Heated Benches and Wetsuits! How Travis Kelce and the Chiefs Are Prepping for Record-Cold Playoffs

The Kansas City Chiefs are ready to tackle the cold!

As the reigning Super Bowl champions continue their quest to win back-to-back NFL titles, the Chiefs will face the Miami Dolphins in what is predicted to be the coldest game in Kansas City history.

The wild card playoff game will take place at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City on Jan. 13 at 7:00 PM CT — and according to the National Weather Service, a winter weather advisory has been issued for Kansas City through Jan. 16. Plus, warnings of wind chills reaching “as low as 35 below zero.”

Cold temperatures, however, are a familiar opponent for the Kansas City team — unlike the Florida-based Dolphins, who have lost 10 straight games when it was 40° F or lower at kickoff. (Incidentally, the coldest game the Fins ever played was against the Chiefs in 2008, when they started in 10°F at Arrowhead.)

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Allen Wright, director of equipment for the Kansas City Chiefs, tells PEOPLE exclusively that his team has had “its fair share of cold weather games” during his 41 years with the franchise. “Once you get to the single digits … it doesn’t really make much of a difference. It’s just cold,” he says.

As for whether he thinks the Chiefs have an advantage over the Dolphins because of the cold, Wright says that’s a question he gets asked “all the time.” In his experience, he thinks “it doesn’t really matter” for Miami players because “they might have gone to college and played in a cold climate.”

Record temperatures or not, Wright tells PEOPLE bosses are ready. The longtime gear director says he “tries to give everyone as many options as possible” because “everyone is so subjective when it comes to the cold.”

And while Swifties will be anxiously waiting to see if Taylor Swift will show up to the game to cheer on her boyfriend Travis Kelce, football fans can rest assured that the superstar tight end will be ready either way. Wright says Travis is “a good kid from Cleveland, so he’s used to the cold!”

Read how the Kansas City Chiefs are preparing for a cold game against the Miami Dolphins, according to Allen Wright.

Andy Reid practiced a “common sense approach”.

Kansas City Chiefs football helmet.

David Eulitt/Getty

Just because of geography, many fans assume the Chiefs have an advantage over the Dolphins because they practice in the cold every day. However, Wright tells PEOPLE that’s not necessarily the case.

“It’s one of those things that every organization or every head coach has their own way,” he says of NFL team practices. Having been with “so many head coaches over the years,” he learned that “some follow that theory and practice it.”

Wright says others, meanwhile, believe “there’s no way to really prepare” for record-breaking temperatures and opt to “stay warm and have good practices all week … and then deal with the cold weather on game day.”

Ultimately, Wright says it “just depends on the head coach at the time.” As for Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, Wright says he’s “right in the middle” of the two practice strategies and “takes a common sense approach to it.”

“If you can go out there and do your job without it being a huge distraction, then we’re going out,” Wright explains. “We went outside this week and it was – with the wind – in the low 20s.”

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Players will wear “Extreme Cold” T-shirts and long underwear

Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty

Practices aside — when game day arrives, it’s time to go. Therefore, the players are dressed appropriately to preserve their body heat, but without interfering with their sports performance.

Wright tells PEOPLE that the Chiefs are wearing the “Extreme Cold” gear that Reebok made for the NFL 25 years ago (they don’t appear to be available at retail). And because some players refuse to wear long-sleeve shirts on the field — “They don’t feel like they can be athletic enough to play football,” Wright says — each team member gets a long-sleeve and short-sleeve version.

In addition to the thick tops, the players wear Extreme Cold bottoms – which Wright says the coaches also wear. “Basic long underwear” is worn even on freezing cold days.

Some players will wear diving suits

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes in December 2019.

Nick Tre. Smith/Icon Sportswire via Getty

Inspired in part by Tom Brady, Wright tells PEOPLE that the team is “also handing out wetsuits.” In fact, he says the retired NFL superstar is “where I got it years ago!”

Although the wetsuits are “made for the water”, Wright says some players on the Chiefs “use them in cold conditions”. They come in long and short sleeve variants and different millimeter thicknesses.

