[Stardust]

The game was 30 years ago today – Jan. 10, 1982 – and played here, next to the icy, windswept Ohio River in that concrete ashtray called Riverfront Stadium.

You may say, "But wait, didn't the Bengals play in two Super Bowls?" Aren't those finer moments? Fine they are, but why celebrate two lost Super Bowls? Losses are losses. Cris Collinsworth will always fumble after a long pass play in the first one. Joe Montana will always throw that late touchdown pass in the second one.

But the Freezer Bowl... ahhh! Tasty! Who Dey Think Gonna Beat Them Bengals? Noooo-body!

The AFC Championship and a trip to the Super Bowl were on the line that day. The air temperature was minus 9. The wind chill was 59 degrees below zero, the coldest wind chill in NFL history.

Beer froze in cups. Ice formed on the beard of Dan Fouts, star quarterback of the hapless opponents, the San Diego Chargers. Cords to television cameras snapped with regularity.

Even before the game began, a San Diego fan in a short skirt and flimsy coat was overheard on a pay phone outside the stadium begging a taxi dispatcher to send a cab to rescue her. "I'm gonna die here!" she pleaded.

Chargers players wandered about in warm-ups in a daze, numb after playing an epic overtime playoff game a week before in 88-degree weather in balmy Miami. Riverfront Stadium was rockin' with Bengals linemen in short sleeves and more than a few lunatic fans in the crowd of 46,220 sporting bare chests.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120.../301100067