The Green Bay Packers were left freezing on the Soldier Field sideline on Saturday night after their sideline heaters cut out during their showdown with fierce rivals Chicago Bears.
Temperatures dropped down to 24 degrees as the game kicked off on Saturday night, with winds picking up and whipping around the stadium as the game progressed.
Towards the end of the second quarter, Fox sideline reporter Erin Andrews revealed that the Packers had an extra unexpected problem to contend with away from the action.
‘It is cold over here on the Packers sideline,’ Andrews said during a break in play. ‘Especially because the heaters aren’t working and the bench for the offensive line isn’t working.’
Andrews then asked Tom Brady if he had ever experienced anything like that during his long career in football.
‘Tom, you know better about the rules than I do. If that happens, does that mean the Bears have to shut theirs off?’
Green Bay Packers head coach Matt Lafleur had to deal with heaters going cold in Chicago
The heaters cut out in bitter conditions on the Packers sideline at Soldier Field on Saturday
A sympathetic Brady replied: ‘I think so. That’s definitely not what you are looking for in this temperature and if it happens on one side, it has got to go to the other side. That has never happened to me in my entire career, where the bench’s heat goes out.’
Cameras then cut to the Bears sideline, where players were gathered around one of the giant heaters in their padded coats for extra warmth – indicating that everything was fine on the Chicago side.
It seemed to be a brief issue rather than one that plagued the team throughout the course of the game, as the Packers players were soon pictured gathering back around the heaters on their side.
But given the high stakes with both teams eyeing the playoffs and sharing a passionate hatred of each other, plenty of NFL fans thought it was an extra level of gamesmanship from the Bears at the expense of their big rivals.
One fan wrote: ‘So convenient that the Packers sideline heaters and heated benches go out… What a joke. As dirty as the Bears are, I wouldn’t be surprised if that is by design. They need to pull off every trick they can to compete with the Packers.’
Another said: ‘Heaters not working on Packers side lines. Yup you’re a real class organization Bears…pathetic.’
One defiant Packers fan, however, backed his team to overcome the elements.
‘I mean if you are going to give a team faulty heating equipment in a cold game, do it to a warm weather team! Not a team that plays in the coldest climate in the league!! We don’t need heaters!!’
Things got worse for the Packers when their quarterback Jordan Love got clattered by a helmet hit from Bears pass rusher Austin Booker.
He hit the ground and lay motionless before being helped off the field and into the locker room for a concussion check which he ultimately failed.
