Dolphins Vs. Chiefs: One of the Coldest Games in NFL History

Imagine being in an outdoor football stadium that’s filled with over 70,000 people when it is –4 degrees Fahrenheit. Would you go there? Well, that’s what these devoted fans did at the Chiefs vs. Dolphins game on January 13th. They were cheering on their teams in the tremendously freezing weather. This game went down in history as one of the coldest games ever in the NFL.  

The game ended with the Chiefs winning by a score of 26-7. Although this made many fans in the stadium excited, the frigid weather was just unbearable. It led to many problems; people from the stadium were calling saying there were cases of hypothermia and frostbite. According to the Bleacher Report, journalist Mackenzie Koch stated that, "A Kansas City Fire Department spokesperson said the agency handled 69 calls at Arrowhead Stadium as the Chiefs took on the Miami Dolphins amid subzero temperatures. KCFD said approximately half of those calls were hypothermia related. Of the nearly 70 calls KC first responders received at Arrowhead, 15 people were transported to a local hospital. Seven of those transported were for hypothermia, and three were for frostbite."  

This is clearly an awful thing to happen, just because of a football game, and a reasonable question to ask is, why was the game not postponed? According to ESPN’s Marcel Louis-Jacques, “A league official stated the Chiefs game [was] still being played Saturday night because there [were] no public safety travel concerns for getting to the stadium for fans, the clubs, stadium personnel or public authorities.” I think that this game definitely should have been postponed, but maybe it is the fans’ fault for attending the game in the first place, when they could’ve just watched it from the comfort of their own homes or gone to a game in the future with better weather. Of course, it is fun to see a football game and cheer on your favorite team, but at what cost?