Cold weather will play factor

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Josh Boyd isn’t into making a fashion statement, and he doesn’t think he needs to go sleeveless to show off his toughness.

All the Packers defensive lineman wants is to stay warm in the subzero weather when Green Bay hosts the San Francisco 49ers in an NFC wild-card showdown today that could be one of the coldest playoff games in NFL history.

So many intriguing story lines between these two NFC powers, and yet the arctic cold may trump them all.

“Yeah, I’m definitely going sleeves,” said Boyd, a rookie from Mississippi. “I mean, I don’t see it as a tough-guy thing. I just see it as being comfortable.”

The National Weather Service forecast called for a high temperature in Green Bay of 2 degrees, with north-northwest winds making it feel more like minus-15 to minus-20.

The coldest NFL game on record is the 1967 championship game, known as the “Ice Bowl” won by the Packers 21-17 over the Dallas Cowboys at Lambeau Field on New Year’s Eve. The temperature dipped to minus-13, and the wind chill was minus-48.

This might be little consolation to Boyd, for whom cold games in college meant playing in 30- or 40-degree weather.

“I’m from Mississippi, so this is a whole other animal,” Boyd said. “I’ve never seen negatives until I got here.”

Footing on the field will be a key issue. Lambeau does have a heating system buried beneath the turf, encompassing 30 miles of pipes.