The Kansas City Chiefs are no strangers to playing in chilly games, especially during the playoffs. After all, January in Kansas City is known to be cold with the average high sitting around 39 degrees and the average low settling around 21 degrees.
In the 2023 playoffs, however, Kansas City took cold temperatures to new heights. The Chiefs' wild card playoff game against the Miami Dolphins was one of the coldest in NFL history with a kickoff temperature of -4 degrees. That's cold even to people who live in Kansas City and are used to the frigid temperatures that a Missouri winter has to offer so imagine how brutal it was for the Dolphins players and staff.
The game was so cold that a photo of Patrick Mahomes' helmet literally cracking and flying off became iconic. So yeah, it was no picnic outside that night at Arrowhead Stadium.
Vikings assistant head coach Frank Smith was on the sidelines for that freezing cold game in K.C. as the Dolphins' offensive coordinator and recently spoke about the experience. The Chiefs went on to win the game convincingly but clearly Smith still was fired up about it years after the fact.
"After ’23, we’re [the] No. 1 offense, [the] end of the season didn’t go the way [we wanted]. Then we have to play a challenging playoff team up in Kansas City, and probably the worst weather conditions a South Florida team could play in — minus 25 degrees. It was 80 degrees when we took off and then when we land it’s -20 degrees. It’s a 100 degree temperature difference," Smith said on The Set with Terron Armstead. “It was inhumane. I don’t give a [expletive] where we came from. It was inhumane and our benches didn’t work. No heat. It was terrible. It was the perfect storm [for a] Florida team to struggle when it’s a 100-degree difference, probably over 100 when it’s all said and done.”
Frank Smith relives brutal Chiefs playoff freeze and it sounds miserable
Look, the Chiefs were probably going to win that game against the Dolphins even if the temps hadn't been so bitterly cold. That being said, not having heated benches in temperatures that freezing had to be absolutely draining and it checks out with how the Dolphins players responded on the field that night. It was miserably cold and the 'Fins played like they were beyond miserable. They looked uninterested, especially once the Chiefs took a commanding lead.
While the Chiefs have the luxury of being used to playing in frigid temps, they also had heated benches to keep them warm when they weren't on the field. That's apparently a luxury the Dolphins did not have that night and that's messed up.
Hey, at least the next Chiefs' stadium will have a roof on top of it. If the Dolphins have to come back for a playoff game down the road, it won't matter if their benches are heated or not because the entire building will be heated.
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