How NFL players prepare for the coldest games of the year

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  John KeimJan 24, 2026, 12:02 PM ET

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  John Keim covers the Washington Commanders for ESPN. He joined ESPN in 2013 after a stint with the Washington Post. He began masking the workforce in 1994 for the Journal Newspapers and later for the Washington Examiner. He has authored/co-authored 4 books. You also can take heed to him on ‘The John Keim Report’, which airs on ESPN Richmond radio.

(Editor’s observe: This story was initially printed on Jan. 15, 2026, forward of the NFC and AFC divisional spherical games.)

A FEW HOURS earlier than kickoff of the Jan. 20, 2008, NFC Championship Game between the Giants and Packers in frigid Green Bay, round 10 New York players did what they at all times do: took a stroll round the subject.

They have been bundled up, with temperatures falling to minus 1 with a minus 23 wind chill. Their vaporized breath stuffed the air; the chilly snapped at their faces.

Suddenly, they have been slapped with one other chilly actuality: No participant from Green Bay was on the subject.

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“They knew a little more than we did,” former Giants punter Jeff Feagles mentioned. “That’s when I knew it was going to be super, super cold.”

The severity of the chilly did not shock the Giants players. They learn the climate reviews. They introduced further clothes and toe and hand heaters. They introduced the regular halftime refreshments acceptable for chilly climate — broth and sizzling chocolate.

But it wasn’t sufficient early on. During pregame warmups, regardless of sporting gloves for the first time in his 21-year profession, Feagles, who additionally served as the holder for kicker Lawrence Tynes, mentioned his arms and ft have been so chilly that when it was time for him to take some apply kicks he caught one snap and opted to not kick. He mentioned it was the solely time in his profession that he didn’t punt a ball in warmups.

“I was freezing and didn’t want to put bad thoughts in my head,” mentioned Feagles, whose arms would change into necessary to the end result. “I remember putting my hands underneath the sink with warm water and my hands just started to hurt.

“I’m like, ‘Oh, God, that is ridiculous.'”

While not as severe as what Feagles & Co. experienced, frigid weather took center stage in the Bears’ 20-17 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Rams in Sunday’s NFC divisional round game in Chicago, where the temperature for the 6:30 p.m. ET kickoff was 19 degrees, with a wind chill that dipped to around minus-4.

Tested out the @RamsNFL cayenne pepper to beat the cold strategy today since it’s negative one zillion in Chicago … and it really works??? pic.twitter.com/WydTLsLmii

— Kalyn Kahler (@kalynkahler) January 23, 2026

More than a dozen current and former NFL players told ESPN that preparing to play in below-freezing temperatures is a challenge that comes with many considerations and strategies. Players know they must be physically prepared, with some — such as Tom Brady — wearing scuba suits to fend off the cold, while others, like some players in the Rams’ game at Chicago, resorted to applying Cayenne pepper to their feet.

The Rams won’t need the pepper trick Sunday when they travel to face the Seahawks in Seattle, where the temps are expected to be in the low 40s. The AFC title game between the New England Patriots and Broncos in Denver, however, is expected to have a temp around 20 with wind chills around 15.

There’s also mental prep. Players hunt for signs the weather is affecting an opponent in order to gain a psychological or on-field advantage. Others, such as Von Miller, play mind games to convince themselves that others have played in worse conditions.

Other hurdles include frozen fingers getting jammed and numb hands changing the way offensive linemen approach their blocking assignments. Even the simple act of drinking water becomes a difficult task. On a more serious note is the risk of frostbite, which Dolphins defensive lineman Zach Sieler and former Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor said they’ve both suffered during games.

How well players navigate the frigid conditions can impact the outcome of games. That’s especially true for teams and players unaccustomed to the cold. According to ESPN Research, teams from warm climates are 3-12 in the past 10 postseasons when the temperature is 32 degrees or lower, with Houston’s wild-card win at Pittsburgh on Monday representing the most recent such contest.

Although players differ on their approach, many agree there is one thing that can warm their bodies instantly: winning.

That’s what Feagles remembers most about the game at Lambeau.

In overtime, the Giants’ ticket to Super Bowl XLII rested on a 47-yard Tynes field goal attempt. Tynes trotted out, and Feagles, with his tackified receiver gloves on, prepped to hold.

