The Chicago Bears are about to host the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday night. Current weather forecasts suggest it will be around 10 degrees with wind chills dipping as low as -9. It could become one of the coldest games in NFL playoff history. So you can understand why some people think the Bears may have an advantage against the warm-weather Rams. Others feel such an idea is overrated. Weather doesn’t impact games that much. Few would have a better opinion on this than Tom Brady.
He played in all manners of weather throughout his NFL career. Does it actually have an influence on the outcome? Colin Cowherd asked him about it on The Herd this week. Brady believes it does, provided one critical piece of criteria is met.
That comment should thrill Bears fans because it leans directly into what Kevin Byard revealed this week. Head coach Ben Johnson has been adamant all year that the Bears practice outside, regardless of weather conditions. If you play outside, you practice outside. That includes the frigid cold without the benefit of heaters.
Tom Brady has loads of evidence on his side.
Across his long career with the New England Patriots, he played 24 games at home in the playoffs. He was 20-4 in those games. The Patriots always seemed to handle the cold and snow better than their opponents. That was because Bill Belichick made them practice in it all the time. Once the human body endures something for a long enough period, it develops a tolerance for it. Johnson seems to understand that and made it his mission from the jump to prepare the Bears for January football in Chicago.
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That foresight now has a chance to pay off big on Sunday. Los Angeles is a great team filled with tons of good players. In a perfect atmosphere, they probably handle their business against the Bears. The problem is it’s hard to play at that level in freezing temperatures and the wind in your face. The Rams did nothing all week to prepare for it, arriving in Chicago only on Saturday evening. Tom Brady would have applauded the Bears for making sure they were prepared for what’s coming.
