The Cincinnati Bengals have their home opener on Sunday when they host the Jacksonville Jaguars. And, in case you pay attention to such things, it also could be the hottest home game ever for the Bengals.
The current Weather.com forecast for Cincinnati calls for a high of 90 degrees. My first thought is…really? That’s the highest? 90 is hot, but it doesn’t sound record-setting.
Jay Morrison of Sports Illustrated apparently has a little more time on his hands than most of us and looked up the hottest games in Bengals history.
“The hottest game in Cincinnati history was Sept. 8, 2002, in the season opener against the Chargers, with the game time temperature listed at 90 degrees, per ProFootballReference.com,” Morrison writes. “The Bengals lost 34-6.
“The second warmest home game in team history also was the windiest. That was Sept. 14, 2008, when the temperature was 88 degrees at kickoff and the remnants from Hurricane Ike produced sustained winds of 50 mph and gusts up to 74 mph.
“The Bengals lost to the Titans that day 24-7, and while the power never went out at the stadium, many fans returned home to find dark homes with outages lasting for days in some areas.”
The hottest game in NFL history, period
Even if the temperature on Sunday hits the 90s and sets a record for heat in a Bengals’ home game, it would still have a ways to go before becoming the hottest NFL game in history.
That would be the 2000 game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys down in Texas, known as “The Pickle Juice Game.” That game hit temperatures of 109 degrees down on the field, which is scorching hot if you’re naked let alone in full NFL gear.
The game earned its name because the story goes that the Eagles all stayed hydrated by drinking pickle juice.
That’s not remotely true. I had a few friends that played on that Eagles team. They all told me separately that maybe (maybe) five guys drank some of the pickle juice, not the whole team. And they even acknowledged years later that the pickle juice didn’t do anything anyway. But, hey, why let the truth get in the way of a good story?
Cincinnati Bengals have the coldest game in NFL history
While this week’s game against the Jaguars probably won’t break any NFL heat records, the Bengals do hold the record for coldest game in NFL history. What came to be known as “The Freezer Bowl,” the AFC Championship Game saw the San Diego Chargers travel to Riverfront Stadium on January 10, 1982.
The air temperature was -9 degrees Fahrenheit at game time, with an obnoxious -59-degree wind chill. It ranks as the coldest game in NFL history in terms of wind chill, but let’s be honest, isn’t that all that really counts? If it “feels” that absolutely bone-chilling cold then it really is.
What’s funny is that the week before, the Chargers played in one of the hottest games in NFL history. It was an overtime win in Miami that became known as “Epic in Miami.” It must have been something to go from an exhausting OT thriller in the extreme heat and humidity that saw tight end Kellen Winslow nearly carried off the field, to freezing Riverfront Stadium the following week.
Will it be hot enough in Cincy this weekend for the game to get a nickname? It seems like all of these weather games get a nickname. What could it be called?
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