“It was a excessive snap, and I used to be in a position to get it down. I knew as soon as he hit it he had the distance as a result of I may inform the sound of it. It began out proper, however I knew it was coming again proper to left,” Feagles said of the successful kick, which gave the Giants a 23-20 victory. “Then Lawrence left me hanging there and ran proper into the locker room. I suppose he simply wished the heat.

“I’ll tell you one thing, I did not feel an ounce of cold after the game was over.”

Jeff Feagles, sporting purple receiver gloves (backside proper), holds as Lawrence Tynes kicks the game-winner vs. the Packers in the 2007 NFC title recreation. Albert Dickson/Getty Images

LEAVE IT TO Brady to provide you with a singular option to fight the chilly. New England’s divisional spherical recreation towards the Tennessee Titans on Jan. 10, 2004, was thought of the coldest recreation in Pats franchise historical past — 4 levels at kickoff; a wind chill of minus 10.

Brady, who went 35-8 in games when the temperature at kickoff was 32 levels or much less, knew what he was doing. He advised ESPN’s Mike Reiss in 2017 that the go well with “insulates you from the cold. It keeps the wind from penetrating, and it really doesn’t limit movement too much.”

If it labored for Brady, then it have to be value attempting. Stafford mentioned he wore one when he performed for Detroit in chilly climate games. The Lions performed in a dome however visited Green Bay and Chicago each year.

“I’ve worn it quite a few times since I’ve been here,” mentioned Stafford, who joined the Rams in 2021. “It keeps you warmer. That’s how it affects me. It’s not skintight or anything like that.”

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His coach, Sean McVay, is a proponent of it as nicely.

“Yeah, I throw on a damn scuba suit underneath,” McVay mentioned final month, reminiscing a few Week 16 recreation at the New York Jets, the place the wind chill was 6 levels. “I got that trick from Matthew. I said, ‘This thing is awfully snug, but it is nice and warm.’ I don’t do much. My mom always gets on me about not wearing a hat because my little ears and my hands get so frozen.”

But that does not imply everybody swears by the garb. Quarterback Marcus Mariota wore one whereas taking part in for the Titans throughout a recreation at the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2017 postseason — a suggestion from former Brady teammate Matt Cassell. It was one of two items of gear that failed Mariota that day.

“I was somewhat warm with it, but I just felt like it was kind of restricting as a thrower,” Mariota mentioned. “I remember I usually wear a visor, and pregame had to take the visor off. From my breath, it froze the eye shield, and it was crazy. They couldn’t even get it off my helmet until we got back into the locker room.”

Former Chiefs offensive lineman Nick Allegretti, at the moment with the Washington Commanders, performed in a handful of chilly climate games every season in Kansas City. They practiced 20 to 30 days in chilly climate and had an opportunity to discover ways to gown for such situations.

“I still go sleeveless just because I don’t like playing with sleeves,” mentioned Allegretti, who was a reserve lineman in the Chiefs’ 2024 playoff win over Miami. “I would do a scuba suit and then thermal [shirt], double socks, usually like a small thin winter glove under the gloves. … Obviously, it was much colder [vs. Miami], so I just amped it up a little bit.”

Edge rusher Von Miller performed in Buffalo and Denver and mentioned as a result of of heated benches and insulated jackets obtainable to players, he does not really feel the have to put on something further however a turtleneck.

“Practicing in the cold is different than playing in the cold,” Miller mentioned. “Playing in the cold, we got everything that we need. You got hand warmers. You got shoe warmers. The bench is heated.

“And you then’re solely going out [on the field] for 5 minutes. Then you are coming again to the sideline and placing the jackets on, getting bundled up on the sideline. Games usually are not as unhealthy as individuals suppose.”

San Francisco receiver Kendrick Bourne, who played in cold weather in college at Eastern Washington, has his system down: long sleeves, maybe tights. But only one layer.

“You needn’t put on a ton as a result of I’m going to get sizzling and it may sluggish me down. You can at all times warmth up. You cannot settle down,” he said. “Once you are in the recreation and adrenaline [is] going, you are good. But the hardest half is pregame and early on.”

Leave it to Tom Brady to find an innovative way to beat the cold. He finished his career 35-8 in games when the temperature was at or below freezing. AP Photo/Charles Krupa

Guard Andrew Wylie, who played in cold weather games with the Chiefs from 2017 to 2022, uses the heaters on the bench to keep his hands warm before taking the field. He also sticks his cleats in front of them to “keep sizzling for a minute or two.”

