Cincinnati at San Diego 1:15 p.m.

SATAN LIKES THE CHARGERS, CAN’T STAND THE EARMUFFS

They said Hades would freeze over before the Bengals and the Chargers played a game of any consequence.

They nearly had it right too. It was minus-59 in Cincinnati--which is as close as it gets--when the Bengals and the Chargers met for the 1981 AFC championship. The conditions were so brutal, both teams swore they’d never go through anything like it again, which may explain why the Bengals and the Chargers never again reached the playoffs in the same non-strike year.

Time heals all frostbite, however. Twenty years after the fact, memories in Cincinnati and San Diego have gone fuzzy. The Bengals and the Chargers are both 2-0, causing their fans to dream wildly and try to envision--can you imagine?--what it must feel like to be 3-0.

The last time that happened in Cincinnati, in 1990, the Bengals made the playoffs, the last time that has happened in Cincinnati. The last time the Chargers started a season 3-0, in 1994, they went to the Super Bowl.

All eyes in Hades are glued to the Weather Channel. Of course, that’s the only channel they get.

The line: San Diego by 61/2.