The Kansas City Chiefs’ miraculous playoff run this past season featured a playoff game in frigid conditions against the Miami Dolphins in the Wild Card Round. Unfortunately, several Chiefs fans who attended the game are still feeling the effects of enduring the hazardous conditions.
The vast majority of Chiefs fans likely had a great time watching their team advance to the Divisional Round with a win over the Dolphins. But even the most avid fan likely had trouble enduring the weather in this game, sitting at -4 degrees with a wind chill of -27 degrees at kickoff.
It ultimately ended up being the fourth-coldest game in NFL history and the coldest in Chiefs franchise history.
This led to some fans suffering from frostbite. Dr. Megan Garcia of Grossman Burn Center Medical Director recently spoke with Fox 4 in Kansas City, who unfortunately shared that some of the patients she has seen from the game are now considering amputation which may be necessary to treat them.
“The patients who had their frostbite injuries along with the Chiefs game, they are just getting to the point now we are starting to discuss their amputations that might be necessary,” said Garcia.
Even for the patients lucky enough to avoid amputation, they will live with sensitivity in whatever part of their body that suffered the frostbite, according to Garcia.
“It’s still a lifelong process,” Garcia added. “They’ll have sensitivity and pain for the rest of their lives and always will be more susceptible to frostbite in the future. So we are also educating them to make sure they stay warm for the years and months to come.”
Fans offered their reactions to this rather jarring reality for some Chiefs supporters on social media.
But sure let's play the game cause there was no danger getting there smh. This is what I was talking about yet got push back https://t.co/MqCSpCvdWb
— DouglieDoWrong (@DouglieDoWrong) March 7, 2024
Tweeted at the time that fans were gonna get hurt… and was mocked https://t.co/cwxGgxeHSH
— Five Reasons Sports 🏀🏈⚾️🏒⚽️ (@5ReasonsSports) March 7, 2024
Imagine losing a limb to see a football game 🤦🏾♂️ https://t.co/EGpmdr0Dho
— Harv (@itsnotright484) March 7, 2024
Yeah, this game should have never been played that day. https://t.co/2Sp8vwTrog
— Eric (@EIizondo) March 7, 2024
i’ll never go to a NFL game in negative degree weather https://t.co/sW6htCvh5R
— Flex Luthor (@JShakoor22) March 7, 2024
The same week that this game happened we saw the NFL postpone a Wild Card game between the Buffalo Bills and the Pittsburgh Steelers. For the safety of the fans in attendance, there is a very clear argument that this game between the Chiefs and Dolphins should have been postponed for a later date as well.
In the future, it would be wise for the NFL to automatically postpone games that are under a certain temperature of wind chill to protect everyone in attendance.
Will we ever see that? It seems like a difficult unlikely with the external factors surrounding every NFL game such as media rights deals and the number of days each team is required to have off before they play again the next week. But at the very least, this is something that the NFL should find a way to fix as soon as possible.
[Fox 4]