“Just maintaining emotions in the physique elements which have the most contact,” he said.

Bears safety Kevin Byard III played in extreme cold weather twice, also at Kansas City. As a rookie in 2016, the temperature was 1 degree; four years later, the Titans played at Arrowhead in the AFC Championship Game when it was 17 degrees at kickoff.

“The complete lead-up — warmups, once you’re variety of simply standing round — that is the annoying half,” Byard said. “The TV timeouts, I stand over by the heaters and when there’s 30 seconds left in the TV timeout, I run again on the subject and get the playcall. During the recreation, you are enthusiastic about the recreation and what the offense is doing. Both groups should play in the identical climate.”

Another strategy: the halftime drink. Some players drink bone or chicken broth. Allegretti preferred hot chocolate.

With mini marshmallows?

“Oh, yeah. You should,” he said. “But halftime isn’t shorter than throughout a chilly recreation since you lastly get heat they usually’re like, ‘Two minutes!’ It’s a problem.”

And then there’s the this: Before playing Chicago on Sunday, some Rams players even turned to the spice cabinet, applying Cayenne pepper on their feet. Nose tackle Poona Ford said he watched a teammate do it when he played in Seattle from 2018-22 and figured he’d “give it a shot.” The Rams’ equipment staff brought the Cayenne with them.

“The first time I did it, I put an excessive amount of on them and my ft was too sizzling,” Ford said.

But he’s stuck with the spice.

Cornerback Cobie Durant thought Ford was kidding with him at first. Then he tried it himself. They have heaters on the sideline to warm their feet and toe warmers to stick in their cleats. But sprinkling a little spice helped Sunday.

“It simply retains your ft heat. I do not know the way to clarify it. It simply works,” Ford said.

There was one tactic, however, Ford said he once heard that his teammates couldn’t believe.

“I heard a narrative of any person peeing on themselves to remain heat, however that solely labored for so lengthy,” Ford said. “[My teammates] thought I used to be loopy.”

Over the years, NFL sidelines have become better equipped to help players deal with the cold. Getty Images

BOBBY WAGNER WITNESSED a first while warming up for a Jan. 10, 2016, NFC wild-card game in Minnesota.

The Vikings were in between stadiums, transitioning from the Metrodome, their home from 1982 to 2013, to their current digs, U.S. Bank Stadium, which opened for the 2016 season. In the meantime, they played at the University of Minnesota’s open-air TCF Bank Stadium, which is where Wagner and his Seahawks teammates encountered temperatures that plummeted to minus 6 degrees with a minus 25 wind chill.

“I noticed any person sneeze, and I noticed it turning to ice earlier than it hit their lip,” Wagner said.

Chancellor said he noticed black marks on his fingertips and fingernails a couple of days after that Seattle win. After being diagnosed by doctors, he was told he had frostbite.

“I had by no means had frostbite,” Chancellor told ESPN. “I used to be like, ‘Wait, are y’all going to chop my fingers off?'”

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When it turns bitterly chilly, players should account for even the smallest issues, reminiscent of squirting water into their mouths. Miller is aware of why, due to Denver’s 2013 divisional spherical time beyond regulation loss to Baltimore.

“If you don’t get [the water] all in your mouth, and it spills on your mustache or your shirt, it icicled up,” Miller mentioned. “[Ravens guard] Marshall Yonda had a beard, and he had icicles in his beard, and he had icicles on his chest.”

There are additionally painful scenes: Giants coach Tom Coughlin’s vibrant purple face in that 2008 recreation.

“I thought he was going to permanently have skin damage,” Feagles mentioned.

Not even the gear is protected. In that 2024 recreation between the Chiefs and Dolphins — performed in situations Dolphins left sort out Terron Armstead known as “borderline inhumane” — a Miami defender hit Chiefs’ quarterback Patrick Mahomes exhausting sufficient to knock a chunk of the plastic shell from his helmet, maybe made brittle by the chilly. He wanted a substitute, which the membership had on the sideline.

There was only one drawback.

“It was like frozen,” Mahomes mentioned after the recreation.

The chilly usually exacts a painful toll on linemen.

