When the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins took the field in Arrowhead Stadium on January 13, they played in the fourth coldest game since the National Football League was officially formed in 1920.
The temperature when the game commenced was -4℉, with a windchill of -20℉. By game’s end the temperature had fallen to -9℉, but it felt like -28℉.
Players had heated benches and sideline heaters to help them keep warm when they weren’t on the playing field. Fans attending the game in the Chief’s open-air stadium had no similar aids to keep them warm. The result, as reported by CNN, was that emergency personnel had to respond to 69 health incidents during the game, ‘close to 50%,’for hypothermia.
“Fifteen of the patients seen were transported by KCFD, “seven for hypothermia symptoms, three for frostbite symptoms, and five for various other reasons,” Kansas City Fire Department battalion chief Michael Hopkins told CNN. “The Kansas City ‘metro area has been plunged into the deep freeze with below zero temperatures for much of the past weekend, including the Chiefs game,’ said a University of Kansas Health System news release.