MINNEAPOLIS — The third-coldest game in N.F.L. history kicked off moments after the former Minnesota Vikings coach Bud Grant, 88 years old and the day’s honorary captain, shed his winter coat and skulked out for the coin toss in a sleeveless Vikings golf shirt and matching purple ballcap.
Grant’s stoic toughness mocked the brutal conditions – a 6 below temperature at game time with a wind chill of minus 25 – that hampered both offenses in an N.F.C. wild-card game at sunny TCF Bank Stadium. About a month after the Seattle Seahawks routed the Vikings on this same field, the two-time defending N.