The Kansas City Chiefs will face the Miami Dolphins in the NFL Wild Card Round this weekend. Although the weather forecast favors the hosts, Chiefs coach Andy Reid doesn’t want to rest on his laurels.
When the Chiefs meet the Dolphins (on Sunday from 2 a.m. German time, live on RTL), the thermometer in Kansas City is forecast to show -3 degrees Celsius. The online service “AccuWeather,” for example, is already talking about “potentially the coldest playoff home game in Kansas City’s history.”
The Chiefs could therefore have an advantage over the sun-drenched guests from Miami. But Andy Reid doesn’t want to know anything about it. “You can’t rely on that. You’ll get into trouble,” warned the hosts’ head coach in an interview with some reporters on Tuesday and emphasized: “We’re not having a snowball fight.”
He wants to prepare his team for the cold weather during the week. “We probably won’t go out today, but there’s a good chance we’ll go out tomorrow. I know it’ll be a little snowy outside then,” Reid said.
NFL: Dolphins are used to the cold
Incidentally, the Dolphins professionals are by no means afraid of the low temperatures that await them this weekend.
“The guys in this locker room obviously come from all over the place. It’s not like we’ve all lived here in Miami our whole lives. We’ve dealt with the elements before,” said tight end Durham Smythe, a Pennsylvania native comes from, in a media round.
David Long, who grew up in Cincinnati, agreed with his teammate on this point and even expects the duel with the Chiefs to be a test of character. “A lot of people don’t want to get hit in cold weather. It hurts a little more. And then you see what types of players you have on your team,” the Dolphins linebacker explained.