Oh, it's going to be cold, but not that cold …

Today's NFC championship game at Green Bay isn't likely to be the coldest ever in the NFL, although temperatures are expected to be near zero at kickoff.

The coldest game in NFL history was the 1981 AFC championship game, played Jan. 10, 1982, at Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium. The temperature was minus-9, and the wind chill plunged the readings of minus-59 as the Bengals defeated San Diego 27-7.

Next was the Ice Bowl on Dec. 31, 1967, for the NFL title at Lambeau Field. The Packers beat Dallas 21-17 on Bart Starr's quarterback sneak in the final seconds. It was minus-13 that day; the wind-chill factor was estimated at minus-48.

Projections for today are temperatures reaching a high of 3 degrees, and with kickoff set for 5:30 p.m., the thermometer almost certainly will register below zero during what amounts to a night game. But the wind is not expected to be significant.

Meanwhile in today's earlier AFC championship between San Diego and New England at Foxborough, Mass, a 24-degree temperature is forecast for kickoff, with a wind-chill of 13. Hardly frigid compared to Green Bay.

The coldest game ever at Gillette Stadium was on Jan. 10, 2004, when the Patriots beat the Tennessee Titans in 4-degree temperatures.

"I'm from Florida. I can handle the weather. They'll handle the weather," Patriots fullback Heath Evans said this week. "I've said it before, sometimes we wish we could play the weather because that's pretty easy to beat -- you can get warm."