Tom Brady more than satisfied with the bloodless winters of the New England industry by the Tampa Bay sun all year round.
But the quest for the 43-year-old quarterback of a seventh name in the Super Bowl will come with a staple of the playoffs in his day with the Patriots: an icy and potentially snowy convention championship game.
Brady and the Buccaneers are going to Lambeau Field, the well-known Frozen Tundra, this Sunday for an NFC name game with Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers.
The existing forecast for this match: maximum 28 degrees, minimum 23 degrees, 40% snow. Real football time in the playoffs.
This is nothing new for Brady.
During his 20 years with the Patriots, Brady played 29 games in temperatures below 30 degrees and won 25, according to pro football reference. In the face of those playoff conditions, he has a 13-1 record, adding victories in the 2004 AFC championship (Pittsburgh), 2007 (against San Diego) and 2018 (in Kansas City) His only defeat was the surprising loss to Baltimore in the 2009 wildcard round.
Brady’s opponent, Rodgers, is also no stranger to this kind of era, having played his entire career in one of the nfl’s coldest markets. The Packers’ QB has a 21-5 tee record with an initial temperature in the 1920s or less, adding a regular-season victory over Brady at Lambeau in 2014. That record includes a playoff score of 5-1, with the loss to Colin Kaepernick and the San Francisco 49ers in the 2013 departmental round.
The Buccaneers franchise, meanwhile, has played in temperatures below 30 degrees since its last appearance at the NFC Championship: a 27-10 away win over the Philadelphia Eagles in January 2003. Tampa Bay is 1-11 of all time in such conditions. But head coach Bruce Arians downplayed his impact.
“Every time I played in Green Bay, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Buffalo, no one was bloodless on the field,” Arians said Monday in a video conference. “It’s more mental. And to keep us warm on the sidelines, we now have this whole generation with radiators and everything in between. It’s different, but it’s not a big difference. “
Brady, who earlier this season said he never returned northeast without blood, fought Foxboro’s bloodless brutales through dressed in a diving suit under his patriots. be in condition of that last winter outing.
“You just have to have intellectual strength, wear warm clothes and be in a position to play,” Brady said after Sunday’s divisional victory over the New Orleans Saints. “It’s cold, man. It’s January football in the northeast of the Midwest. be in a position. “