Buffalo Bills Wall of Fame linebacker Darryl Talley used to slather his body with Vaseline, then pull on a pair of Big Mama pantyhose, then his football pads, pants and jersey, just one old-school trick for staying warm in the extreme cold.
Then he’d lube up his feet and pull on silk socks, then GORE-TEX socks to remain dry, then his uniform socks, then his cleats. The idea was simple, yet brilliant.
Long-distance swimmers greased up to protect their bodies from the elements, Talley figured, and after watching the Winter Olympics, he replaced his cheap hosiery with downhill ski racing suits, including the one with the famous “Spider-Man” arms.
“I was Under Armour before Under Armour was Under Armour,” Talley, 61, said this week, laughing during a phone interview with The Buffalo News. “I’d do a lot of things that a lot of folks didn’t know about. But I was warm.”
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Tips and tricks for playing in frigid conditions are offered by former players on social media and sports talk shows every time a subzero, marquee game is on tap, and this week is no different with the Bills preparing to host the New England Patriots at 8:15 p.m. Saturday in what could be the second-coldest home football game in franchise history.
Temperatures in Orchard Park are expected to be in the low single digits at kickoff, with wind chills between minus-10 and minus-15 degrees.
The record low gameday temperature in Orchard Park is zero degrees. In that game, the Bills defeated the Los Angeles Raiders 29-23 in an AFC divisional round playoff game on Jan. 15, 1994. The wind chill at kickoff, the fifth-coldest in NFL history, was minus-32 degrees.
The second-coldest game on record is nine degrees. The Bills defeated the New York Jets 16-14 on Dec. 26, 1993, when the wind chill was minus-28 degrees.
“Both teams are going to be faced with this extreme cold,” said J. Luke Pryor, a doctor of kinesiology and clinical associate professor at the University at Buffalo, “but whichever team can manage that cold the best, that’s a factor that’s going to play into who wins. I see the Buffalo Bills’ staff playing a really important role in Saturday’s game.”
Pryor is the associate director of elite athlete performance at UB’s Center for Research and Education in Special Environments. He has worked with the New York Giants, Timex-sponsored triathletes, U.S. Rowing and numerous NCAA athletes and teams.
Sports science has come a long way in the quarter century since Talley starred for the Bills from 1983 to ‘94 and greased himself up throughout the team’s run to four consecutive Super Bowls.
“Under Armour is just a brand name,” Pryor said. “But the essence of what Darryl did is spot on. The scientific term is a ‘microenvironment.’ What you actually want to do is try to create multiple microenvironments to trap the heat, so you don’t lose heat to the environment. You don’t need brand-name clothing and equipment to do that. When we grew up, there was no Under Armour, but we still were able to layer up and do just fine.”
Conserving energy
Athletic trainers are concerned with players’ core temperatures and, from a performance standpoint, muscle temperatures.
“A cold muscle produces less force and is therefore less powerful,” Pryor said. “That’s why warming up is so important to anything athletic that we do.”
The human body has three defense mechanisms for maintaining appropriate temperature in the cold, he said.
First, it redistributes blood from the skin to the core, and if that’s insufficient, it produces heat by shivering.
Then, our behavior changes and we seek heat, either by adding clothing or avoiding cold and windy areas.
Heat-loss mitigation strategies, such as wearing giant coats and sitting on heated benches, must be implemented every time a player steps off the field, and as soon as possible, Pryor said, because energy lost through shivering can add up over the course of a three-hour game and might make a difference in crunch time.
“It’s less likely that the cold is going to have an impact early in the game,” Pryor said. “It’s most likely going to be an issue in the fourth quarter, which, of course, is where most games are won and lost, and why I think the environment is going to play a role.”
Hall of Fame former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre said this week on SiriusXM NFL Radio that a temperature in the low single digits isn’t terrible.
“You know, it sounds crazy, and I tell people this all the time here at home in Mississippi – two degrees, at least in pro football terms, two degrees with very little wind is very manageable,” Favre said, adding the bigger issue is wind, which not only makes the cold miserable, but affects throws and special teams.
Former NFL defensive back turned football analyst Matt Bowen, who played for the Bills in 2006, cited several cold weather tips in an ESPN article he wrote in 2015, including the Vaseline trick, drinking hot chocolate and chicken broth, wearing layers and using hand warmers, heated benches and helmet warmers.
