I'm not saying I necessarily agree with that, I'm just saying that it's surprising that the local representatives of the nanny state don't at least raise the concern.)
posted by Ian A.T. at 6:42 AM on January 20, 2008

CANCEL FOOTBALL?! What the hell is wrong with you, Ian? People have died for lesser causes.

On a similar note, I'm going to wish an evil fate on someone at Comcast if the cable isn't fixed by gametime. Remember when you were a kid and you watched the dirty channels but they were scrambled and you could only see a leg here and a boob there? That's what regular TV is like for me today.

If anyone knows of a good sports bar in western Lake or eastern McHenry Counties (Illinois), please PLEASE let me know.
posted by desjardins at 8:12 AM on January 20, 2008

winks007, dude do you seriously have multiple favorite teams and assign them priority favorites based on who's left standing in the playoffs?

Whenever I've moved, I took up some level of support for the local team, except when I moved into rival territory. After all, the childhood team trumps all.
posted by Tacos Are Pretty Great at 9:21 AM on January 20, 2008

Being from Chicago, it's hard to spare a kind word for the Packers. The Bears foundered horribly this year, but they did win the only two games that really matter (extending their overall series lead to 90-79-6). So, it's only fitting that we Chicagoans (even those of us who have recently relocated to San Francisco) extend encouragement to our uncouth, backward, NFC North brothers:

Go Pack!
posted by aladfar at 11:27 AM on January 20, 2008

Indulge this non-sports fan: does football ever call a game on account of cold? I mean, I guess not, if -15 is kosher. It just seems like it would be seen as a public health issue at a certain point, having some many thousands of people sitting immobile for hours at such temperatures, not to mention the hazards of getting to and from the game if there's just been an ice storm or a blizzard.

This explains all. Plus, no doubt, a flask or two of fireball.
posted by Rumple at 12:01 PM on January 20, 2008

people sitting immobile

I just noticed this part. Have you BEEN to a football game? You're standing up and sitting down more than in a Catholic mass.

uncouth, backward, NFC North brothers

Whatever, FIB.
posted by desjardins at 1:47 PM on January 20, 2008

This explains all.

yeah, that's how you dress for that kind of weather - it's really pretty comfortable

not to mention the hazards of getting to and from the game if there's just been an ice storm or a blizzard.

-15 below just means it's cold - it doesn't mean ice storm or blizzard - if there's no ice on the trees it's not an ice storm - and if you can keep moving on the road, it's not a blizzard
posted by pyramid termite at 2:56 PM on January 20, 2008

From Deadspin, a prayer for Packers fans.
Our Favre,
Who art in Lambeau,
Hallowed be thine arm.
Thy bowl will come,
It will be won.
In Phoenix as it is in Lambeau.
And give us this Sunday,
Our weekly win.
And give us many touchdown passes.
But do not let others pass against us.
Lead us not into frustration,
But deliver us to the valley of the sun.
For thine is the MVP, the best of the NFC,
and the glory of the Cheeseheads,
now and forever.
Go get’em. Amen.
posted by desjardins at 3:55 PM on January 20, 2008 [1 favorite]

Go Giants.
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posted by caddis at 7:50 PM on January 20, 2008

does football ever call a game on account of cold?

Lightning. That's the only reason I know of.

I hate football. Loathe it. But I will give credit where it's due: those fuckers will play no matter what. Rain? Wind? Cold? Hot? Sleet? Blizzard? Mudslide?

Fuck that shit. The game is on.

Maybe that's why I hate watching it. You have to sit through an hour of "pre-game" banter and bullshit, then get to watch some fifteen-minute computer-generated re-interpretation of Der Ring des Nibelungen using Patriots and Giants helmets battling each other, always ending in a giant explosion, wherein your greeted with the same goddamned annoying motherfuckers who you just got finished watching an hour shooting the shit, who proceed to shoot it some more, go to commercial a couple dozen times, introduce the players, commercial, show video highlights of some half-intelligible Boo-Yah interviews with the players where they talk about how they're just glad to be playing for the team, and how they're going to go out there and give 110%, commercial, back to the moron gang of suits who then spend another 10 minutes trying to analyze all the nuances of the Boo-Yah interviews...

...A week or so later they finally get to the actual game, which invariably switches to commercial a minute after the kickoff because of some arcane goddamned penalty. So after the requisite commercial break, you get to see the refs announce the penalty, the announcers talk about what the penalty means to their family, commercial, then another 10 seconds of play where the QB hands the ball to a guy who runs straight into a wall of dudes and... wait for it... get's knocked the fuck out. Because that's what fucking happens when you run straight into a wall of 400 lb. gorillas: you get knocked the fuck out. If you're very lucky they will throw the ball at some point during the first quarter.

Oh, and in case you didn't know, football is divided up into quarters of play time. They are each 35 minutes long, except the last quarter, which is 5 days long until the last two minutes, which add on another week. Just like basketball.

ARGH.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 11:14 PM on January 20, 2008 [1 favorite]