Wright says he offers every Chiefs player the option to wear wetsuits, but says about “50% of the guys wear them.” He says the Chiefs vs Dolphins game “will be the ultimate test of how many guys wear them,” predicting “most of them will.”

Coaches and players will wear gloves, socks and balaclavas

Kansas City Chiefs fans line the stadium on a cold, snowy day in December 2019.

Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty

Wright says the most important thing players need to do is “keep warm,” crediting wetsuits with managing the cold during the short time players are out on the field playing the game.

When the players come to the sideline, Wright says they have “big gloves” ready and “a bunch of hand warmers in them” that “keep their hands extra warm” when they’re not moving on the field.

But when the players are in the game, Wright supplies them with glove liners and gloves. In addition, he provides them with sock liners and “really good thermal socks.” He says that arm and leg warmers are also available to coaches.

And the fact that the players wear helmets on their heads does not mean that they are warm! That’s why Wright says he gives players (and coaches!) hats with socks and face masks to protect their heads.

“They make them for everybody in the NFL,” he notes. “So all of ours have arrowheads and the Dolphins will have their logo – so they’re kind of customized, but they’re just a normal balaclava.”

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Heated benches will be used on the side

An inside look at Arrowhead Stadium and its snowfield in December 2019.

Nick Tre. Smith/Icon Sportswire via Getty

Both Jason and Travis Kelce opened up about the heated benches on the sidelines of games, which Travis described as “hot as dick” when discussing them during an episode of their New Heights podcast.

Meanwhile, Jason said the benches could sometimes “fry your hamstrings if you sit on them.” Some players, like Travis, prefer the cold and “don’t like to be too hot.”

As for Travis’ game day attire, Wright describes him as someone who sticks to the basics.

“So he’s a guy who doesn’t really change his outfit much,” Wright says of the tight end. “He’s a believer in staying warm on the sideline and then going out there for 5, 6, 8 minutes, regardless of offense, and then coming back and warming up when he comes off the court.”

Along with the bench warmers, Wright says they use about eight bullet warmers on the Kansas City sideline. “Then, we also have two infrared heaters.”

Wright says the abundance of heaters is beneficial to the team because “when you have that many, it keeps the whole area warmer than it is out on the field.”

The team has additional staff just to manage outerwear

Dustin Bradford/Getty

Wright says winter coats and capes are offered to players to wear on the side “so they can slip them over the pads” when they’re on and off. While puffer coats have been a league staple for years, Brady first drew attention to NFL outerwear when he became a meme for his oversized jacket in 2017.

While quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ usual coat isn’t as massive, rest assured that outerwear will be readily available for the entire team.

“I put extra guys on the side just to manage everyone’s coats,” he says. That’s because players will “try to leave them on until the last minute and then run out onto the field and drop them right where they are and it’s kind of an organized mess!”

Some players will use a heating cream on their skin

This next warm-up method isn’t as popular as the others mentioned, but Wright says some players and “a few coaches” wear Warm Skin. This is a protective cream that acts as a skin protector, protecting it from the cold weather.

Wright explains that the product “gives you a little bit of warmth” when you apply the cream to your skin, though she notes that it “doesn’t last very long. She adds, “I think that’s one of the reasons people don’t really use it.”

While he says some of the Chiefs will “use it” during the Jan. 13 playoff game, he says the cream is “just one of those things that doesn’t get used like it did 20 years ago.” At the time, he said “that’s all you really have to provide” to players as protection compared to “all these options you have now.”

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Players get creative with their DIY remedies (like cayenne pepper in their shoes!)

Snow is being cleared at Arrowhead Stadium in January 2019.

AP Photo/Ed Zurga

Wright couldn’t help but share a few “home remedies” he’s heard from players during his 40-plus years with the Kansas City team. “We’ve had players put cayenne pepper in their shoes!” says about the method used to fight the cold.

“I’ve seen some strange things over the years,” Wright continues. – It’s just that everyone deals with it differently and as they know how.

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Source: HIS Education