Former NFL linebacker turned football analyst Bart Scott, who played for the Baltimore Ravens and New York Jets, said Thursday on ESPN that players used to pop Viagra, a male sexual enhancement pill, before extremely cold games.
“That’ll get that circulation going right,” he said.
Pryor, the doctor of kinesiology and professor at UB, chuckled at the notion.
“My understanding of Viagara is that pill is specific to receptors in the male reproductive organ...” Pryor said, adding that it would not improve an athlete’s performance during a football game. “The big thing I always tell my athletes is, ‘You better not try anything new, especially in a playoff game. You try something new and screw up, you’ll never forgive yourself.’ ”
All hands on deck
Beyond keeping players’ cores and muscles warm, it’s important to focus on the hands.
“They’re the most susceptible to cold stress,” Pryor said, “because the surface area to mass ratio is such that your hands are going to lose heat faster than any other part of your body.”
This obviously pertains to quarterbacks, but also to any player who touches the ball, including the center, punter, wide receivers and defensive backs, he said.
Bills quarterback Josh Allen has performed worse in the elements at home this season – nearly every game has featured poor weather – than he has on the road, but opponents have likewise struggled in Orchard Park.
In nine games at home this season, Allen completed 59.8% of his passes for 2,048 yards, 17 touchdowns, seven interceptions and an 85.5 passer rating. He averaged 227.6 passing yards per game.
Opposing quarterbacks completed 52.3% of their passes for 1,257 yards, six touchdowns, eight interceptions and a 63.4 passer rating. They averaged 139.7 passing yards per game.
In eight road games, Allen completed 67.1% of his passes for 2,359 yards, 19 touchdowns, eight interceptions and a 99.4 passer rating. He averaged 294.9 passing yards per game.
Opposing quarterbacks, playing in their home stadiums, completed 58.7% of their passes for 1,790 yards, six touchdowns, 11 interceptions and a 66.7 passer rating. They averaged 223.8 passing yards per game.
“My toes get really cold and they go numb a little bit,” Allen said, “so keeping those suckers as warm and as dry as possible as well as the hands, obviously, that's a big emphasis for quarterbacks.”
Allen said he won’t wear sleeves because they make it more difficult to hold onto the ball while running, and he doesn’t intend to take any strength off his rocket passes, even though doing so would make the ball easier to catch.
“I think the second you start messing with mechanics and stuff, especially this late in the season, it only tends to make things worse,” Allen said.
‘An old-school slobber-knocker’
Bills wide receiver Stefon Diggs joked that Allen doesn’t throw the ball that hard, but after having a touchdown whiz through his hands against Atlanta, told the quarterback to take a little heat off his passes.
“My fingers get cold, toes get cold,” Diggs said, “Our training staff does a great job as far as the heaters on the sideline, the coats, like as soon as you come off like, ‘Do you need a coat?’ And you're just like, ‘Nah, get away from me.’ But they’re always there for me, so I feel like I’ll be fine.”
Bills safety Jordan Poyer said it’s important to set the tone early.
“You always want to start fast in any game you play. But, especially in particular, at home in cold weather games, being able to start fast and set the tone early,” Poyer said. “They’re obviously going to try to do the same. It’s going to be one of those legendary games.”
Bills defensive end Jerry Hughes, the longest-tenured player on the roster, said the third meeting with the Patriots this season is “just going to be an old-school slobber-knocker.”
Hughes is looking forward to the fan support after last year’s home playoff games allowed minimal attendance because of Covid-19. The Bills haven't hosted a home playoff game with a full crowd since a wild-card loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Dec. 28, 1996, when Hughes was 8 years old.
“Take off the pants, get in some shorts, you know, enjoy that weather. Really embrace it,” Hughes said, offering tips to prepare for the cold. “Get your feet in the earth. Let your toes tickle that cold soil. Just enjoy it. It’s going to be cold on Saturday. But, you know, with the Mafia in that stadium, getting loud, it’s going to feel warm and it’s going to be fun.”
Talley said it was gratifying to watch opponents wilt in extreme conditions.
“You could see it in guys’ faces when they came on the field. ‘I’m freezing. I want to go back inside,’ ” Talley said, emphasizing the mental aspects of the game. “And then at that point is when you just decided you’re going to take over. You’re going to make them bend to your will.”
Then he laughed some more.
“The funny part that used to get me is we would be out there playing, at least we were running,” Talley said. “The guys that sat in the end zone under the scoreboard with no shirts on – that, I don’t know if I could have had enough antifreeze in me to do.”
