Passion of Eagle Fans After NFL Expands

[LeonardRachiele]

The first reason,  I believe   for the passion of the Eagles' fans is absence of a dynasty in the television era.  The second lies in a succession of losing teams at a time when the NFL was really taking off.  During the period of 1962 to 1977,  there was a tremendous expansion of  the NFL  in both number of teams, length of the season, and games on television.  The Eagles in this period had one winning season (1966), one .500 season, (1974), and 14 losing seasons.   Consider these  facts:

(1) In 1964, the NFL started televising doubleheaders to cities when their team was away and to all cities that had no teams.    Fans could watch two games every Sunday rather than just one.

(2) In 1966, the NFL took further measures.

--CBS televised another NFL Game to a city having a home game.   If fans stayed home, they could still watch an NFL game but not their own team.  Doubleheaders continued when teams were away and to every city that did not have a team;

--the network also began televising one and then two  Monday Night games each year.  This was the forerunner of Monday Night football starting on ABC in 1970.  Later,  ABC added a few Thursday night telecasts;

--There was more extensive television of exhibition games.  Contrary to some fears, it did not result in fan burnout  or hurt the image by televising  an inferior product, or put another way, a practice game

--The NFL added a new franchise, the  Atlanta Falcons;

-- CBS also added a Thanksgiving night game in Dallas.  This has become a tradition just like  the game in Detroit a few hours earlier.

(3) In 1967,

--came a new franchise, the New Orleans Saints;

--The NFL divided the two conferences into two divisions each.  This meant two playoff games before the NFL Championship;

(4) in 1970,the Two Leagues Merged

(5) in 1973, the federal law passed that the teams must televise their home games if there is a sellout 72 hours before kickoff; this moved increased attendance;

(6) in 1976 came two new franchises, the Seattle Seahawks and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

What were the Eagles doing in this period? Later