Icy playoffs not expected this weekend

Good news for the Carolina Panthers: the long-range forecast for Sunday in Chicago is an unseasonably warm 43 degrees, about the same temperature they handled in the Meadowlands.

Washington could get a break, too - no rain is forecast for Seattle on Saturday, although anyone familiar with the Pacific Northwest at this time of year knows that can change in an instant.

In fact, the unhappiest visitor might be New England: it could have been cold, windy and snowy in Denver, providing the Patriots with that nice, fuzzy Foxborough feeling. Instead, it's supposed to be in the 50s when the Patriots play the Broncos in Denver on Saturday.

The weather didn't make much impact last weekend and if those long-range forecasts are accurate, it might not in week two either.

In fact, the biggest weather advantage in the second round might be where there is none: inside Indianapolis' RCA Dome, where the Colts are built for the fast indoor track and the Steelers aren't: they lost there, 26-7, on Nov. 28. No wonder the early line makes the Colts a favorite by nine points.

The networks like weather, so the NFL likes it, too - in the past few seasons, it has scheduled night games in Foxborough and Green Bay, hoping to get a little ice and snow into the picture.

Chicago has had some classic weather games.

One was the "Fog Bowl," a 20-12 win by the Bears over Philadelphia in 1988 at just this stage of the playoffs. The fog rolled in off Lake Michigan just before halftime. The only way to see the second half was on monitors after television cameras were stationed on the sideline.

Still, the game was almost unwatchable.

"I could hardly see across the field, and I'm sure they couldn't, either," Eagles coach Buddy Ryan said. "They'd run a play, and I didn't know who had the ball or what was going on."

That was a fairly warm day in Chicago.

It wasn't warm on Jan. 5, 1986, when the New York Giants played a second-round game against a Chicago team with a superb defense that went on to win it all in dominant fashion. The wind at Soldier Field howled so wildly it blew the ball from Giants punter Sean Landeta's foot and he whiffed, looking on in bewilderment as Chicago's Shaun Gayle picked it up and returned it for a touchdown.