There’s a mental aspect to playing in the cold. I know I’m a homer, but Miami was done on Saturday before the end of the first quarter. They gave up on a play toward the end of the 1st and it was then I knew they didn’t have the mental stamina to last 4 quarters in that weather. They were beat before the first quarter ended.
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I think the whole "gotta learn to play in cold weather" is over blown.
Is it really that hard to learn to play in cold weather when you're one of the best athletes in the world? Did the Chiefs really know how to play in -5° weather better than the Dolphins?
I never played HS ball in conditions as bad as the Chiefs or Bills have recently played in but cold enough to know it affected me greatly.
Every hit or fall to the frozen ground hurts hard, unlike anything I've experienced since. I guess maybe many get used to that, I never did.
Still kind of surprised we got him. Absolutely no reason the son of a Miami legend who was a good pro, with that production and an early enrollee, would go half way across the country. Testament to Rhule and company's recruiting prowess.
I agree, it'll affect you greatly. All I'm saying is that those NFL guys who played college at "cold weather schools" didn't have some great advantage over those who played at warm weather schools.
Use Aaron Rodgers & Brett Favre for example. Grew up in Cali & Mississippi, played college in Cali & Mississippi, were amazing players in Green Bay. How did they overcome the GB cold elements when they played college at warm locations?
“You go to the NFL, you get drafted by the Green Bay Packers, what you going to say: You don’t want to go? You might as well just get used to it now so then when you’re in the NFL you’re already good.” - Willis McGahee III
That was his advice to his son, but what would he know, he only spent his whole life in Miami until he got drafted by Buffalo. Then went on to play for Baltimore, Denver, and Cleveland as well.
Some schools will not let you graduate early, my school is like that.
For most schools the key is taking your 4th math class before the start of your senior year. A small school MIGHT not have enough math course offerings to make that possible. But clearly it worked out in this situation.
Did playing college in Miami affect McGahee's ability to do well in the NFL? Would he have had a better NFL career had he played college somewhere colder?
People acting like cold weather is somehow a difficult to thing to overcome when you're a professional seems silly to me. Look how many guys who played college ball in warm weather places went on to do really well in cold weather places. Do people seriously think Mahomes or Rodgers would be doing that much better in the NFL had they played college at Nebraska, Michigan, Ohio St, etc instead of Texas and California?
Using McGahee is actually proving my point that where you play in college doesn't affect how you play in the NFL.
I look at it a little differently. I think he is saying that you don't choose a school based on climate. Nothing more. IF Nebraska or Wisconsin is the choice, and you are from Miami, you don't say no, I am going to the U because the weather is better. That if you get drafted by GB you don't say no I want to play for the Dolphins only.
Are you really asking if a Kansas City team used to temps in the 30s degree range right now would be better playing in -5 degrees than a team that comes from an 82 degree (current weekly
Forecast) tropical location?
Uhhhhh
The point is you acclimate to where you play the most. That's why the fair weather teams falter when they have to play outside in the playoffs in the north.
Their best hope is to get home field. If they have to travel for the playoffs it's a giant red flag.
This makes total sense. Maybe this is what other board members here meant as well, but that's not how took it.
Yes. KC didn't dominate Miami because of the cold, imo. KC dominated Miami because Miami had a bunch of injuries on D and never really played well against good teams all season.
That'd be an interesting stat to review. Fair weather teams faltering when playing outside up north.
Then to determine if that team faltered because of the weather or because the southern team just wasn't very good compared to the northern team (see 2024 Miami vs KC).
Have you not see Tampas record in cold weather in the NFL?
Before 2002 they had never won a game below 40 degrees. Before 2020 they had never won a game below 32 degrees. Ever.
That’s in a division of Packers and Bears and then Minnesota.
Per Stathead's data, Miami has an all-time record of 25-47-1 in outdoor games when the temperature is 40 degrees or colder. The last time Miami won a cold weather game was in 2016 when they beat Buffalo in over time.
My timing belt broke on 180 coming out of Lincoln, it was SO cold you wouldn't leave a human outside, the first car that came stopped and picked me up.
This. I’m a fan of the Dolphins, have been since the late 70s. Even when relatively healthy, they struggled against teams over .500. Counting the WC game, I think they went 1-6 against teams that ended the year with a winning record. At the end of the season, they were pretty beat up too. They had 4 defensive starters out & 1 who was gimpy in the WC game.
Did they struggle in the cold? Probably. Perceptually, it seems that they have when they’ve ended regular seasons playing at NE and/or Buffalo but I don’t have quantitative data to support it or the time to dig it up. In the end, they were a decent team but not a “next level” team that had a ton of injuries.
Edit to give props to HUSKERBILL for finding & sharing some data. Not a surprise at all.
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I would like to see what you're seeing. Not that I don't believe you, but to add a little more context. Mostly to see how good/bad each of those teams were AND how often they played in those temps.
For example, you mentioned Tampa. From 1976-1997 they weren't beating anyone regardless of temps. Then how many games in that time frame were played in below 40 degree temps? If it were only a dozen (for example), that doesn't really mean much when they weren't winning games to begin with.
If you hail from south Fla and you objectively hate cold weather, don't go to school where habitrail systems connect building. But if you are a defensive player that would love to play in a gang tackling, dynamic defense, Lincoln is a destination weather be damned.
You can choose to believe concrete real data that I took the time to compile showing exact Statistics around your team (and peer teams) in cold weather performance
OR
You can choose to not believe it and think there were other factors involved.
How can I determine if something is "concrete" without actually seeing it? I'm just supposed to blindly believe some message board rando?
Even still, I conceded that you may not be wrong with those stats, I just added that there may be more context behind those statistics (i.e., Tampa being a trash team for 20 years so where they played didn't matter, they sucked).