Getty Image / Perry Knotts
In case you haven’t heard, the weather in Kansas City for Saturday night’s AFC Wild Card Round game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins is going to be pretty extreme.
In fact, it could be one of the coldest NFL games on record, and will definitely affect the play on the field.
When it gets that cold, the football gets incredibly firm, making it much harder to throw and catch, and a lot easier to fumble. Not to mention, the field can get hard and slippery, making cutting nearly impossible.
Many of the issues the cold provides make it really tough on quarterbacks. Not only is the ball hard and cold, but their hands are freezing as well. Quarterbacks are typically the only players on the field that don’t wear gloves, and cold hands make throwing a football very, very difficult.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is used to play in frigid temperatures in the playoffs at Arrowhead. But, Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is absolutely not used to those kind of temperatures.
Tagovailoa grew up in Hawai’i and played his college football at Alabama before being drafted by the Dolphins in 2020 with the fifth-overall pick.
So, he’s having to make the decision on whether to wear gloves in the cold or not. And, he’s decided to not wear gloves on Saturday.
Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa says he's not going with gloves on the field in the cold in KC.
"The whole thing is a mindset."
He also said he's not bringing the Isotoner gloves from Uncle Dan Marino 🫤
— David Furones (@DavidFurones_) January 10, 2024
That seems like a bold choice for Tua Tagovailoa. He should at least bring gloves with him, test out the gloves against no gloves prior to the season, and go from there.
Currently, the Chiefs are 4.5 point favorites heading into Saturday night’s big-time clash. The game is airing exclusively on Peacock.