Reply #5: Divisional Conference game, Raiders vs. Browns, January 4th 1981

[Auggie]

In Cleveland. Game-time temperature of 4 °F with a −36 °F wind chill -- the coldest NFL game since the Ice Bowl of December 31, 1967, Dallas Cowboys vs. the Green Bay Packers.

It was the infamous game in which Cleveland QB Brian Sipe was intercepted by Oakland's DB Mike Davis in the end zone with under a minute left and the Browns trailing 12-14. The Browns opted to pass to Ozzie Newsome rather than rely on kicker Don Cockroft, who had missed on two prior field goal attempts in the wind and cold. From the 13 yard line it would have been a gimme -- in semi-normal conditions.

I remember that game vividly because it's one I mostly missed. I was flying from Cleveland to the Bay Area that day and drove by Municipal Stadium hours before the game began. I was thinking what a miserably cold day it was to play football. And I was pissed I hadn't planned my travel day around the game.

Luckily, there wasn't much of a head wind and we landed at SFO with a few minutes left in the fourth quarter. The pilot had been giving us updates on the score since the passenger list, after all, included many from both cities, so we knew it was a close game.

I found a bar showing the game and sat down just in time to watch the Browns run "Red Right 88" -- and see Davis cut in front Newsome to make the interception. And that was it. Raiders won 14-12.

Wind and cold do things than just effect the ball. It screws around with the game plan and player confidence, and becomes a bigger story than the game itself.

No one wants a Super Bowl decided that way.