To Sleeve Or Not To Sleeve

Brandon Jacobs and the Giants offensive linemen made good on their promise not to wear sleeves Sunday in the NFC championship game. In case you missed it, the guys from New York – technically New Jersey – won the NFC title game over the Packers in a zero-degree contest in Green Bay. Jacobs, knowing the forecasted temperatures, said before the game that he would play sleeveless because sleeves gave him less control of holding the pigskin. He also said he would have played in -50 degree weather for a shot to play in the Super Bowl. Easy, Brandon. As you know, the famous 1967 Ice Bowl was played in -13 degrees with a wind chill of -46. One person died at that game from exposure to the extreme cold. By the way, Packers officials say that about 12-15 peopled were treated Sunday night for cold-related ailments. Back to the sleeves, no-sleeves issue: It appeared that about half the players on both teams wore sleeves.

Another Gallery Visit

Most everyone likes to watch football games played in ankle-deep snow and see the occasional tarp-whipping wind blow through a ballpark. That's one reason I started this sports weather blog. Bad weather sporting events often provide us with some uber cool images. I've mentioned a couple of times the NFL.com photo feature of bad weather football games. This week SI.com is featuring its own NFL bad weather photo gallery. SI's 12-photo gallery begins with the 1967 Ice Bowl between the Packers and Cowboys, mixes in a few other historical snowy and muddy pics and concludes with this season's snow games in Cleveland and most recent playoff contest in Green Bay. The gallery is worth clicking through as it contains a handful of shots that you normally don't see associated with these games. For example, the Ice Bowl photo is not the usual pic of Bart Starr diving for the game-winning touchdown.

Sabres Say Let It Snow

Hey, ya know the NHL's version of the Ice Bowl is just weeks away, and some of the Buffalo Sabres are in the mood for snow for that game after watching the Bills and Browns play in a blizzard in Cleveland on Sunday. “We talked about that a little bit,” Sabres center Paul Gaustad told Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News. “If it was like [Sunday], would we play it? All of us are like, ‘Yeah, let’s play it. Let’s not cancel it. Let’s play.’ I’d rather it be colder than warmer for the Ice Bowl. That’s why they call it the Ice Bowl.” The Sabres play the Pittsburgh Penguins in the NHL Winter Classic on Jan. 1 at Buffalo's Ralph Wilson Stadium. The NHL could postpone the league's first ever outdoor game a day if bad weather arises.

Ice Bowl Movie Melted In A Flash

While we’re on the topic of the Ice Bowl (See Below), what happened to the ESPN movie about the 1967 NFL title game that was due to air on the network a few years back? When the announcement was made, there was a bit of a buzz about the made-for-TV flick, but that quickly dissipated and talk about the movie simply melted away. You may remember Joe Eszterhas, the writer of Basic Instinct and Flashdance, was hired to pen the script. An odd choice I thought, but what do I know?

Ralphie Warned Us About This

Everyone here knows about the Ice Bowl, so there's no reason to revisit the details. However, there is one bit of information about that 1967 NFL Championship game that I either did not know about or had just tucked into the far reaches of my brain. In other words: I forgot.

Anyway, I just learned a couple of nights ago about how the officials for the game did not use their whistles after the game's initial play. The reason being that official Joe Connell had his whistle freeze to his lips because of the freezing temperatures.

I heard about this while watching the NFL Network's Top 10 Bad Weather Games late Saturday night. One account of the event I read today quoted referee Norm Schachter saying about Connell, that "about half his lip came off" when he tried to remove the whistle. And then the blood froze on his mouth. Yuck! From that point, the refs kept their whistles far from their lips and simply shouted "hold up" or "he's down" to signify the end of plays.

While researching this nugget of Ice Bowl info, I found a few more things on the Packers Web site that you may or may not have known about the game.

- Bart Starr's touchdown play, "35 wedge," called for Chuck Mercein to get the ball. No one expected Starr to keep it.

- Officially, the field's $80,000 heating system failed due to cold. Unofficially, some say, Lombardi turned it off.

- The play before Starr's TD, Donny Anderson actually broke the plane, but Lee Roy Jordan knocked the ball from his hands, and Anderson had to retrieve it on the other side.

- The team canceled marching band performances after noticing blood on a few of the musician's faces.

- Packers fans several times during the contest leaned over the front row to unplug the Cowboys' heated benches.

- After the game, several fans passed out soon after warming up. Their thawed systems finally registered the alcohol they'd consumed to keep warm during the game.

- One fan, an elderly gentleman, died due to exposure.

Ice Bowl As You've Never Seen It

Those of us who dig our sporting events mixed with a dash or two of bad weather hold with high regard the 1967 NFL Championship game between the Packers and Cowboys, or the Ice Bowl as it's commonly known. You know the story of that contest, so I won't go into details. Anyway, I was Googling pics of bad weather football games today, and stumbled upon this unique, uh, photo (above) of the Ice Bowl I had never seen before. And, I'm betting you've never seen it either. It was made by a filmmaker who operates the very cool Web site, Stopactionfootball.com, which features those beloved electronic football players from our childhood. You really should take a few minutes and examine his work. It is great, and particularly check out his film about Jim Marshall's wrong-way run. It's a classic and perfect irony for the electronic football environment. But if you're in a hurry to get back to work and have only a few minutes to kill, below is a film from the site highlighting the most recent Super Bowl. Yeah, it's weather related. Remember the rain?

Weather Games Encore

The NFL Network will show an encore presentation of the Top 10 Weather games at 4 p.m. Wednesday. The show originally aired weeks ago, but I never got a chance to see it. Given that the show will be on in the afternoon on July 4th, I’m pretty sure I’ll miss it again. Hey, there are a lot of hot dogs and hamburgers out there with my name on them. No time to watch TV.