Surviving the NFL's 1981 Freezer Bowl
Brutal. Frigid. Cold. Survival.
These are just some of the words used by players to describe the 1981 AFC Championship game, one of the coldest games in NFL history.
The Freezer Bowl.
January 10, 1982 went from being just another bitterly cold winter day to something more sinister. Temperatures dropping to nine below. Wind gusts up to 40 miles per hour. A wind chill 59 degrees below zero.
In their previous thirteen years of existence, the Bengals had yet to win a playoff game, and in the three seasons before 1981, Cincinnati finished last in the division.
With new coach Forrest Gregg, though, a turnaround was underway. A 12-4 record and division title led to the franchise’s first-ever playoff win, a 28-21 victory against the Buffalo Bills the previous week.
The Chargers, visiting from beautiful, sunny San Diego and coming off an overtime playoff victory in humid Miami, weren’t prepared for the frozen world they were walking into. So much so that owner Gene Klein threw his own Hail Mary request to move the game somewhere, anywhere else, at a later time.
The Bengals declined.
A Different, Punishing Kind of Cold
Sure, the Bengals had practiced all week in the colder temperatures, but this day was different, a cold that penetrated to the very core of your being. The morning of the game, a number of players’ cars wouldn’t start, and they had to commandeer a rental van to even make it to Riverfront Stadium. The weather was turning.
The Freezer Bowl, like so much classic NFL game footage, remains cinematic, producing iconic memories for the brave souls in attendance and those watching cozied up at home. Players’ warm breath piercing the frigid air. Ken Anderson - the NFL’s Most Valuable Player that season - and his skintight, bulbous helmet, the facemask faded and weathered by a season of abuse. Big Pete Johnson rumbling across the frozen landscape, his 250-pound frame impossible to bring down. Only pain awaited you on the frozen turf if you tried.
The Bengals bent the weather to their will while the Chargers, with four turnovers in the game, were consumed by it. Anderson threw without gloves. Sleeveless offensive linemen are a staple of brutally cold playoff games now, but the psychologically intimidating trend became famous here. Kicker Jim Breech, wearing what looked like six coats, kicked a ball that felt more like a brick, and nailed every single one.
Bengals defensive lineman Eddie Edwards burned his ears with a heated cap and even caught on fire from the heated plastic benches malfunctioning; yet, he didn’t seem to care. These were supernatural conditions, and the Bengals tapped into their own seemingly supernatural threshold for pain.
Kings of the Frozen Jungle
Cincinnati proved the tougher team that day, dominating the bundled-up Chargers for a 27-7 win and a trip to the franchise’s first-ever Super Bowl. It was the first Super Bowl appearance for Paul Brown, too; football royalty was finally rewarded.
Mother Nature seemingly had something against Gregg, as he also played in the infamous 1967 Ice Bowl as a player with the Green Bay Packers. He had the last laugh, though, winning that game, too.
Still, the elements left something to be remembered by. San Diego tight end Kellen Winslow has felt the aftereffects of frostbite in one of his toes. For Anderson, who completed 14 of 22 passes for 161 yards in the Freezer Bowl, his hands have always turned colder and number quicker in the years since.
Nobody was getting out of this one that easily.
Cold-weather technology in the 1980s might as well have been nonexistent by today’s standards. Players resorted to wearing pantyhose under their uniforms and stuffing Saran Wrap between layers of socks as a shoulder-shrugging, maybe-this-will-work methodology. It’s doubtful it did much.
But for as much as the players suffered on that field, imagine the endurance of all 46,302 Bengals fans in attendance, their own mental and physical fortitude rewarded for years of plight. Nothing was going to deny them from seeing their team finally reach football’s summit.
The Freezer Bowl is a legendary football game, a testament to the old days of gridiron grit that feels almost gladiatorial. Pay Homage today with our Freezer Bowl T-shirt.
