Several Fans with Frostbite from Chiefs vs. Dolphins Game Advised to Have Amputations | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors
The Wild Card Round matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins was so frigid—temperatures at Arrowhead Stadium dipped to minus-4 degrees Fahrenheit with a windchill of minus-27 degrees—that a number of fans in attendance came down with severe frostbite that could require amputations, per Dave D'Marko of Fox 4 Kansas City.
Per that report, the medical director at the Grossman Burn Center at Research Medical Center, Dr. Megan Garcia, said that 70 percent of the patients referred to the center with frostbite in January were advised to have amputations, and many of them were Chiefs fans who attended the Dolphins matchup.
"People think of burns, they think of fire, they think of hot thermal injuries," Garcia told D'Marko. "But burns can happen from many different causes."
The Chiefs-Dolphins game was particularly frigid. It was the coldest game ever at Arrowhead and the fourth-coldest kickoff temperature in recorded NFL history.
Chiefs Communications @ChiefsPRTonight's kickoff temp is -4 degrees <a href="">@GEHAField</a>. It marks the 4th coldest kickoff temp in NFL history. The wind chill is -27, the 3rd coldest kickoff wind chill in NFL history.
"It was cold, I'm not going to lie. It was cold," Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes told reporters after the game. "At the end of the day, you have to be mentally tough enough that if something doesn't work, I'm going to come back and keep firing."
The coldest recorded game in NFL history was 1967's NFL Championship Game played between the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys at Lambeau Field, immortalized as the "Ice Bowl" after temperatures dipped as low as -13 Fahrenheit with a wind chill of -48 degrees.
But January's wild-card matchup between the Chiefs and Dolphins was so cold that icicles formed in Andy Reid's mustache, an image that went viral.
SportsCenter @SportsCenterAndy Reid's mustache 🥶 <a href="">
The Sporting News @sportingnews"I gotta defrost the mustache."<br><br>Andy Reid 😂<br><br>🎥: <a href="">@Chiefs</a> <a href="">
Mahomes' helmet also cracked due to the cold temperatures.
B/R Gridiron @brgridironMahomes' helmet was broken on this play 😳<br><br>(via <a href="">@NFL</a>)<a href="">
NFL on ESPN @ESPNNFLThis image of Patrick Mahomes' helmet 😮 <a href="">
VICIS @vicisproAn official statement from VICIS. <a href="">
Fans, coaches and players alike had to deal with the conditions. The Kansas City Fire Department told Mary Kekatos of ABC News that it received 69 calls from inside Arrowhead Stadium and the parking lot area, with half the calls for hypothermia-related concerns.
Many of the Chiefs fans who won't require amputations still had to undergo treatment in hyperbaric oxygen tanks, Garcia said, and they may have "sensitivity and pain for the rest of their lives and always will be more susceptible to frostbite in the future."
