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A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, played, heard, observed, worn, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here.

What: “The NFL’s Greatest Games: The Ice Bowl”

Price: $17.99 (Polygram Video/NFL Films).

Borrowing on the inspired idea that spawned “Classic Sports Network,” NFL Films has launched its own series of classic game re-creations, debuting with Super Bowl III (Jets 16, Colts 7) and this impressive revisiting of the 1967 NFL championship game between the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys.

Presented here is the abridged version of the Packers’ come-from-behind 21-17 victory--huddles, timeouts and the odd uneventful play have been edited out--complete with re-dubbed commentary by Ray Scott and contemporary interviews with players and coaches from both teams.

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The interviews are amusing and enlightening. Reminiscing none too fondly about the polar conditions the teams endured--minus-15 degrees at kickoff, minus-69 degrees wind-chill factor--former Cowboy cornerback Cornell Green shudders and swears, “It was the coldest I will ever be in my life. I will never be that cold again. I will move before I’ll be that cold again.”

How cold was the Ice Bowl?

Tom Brookshier, the former CBS analyst who covered the game, recalls a cup of steaming hot coffee freezing in the press box in barely a minute, prompting colleague Frank Gifford to quip, “I think I’ll have a bite of coffee.”

Norm Schacter, head referee that day, blew his whistle only once all game. Whistles were forbidden after Schacter tore open his lip on the opening kickoff, producing a stream of blood that immediately froze into a gory crimson icicle.

The halftime show was also canceled after a band member lost his lower lip on a horn mouthpiece during pregame rehearsals.

Never mind Bart Starr’s winning quarterback sneak in the final seconds--as “The Ice Bowl” vividly illustrates, it’s a small miracle the Packers and the Cowboys survived the game.

Vince Lombardi’s response to Starr’s suggestion of a sneak before that climactic play?

“Well, let’s run it and get the hell out of here!”

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