This weekend, the Seattle Seahawks will see Marshawn Lynch return to action as they swoop into Minnesota Viking territory for some NFL Wild Card action, looking to replicate something close to the 38-7 trouncing they handed the Vikings earlier this season. The rematch of the teams’ December 6th meeting has all the makings of a great football game.
The Minnesota Vikings (11-5) are fresh off clinching the NFC North for the first time since 2009, carried on the shoulders of the league’s leading rusher for the third time, 30-year-old Adrian Peterson, and the Seahawks (10-6) have won six of their last seven games thanks in part to an electric, Russell Wilson-led offense that has put up more than 30 points in five of those six wins, including that prior match-up with the Vikings. Minnesota definitely has something to prove after that blowout earlier this season, and they get that redemption in front of their fans, where they’ve only lost 2 games all season.
Bust despite all that, you still couldn’t pay me to go to this game. Not in a million years. Wouldn’t dream of it. If someone offered me an all-expenses paid ticket to TCF Bank Stadium*, I’d politely decline. Don’t get me wrong, I love football. Love going to NFL games. But not when it’s cold AF outside. And this weekend in Minnesota it’s going to be cold AF.
Fox Sports reports:
Seattle and Minnesota are facing sub-zero temperatures in what projects to be one of the coldest games in NFL history. Right now, Weather.com has a high of 0 degrees and a low of -9 for Minneapolis on Sunday. Of course, that’s before considering wind chill (fortunately, the game will kick off at 12:05 p.m. local time).
As the Star Tribune points out, 0 degrees (or colder) would be the coldest home playoff game in Vikings history, and there have been only nine games in NFL history where the temperature never rose above 0.
The coldest home game ever for the Vikings was Dec. 3, 1972 against Chicago, per the Star Tribune, where temperatures were -2 degrees (the sixth-coldest game ever in league history).
Yep, the couch is definitely the optimum seat for taking this one in. No question about that.
*Editor’s Note: Unless it’s a box seat, and an Uber chauffeur from the airport to the game and back. And even then, I’d probably need a heated seat in both the car and the stadium to seal the deal.
[via Fox Sports]