Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

The 1967 playoff seeding worked out well for Vince Lombardi. The 9-4-1 Packers hosted the 11-1-2 Rams in Milwaukee. The temperature was 13 degrees with a wind chill of -3.

7DnBrnc53 wrote:

The game would have been in Miami. This was the last year of the rotational system for determining seeds. Pittsburgh was #1, that's why they got to play Buffalo. Under the seeding system, operative the next year, Oakland would have hosted Buffalo and Pittsburgh would have gone to Miami in the divisional round. Here, Pittsburgh was the #1 seed. But for the conference championship, the host was always the winner of the #2-#3 game. So Miami would have hosted them.

Actually, a hypo 1974 Dolphin-Steeler AFC Title game would have taken place at the confluence.

In 1972, when the Steelers hosted Miami, the rotation priority for the AFC Title was Central, East, and West. By 1974, however, it was West, Central, and then East. Just like 1971, the East champ wasn't slated to have any home games. The only reason the Dolphins played the 1971 title game at home was because they played the WC Colts. If the Browns would have defeated Baltimore, Miami would have had to go to the shores of Lake Erie.

Had the Colts not tanked their final 1971 regular season game, they would have gone to KC on Christmas and Miami would have ended up in Cleveland.

SixtiesFan wrote:The 1967 playoff seeding worked out well for Vince Lombardi. The 9-4-1 Packers hosted the 11-1-2 Rams in Milwaukee. The temperature was 13 degrees with a wind chill of -3.

Hey, the Packers gave the Rams a break by playing in Milwaukee! Look what happened the next week in Green Bay!

Of course, there was no seeding in 1967. I may have been confused by the goofy 1970-74 format, but 1967-69 was a simple rotation.

The Packers played both the Colts and the Rams on the road that year. Both close losses. Maybe if the Colt game is in Green Bay, the Packers win. Then they win in LA as well because people are complaining about the Packers eventual 9-4-1 record, even though the divisions were now split and they weren't directly competing with the Colts and Rams anymore.

If you want to kick someone out of the 1967 playoffs, kick the Browns out. They were clearly the weakest of the four teams. Go geograpically correct, as today. Get the Colts in the east where they belong. I can even prevent the horror of Washington and Baltimore being in the same division. Baltimore goes in the East with Philly, Pittsburgh, and the Giants. That kicks Cleveland to the North. Sorry Minnesota.

The northernmost team should ideally be in the north, but at that time the Vikings were also more western than most, so they go out to the West with the Cardinals to play the 49ers and Rams. The Cowboys, Saints, Falcons, and Redskins make up the South, which I'm sure would make George Preston Marshall very happy.

Then again, the concept of a Southern Division may have not been looked on so fondly in 1967. But it gets the Colts back to the East. How did the Colts wind up in the West? Well, despite what NFL history books pretend, the Colts really were the successors to the Dallas Texans. The Texans were successors to the New York Yanks, and yeah I know, why aren't the Yanks in the East. Because the Giants and Yankees had to be in different divisions, ditto the Bears and Cardinals, so they called them "American" and "National" conferences for a while.

Don't get me started on the 1965 Colts Packers playoff game. The camera angle on Chandler's kick was inconclusive, the ball goes off the screen. Game never should have been played anyway, the Packers had already beaten the Colts twice that year!

Another team that could have gotten screwed in the 1967-69 playoff setup were the 1968 Colts. They finished 13-1 and had to travel to Cleveland for the conference title game. I recall plenty of hype about the parallels between the Colts being a pretty healthy favorite in that game and their stunning loss in the same stadium four years earlier. The Browns had one early chance and saw their field goal blocked--after that it was all Colts in a 34-0 rout.

Jay Z wrote:

SixtiesFan wrote:The 1967 playoff seeding worked out well for Vince Lombardi. The 9-4-1 Packers hosted the 11-1-2 Rams in Milwaukee. The temperature was 13 degrees with a wind chill of -3.

Don't get me started on the 1965 Colts Packers playoff game. The camera angle on Chandler's kick was inconclusive, the ball goes off the screen. Game never should have been played anyway, the Packers had already beaten the Colts twice that year!

Agree. IMO, 1933 thru '65, if two teams from same division tied for first, a tie-breaker should have only ever been played if both teams split season series. Hence, in 1950, the NFLC should have been Bears at Giants. And why were both tie-breakers at Cleveland & LA respectively?

BD Sullivan wrote:Another team that could have gotten screwed in the 1967-69 playoff setup were the 1968 Colts. They finished 13-1 and had to travel to Cleveland for the conference title game. I recall plenty of hype about the parallels between the Colts being a pretty healthy favorite in that game and their stunning loss in the same stadium four years earlier. The Browns had one early chance and saw their field goal blocked--after that it was all Colts in a 34-0 rout.

The 1968 NFL Championship game was played in Cleveland because the conferences had home field in alternate seasons. The 1967-69 four division setup didn't change that.

JohnH19 wrote:

BD Sullivan wrote:Another team that could have gotten screwed in the 1967-69 playoff setup were the 1968 Colts. They finished 13-1 and had to travel to Cleveland for the conference title game. I recall plenty of hype about the parallels between the Colts being a pretty healthy favorite in that game and their stunning loss in the same stadium four years earlier. The Browns had one early chance and saw their field goal blocked--after that it was all Colts in a 34-0 rout.

The 1968 NFL Championship game was played in Cleveland because the conferences had home field in alternate seasons. The 1967-69 four division setup didn't change that.

And this is why the 1967 NFL Championship game was in Green Bay.

True but GB did have a better record than Dallas, anyway.

SixtiesFan wrote:

JohnH19 wrote:

BD Sullivan wrote:Another team that could have gotten screwed in the 1967-69 playoff setup were the 1968 Colts. They finished 13-1 and had to travel to Cleveland for the conference title game. I recall plenty of hype about the parallels between the Colts being a pretty healthy favorite in that game and their stunning loss in the same stadium four years earlier. The Browns had one early chance and saw their field goal blocked--after that it was all Colts in a 34-0 rout.

The 1968 NFL Championship game was played in Cleveland because the conferences had home field in alternate seasons. The 1967-69 four division setup didn't change that.

And this is why the 1967 NFL Championship game was in Green Bay.

The temperature in L.A. that day was around 65--or 80 degrees warmer than in the Frozen Tundra and probably a triple-digit difference if you count wind chill.

Two thoughts on that hypothetical Mia/Pit '74 AFC-CG:

1. Of course that game would have been in the late time slot. You really think they would have scheduled a game in freezing Minnesota in the late time slot? Even with an early start, the game was still negative 1 degree celsius.

2. One factor this game would have had- remember Madden famously saying the two best teams had played each other and Noll's "The best team in football is sitting right here in this room." I doubt a guy like Shula would have said such a thing had Miami won- what kind of motivation/bulletin board material do you think Noll might have had?