1968 Jets vs Patriots in Birmingham

[vikingsfan1963]

why was this regular season game played in Birmingham, Alabama. I know in some seasons (Giants in Yale Bowl, Bears not at Soldier Field) teams didn't play their home schedules in their regular seasons, but why was this one game move to Alabama?

[JeffreyMiller]

Joe Willie Namath ring a bell?

[TodMaher]

Joe Willie Namath ring a bell?

Well, that's half the reason.

The other half is that the Patriots (they were officially the home team for the game) were sharing Fenway Park with the Red Sox and thus were having problems scheduling home games in September and October. Oddly, the Red Sox were on the road that day at New York. The next year the Patriots switched to Alumni Stadium.

[BD Sullivan]

The game was actually a Patriots home game (their home opener, in fact) and scheduled because the year before, they had to play on the road the first four games on the road after the Red Sox unexpectedly made the World Series.

The Pats were still playing at Fenway, but also did it to get the attention of the politicians to build a stadium since they had bounced around in their first eight years. As noted, the fact that they were playing the Jets (and Namath) made Birmingham an obvious choice--even if it became something of a Jets home game.

[RRMarshall]

Tom Yawkey agreed to let the Patriots use Fenway Park for their home games starting in 1963 with the stipulation being they would have to wait for the Red Sox season to end before they play there. Hence they had to make other arrangements for home games in September as the Red Sox were still using Fenway, and as pointed out when the Sox unexpectedly won the pennant in 1967 the Patriots had to wait even longer to begin play at Fenway.
The 1968 'home' game in Alabama was interesting in that the Patriots were expecting a big turnout for Namath's homecoming which meant a big pay day for them with the gate receipts. Turns out pro football just didn't draw as well as college football in Crimson Tide country. It made for yet another interesting tale in the wacky early days of the Patriots..

[BD Sullivan]

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/ ... 220nwe.htm

[rhickok1109]

why was this regular season game played in Birmingham, Alabama. I know in some seasons (Giants in Yale Bowl, Bears not at Soldier Field) teams didn't play their home schedules in their regular seasons, but why was this one game move to Alabama?

Billy Sullivan was gauging Birmingham's interest in having an NFL team. Evidently he liked the response, because within a short time he was openly threatening to move the Patriots to Birmingham if Boston didn't build a stadium for the team.

[BD Sullivan]

why was this regular season game played in Birmingham, Alabama. I know in some seasons (Giants in Yale Bowl, Bears not at Soldier Field) teams didn't play their home schedules in their regular seasons, but why was this one game move to Alabama?

Billy Sullivan was gauging Birmingham's interest in having an NFL team. Evidently he liked the response, because within a short time he was openly threatening to move the Patriots to Birmingham if Boston didn't build a stadium for the team.

Memphis was also making their interest known, with the main man in charge there being Mike Lynn--who later found a way to hijack the Vikings ownership.