Dolphins Try Snowy Practice In Desperate Bid To Finally Break Cold-Weather Curse

The Miami Dolphins are very bad in cold weather.

And when I say "cold," I don't just mean frigid, icy, miserable conditions — the kind of weather that makes your bones ache and your snot freeze. No, no. Miami is also very bad in slightly chilly weather.

In fact, the Dolphins have lost 12 straight games when the temperature is below 40 degrees. FORTY degrees! That's balmy, shorts and flip-flop weather at Lambeau.

And, unfortunately for the Phins, Monday night's game in Pittsburgh is going to be much colder than 40 degrees. Right now, we're looking at around 18 degrees at kickoff with 16-mph wind gusts, per AccuWeather. 

So to get his team accustomed to such conditions, head coach Mike McDaniel brought them to the Steel City early and held a full, nighttime practice in the snow.

"The odd part of the schedule is a Monday night on the road. It always feels like you’re so far removed from the last time you were on the football field," McDaniel said of Saturday's practice. "Doing it this way allows us to have our final full-speed practice about 48 hours from kickoff. It’ll be good, I think it’s an added bonus that we get to get ourselves into the environment."

After starting their season 1-6, the 6-7 Dolphins are still — miraculously — in the hunt for the postseason. But to make it happen, they'll almost surely have to win out. And a freezing prime time game in Pittsburgh feels like a massive hurdle.

Hawaiian native Tua Tagovailoa has never won a game with temperatures at or below 40 degrees, going 0-5 in his NFL career.

(Photo by Todd Rosenberg/Getty Images)

"It's football, bro," quarterback Tua Tagovailoa said Thursday, via the South Florida Sun Sentinel. "It is what it is. We got to play them in Pittsburgh, whether it's negative-20, whether it's 20 degrees. We got to play football."

Tua, for his part, has yet to win a sub-40-degree game in his NFL career. We'll see if he listens to his own pep talk.