The frozen playoff game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins back in January went viral after fans posted countless pictures and videos of beers exploding from frozen temps, and fans bundling up with seemingly every piece of clothing they had.
Frozen Chiefs Fans
It seems that preparation for the cold was not enough for some. Reports from Fox News Kansas City and the Medical Director at the Grossman Burn Center are that 70% of patients who have been referred for frostbite are being advised to amputate, many of these same patients being fans who attended the game back in January.
With a temperature of -4 degrees and wind chills reaching -27 degrees when the game kicked off, it was the 4th coldest game in NFL history and the coldest in the history of the Chiefs franchise. The coldest of these historically freezing games kicked off on December 31st in 1967 when “The Ice Bowl” took place in Green Bay at Lambeau Field at an astonishing -13 degrees and -48 degree wind chill.
There was debate as to whether the game should be moved to a safer, much warmer location. The league decided that the game would go on as scheduled as to not warrant any kind of disadvantage to the Chiefs that had earned home field advantage for that game.
When people think about burns, you typically think of them from fires, extremely hot temperatures, even sunburn, but frostbite comes quite obviously from the opposite. Dr. Megan Garcia, the Grossman Burn Center Medical Director was quoted back in January, “Last winter we had maybe a small handful of patients come in with frostbite and frostnip, this past week we’ve seen dozens of patients come in with these injuries.”
According to KMBC News, the Kansas City Fire Department received dozens of calls directly to Arrowhead Stadium the night of the game, and around half of them were directly related to hypothermia. It was reported that 15 people were taken to the hospital following the calls.
What Can The NFL Do Moving Forward?
Perhaps the league might make different decisions regarding such dangerous weather in the future, but for now the league seems to be silent about these fans. They are surely responsible for their own actions at these games, and the league can’t possibly keep track of 60,000 screaming drunk fans to make sure to keep their gloves on. But on the other hand it’s hard to simply take away home field advantage from a team in a sport such as football where the crowd noise plays such an integral part in the outcome of the game, especially in the playoffs.
Perhaps all playoff games would be moved to dome stadiums and perhaps neutral sites for the entire post season. This would almost certainly come with a backlash from fans who don’t want to see their home team travel after a successful season, much less the extra cost in their pocket if they want to take off work, spend the extra time and money on gas, hotels, etc. These sort of extreme temperatures aren’t common, but even regular winter weather can affect the outcome of these games, not to mention fans.
Flexible scheduling is likely the most reasonable answer, helping teams keep their hard earned home field advantage, and limiting the amount of necessary travel for their fanbase that is the engine that drives the NFL machine. However for those fans that do travel across the country and the globe, these schedule delays could affect them the most. If a delay comes hours before kickoff, a family that spent years of savings and vacation time from work and surely much more to be able to attend their favorite teams playoff game would not be too keen on pushing the game back a day or more.
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