It was cold in Green Bay yesterday. I personally had no idea it was cold there, seeing as I was in Chicago, and I struggle with visual cues like seeing player’s breath and seeing Packer fans in winter jackets, hats and gloves. Luckily for me, Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Pam Oliver, Chris Myers and the producers of the NFC Championship game treated Sunday like the first NFL game ever played outside. I thought about including the Pre-game show’s cold comments in this article, but between Jimmy Johnson’s discovery that water turns into ice when it’s cold, and Howie Long dressing like a cross between Elmer Fudd and the guys from Fargo, I thought the article could end up 5000 words. So instead I documented every single comment Joe Buck (JB), Troy Aikman (TA), Pam Oliver (PO) and Chris Myers (CM) made about the cold during the game.
Before the Opening Kick
1. 5:35- “Here come the Green Bay Packers on this frozen night” –JB
2. 5:36- “Man Arizona feels like a long way from here (gives weather)”-JB
3. 5:37- JB and TA talk how weather will affect Green Bay’s passing games
4. 5:38- “Brett Favre and the rest of the Packers set to head out of the tunnel on this cold, cold night, when we come back”.-JB
5. 5:42 “Forgive the bad hat, but these are frigid conditions” (proceeds to ask Al Harris about cold to which we get the great quote from Al “it’s cold”)-CM
First Quarter (all Central Time)
6. 5:43-“It’s 63 degrees in Glendale Arizona right now (JB and TA share a chuckle)”-JB
7. 5:44- “These lineman will not where sleeves in the game with minus 23 wind chill”-JB
8. 5:44- “Some unlucky soul will have to hold the ball with their finger” -JB
9. 5:45- Pam Oliver tells us Plaxico hand freezes off or something like that and something about Cayenne Pepper in shoes to stay warm….thanks Pam
10. 5:50- “Tonight is the 3rd coldest game in NFL history” -JB
11. 5:54- “On a cold night like tonight, the throws of about ten yards will be the most effective.”-TA
12. 5:57- “My hand was numb within 10 minutes down there, but Eli still isn’t wearing a glove”-TA
13. 5:58- “Manning has started off red hot on a freezing night”-JB (nice play on words)
14. 6:00- “there is no easy kicks on a night like this”-JB
15. 6:03- “well that’s Brett Favre all bundled up there…”-JB
16. 6:06- Video Montage to the Ice Bowl
17. 6:06- “third coldest game in NFL history”-JB
18. 6:10- “Down to minus 2 as we continue….”-JB
19. 6:15- “Whatever you do to try and keep warm, it’s fighting a losing battle in this cold”-JB
20. 6:15- Chris Myers tells us about Brett Favre still not wearing gloves despite the cold-CM
21. 6:16- “Just getting the snap to cold hands can’t be fun”-JB
22. 6:16- “I can’t see how wearing a glove on that hand can be more uncomfortable then having no glove in this cold.”-TA
2nd Quarter
23. 6:19- “Members of that Giants defense surrounding the heaters during the break”-JB
24. 6:22- “You look at him, he might want to put something over his face (Coughlin), it’s very easy to get frost bite in these conditions”-Doctor Troy Aikman
25. 6:22- “Benchgate”, Pam Oliver says benches on Giants’ side is not heated like they should be, she even touched the benches with her bare hand. Investigative journalism at its finest.-PO
26. 6:27- “Giants coaches wanted to see which running back would be more effective in these conditions.”-TA
27. 6:33- “Lawrence Tynes not affected by the elements so far.”-JB
28. 6:33- “Mike McCarthy froze footballs and put them into practice on Wednesday”-JB
29. 6:34- “The ball gets slick in these cold conditions and makes it difficult to catch.”TA
30. 6:34- “Special teams so important with cold weather like this”-JB
31. 6:43-6:45- Troy and Joe talk about the effects of the cold on the game thus far
32. 6:46- “Farve won another cold NFC championship game against Carolina in 1996”
33. 6:53- Montage1963 NFC championship game and its’ 14 degree weather to today-JB
34. 7:00- Joe Buck compares Green Bay temperature to Alaska, Greenland, Russia, and also manages to quote Gordon Bombay in D2 “Greenland is covered in Ice, whereas Iceland is very green.”-JB
35. 7:03- “Halftime, from their set, their very cold set…..” -JB
36. 7:05- “The turf is in much better condition then it has been in colder games in the past”-JB
37. 7:11- “Both quarterbacks throwing it around on a cold day at Lambeau.”-JB
Chris Myers frozen in carbonite at halftime
3rd Quarter
38. 7:25- “Look Troy the wind chill has gone down (chuckle)” –JB
39. 7:25- “Both teams have been able to handle the cold with good success”-TA
40. 7:27- “It’s so cold he can’t feel the ankle!!” –JB
41. 7:28- “…and he (McCarthy) said he’s is too warm, he has too many layers on (chuckle):-CM
7:30-7:55 Joe Buck and Troy Aikman run out of cold references and nervously call the game as they wait for their crack team of Fox Producers to find video of Eskimos or Polar Bears in Green Bay.
42. 7:55- “you’ve got to be kidding (camera shoots to girls in bikinis)”-JB
“Makes me feel like a real sissy.”-TA
43. 8:07- “And they still don’t cough up the ball on this cold day in Lambeau.”-JB
4th Quarter
44. 8:13- Joe Buck gives us another weather report….it’s cold-JB
45. 8:17- “that’s a loss of 7, and on a cold, blustery night, that doesn’t help Crosby.”-JB
46. 8:22- “…and the Producers down in that warm truck”-JB
47. 8:26- “Eli Manning has made some nice throws in some bad weather”-TA
48. 8:27- “on this cold night, a piece of the red stripe on his helmet actually ripped off.”-JB
49. 8:31-“probably about 5 yards or so away from field goal range on this cold night.”-JB
50. 8:35- “you wouldn’t think you could dehydrate in this kind of climate…”-CM
51. 8:37- “Tynes is 2/2 tonight, but this is no easy kick on a night like this.”-JB
52. 8:41- Another Weather Report….still cold-JB
Why is Joe Buck so concerned about the cold temperatures? That wig doesn’t fool me Buck, or should I say Mr. Freeze?
Overtime
53. 9:07- “We’ve lost 3 degree’s since we’ve started”-JB
54. 9:08- “I think after that miss, the fans have heated up!”-TA
55. 9:14- “Tynes hit 3 field goals including the winner, having to battle the wind and the cold.”-JB
Could you imagine if this wasn’t such a close game? If this had been a 3 touchdown blowout then I think we would’ve been watching Pam Oliver stick her tongue to the field goal post until it stuck. Some of the cold comments were useful and necessary. But like almost every broadcast of every sport, the announcers just beat one or two storylines into our heads. I can’t wait for the “Eli trying to follow Peyton” and “chase for 19-0” storylines to be thrust on us for the next two weeks.
-Violent J
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