It was 72 degrees inside the Silverdome, but the San Francisco 49ers’ first Super Bowl appearance was still a frigid mess.
Almost 40 years before their forecast sub-freezing playoff affair on Saturday in Green Bay, the 49ers faced the Cincinnati Bengals at a location that had been cursed and ridiculed because of the weather. Recounting Super Bowl 16 inevitably leads to a conversation about the game-day cold in Pontiac, Michigan.
The 49ers almost missed warm-ups when their bus got stuck in traffic because of the hostile conditions, and they were the luckier ones. Fans abandoned their gridlocked buses and cars to walk for miles through the ice and sleet to get to the Silverdome.