“The worst part is a jammed finger. You jam a finger in the cold, and it’s shattered,” Allegretti mentioned. “You make it through a cold game without jamming a finger, that’s rare. They’re just more rigid.”

The hardest half for them, Wylie mentioned, is maintaining their arms heat. He mentioned in some games he could not really feel the defender along with his arms.

“You’re just patty-caking,” he mentioned. “You’re not striking and grabbing. You’ve got to have feeling in your hands.”

Even penmanship suffers. In 2007, in his third year with Green Bay as a backup, quarterback Aaron Rodgers skilled his coldest recreation when the Packers performed at Chicago on Dec. 23. Wind gusts of 22 miles an hour turned a 16-degree day right into a minus 22 wind chill.

“I was trying to chart plays, and my fingers were shaking so bad, in the second quarter I said I can’t even write at this point,” Rodgers mentioned.

Players heat their our bodies, arms and ft at heating stations throughout frosty games. Getty Images

THE COLD ALSO presents alternatives to realize a bonus on opponents if what to look for.

Offensive linemen “don’t like to grab as much,” Miller mentioned. “They don’t like to shoot their hands as much. I like it as cold as possible. So long as the field’s not frozen, as long as it’s not snowing, it’s good. Once it starts snowing, it evens out because guys can wrestle you and you can’t hit those [rush] angles that you want.”

Before the Chiefs’ 26-7 win over Miami in 2024, Allegretti mentioned he knew throughout pregame warmups that Miami was struggling.

“On the jumbotron, you saw them staring at the clock, like huddled up, waiting ’til the last second to jog out,” Allegretti mentioned. “It was almost a 100-degree change for them. Mentally, I don’t know how they were going to find a way to win that game because it was frozen. Guys who are tough normally were frozen.”

Wagner mentioned they regarded for little indicators towards Minnesota.

“I saw a guy come out and he was just no sleeves,” Wagner mentioned. “And then the next drive he had a [ski] mask on and we was like, ‘OK, we got him.’ I’m like, mentally we got him, so we already won. … It’s all mental.”

Such was the case for Jimmie Giles and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a December 1985 recreation later dubbed the “Snow Bowl.” Giles, a decent finish, and the Bucs left a metropolis that was 81 levels on Dec. 1 for a recreation at Green Bay, the place that very same day the wind chill was zero levels.

They ready for the chilly as a lot as a workforce coming from heat climate may. But they have been greeted by even worse climate than anticipated: 14 inches of snow fell earlier than, throughout and after the recreation.

They misplaced 21-0.

“We had no concept it was going to be like that,” mentioned Giles, who added that the Bucs had no heated benches and their jackets lacked insulation. “You have to come up for air and take your helmet off to get the snow out of your face. I’d never seen that much snow before.

The temperature at kickoff for the Dolphins-Chiefs AFC wild-card game on Jan. 13, 2024, was minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit, with a wind chill of minus 27. Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

“We simply weren’t ready.”

Miller likes to convince himself that he has an advantage — physically and mentally — over his opponent on a frozen turf. That’s one of the reasons he loved playing in Buffalo from 2022 to 2024, citing the cold and lack of five-star amenities contributing to a tougher experience for opponents.

Could he tell his opponent didn’t want to be there?

“Not actually, however in my head that is the recreation that I play,” he said. “Maybe it is me saying I do not wish to be right here. But I’m convincing myself that it is really them feeling like they do not wish to be there.”

Mind games don’t always work.

Rams edge rusher Jared Verse was born in Ohio, attended high school in Pennsylvania and spent three years of his college career in upstate New York at Albany. He thought he was friends with the cold. Before that Jets game last month, he went shirtless in warmups.

“Not occurring once more,” he said. “That was the coldest recreation I’ve ever performed in my life. At Albany, we used to apply in the snow, in order that’s saying lots.

“It was freezing that game. We were on the sideline, and me and [Byron Young] looked at each other and I was like, ‘I’m not doing that again.'”

Players say profitable in the end cures the chilly. Feagles immediately heated up as he gleefully ran off the subject in Green Bay. But there aren’t any such warming results on the dropping sideline.

Bourne realized that reality in the 2021 wild-card recreation after his Patriots misplaced to the Bills in 7-degree climate.

“It makes it even colder,” Bourne mentioned.

Nick Wagoner, Sarah Barshop, Courtney Cronin, Brooke Pryor and Rob Demovsky contributed to this story.