It's going to be frickin' frackin' cold in Minnesota on Sunday afternoon when the Vikings take on the Seattle Seahawks.
The current forecast has jumped all the way to a high of 4 degrees. We're making progress! (To steal a line from John Candy's character in Cool Runnings, "It's not so much the heat, it's the humidity that'll kill you.")
Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson doesn't plan to wear a gloves, but will use hand-warmers to heat his appendages between plays.
"Fortunately I have big hands (10 1/4 inches), so that helps, too," Wilson said, via ESPN.com. "When it comes to throwing, you want to be comfortable. You want to do what you always do. For me, that's what I've always done, just throw with my bare hand."
Surely Wilson's hands and sans gloves choice will get compared to Teddy Bridgewater, who was roundly criticized for having small hands and wearing gloves during the pre-draft process.
Wilson played his final college season at Wisconsin, so isn't worried about how the cold will affect his play. ESPN Stats & Information credits Wilson with just one outdoor game in below-freezing temps as a pro: last season's 24-20 loss in Kansas City -- Wilson threw for 178 yards and two touchdowns.
"I think when it gets that cold, when it's zero degrees, I think the ball gets a little harder," Wilson said. "I think that obviously it may freeze up a little bit, but you just play with it."
Wilson has played as well as any quarterback in the NFL down the stretch. He has 24 passing touchdowns and just one interception in his last seven games and became the first player in NFL history to record 4,000-plus passing yards, 30-plus passing touchdowns and 500-plus rushing yards in a single season. How he's garnered so little buzz in the MVP discussion is flabbergasting to me.
Wilson isn't worried about the brutally low temperatures freezing his red-hot play.
"You get used to the cold," he said. "It shouldn't be a big deal at all."
