Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

I know we all love our football history here. But there must be some things that are better left forgotten.

One of the NFL's most shameful displays was the ending to the Chiefs-Raiders game in Kansas City in 1970. Len Dawson made a long run for what should have been a game clinching first down. At the end he slid down head first; today he could have slidden feet first and given himself up. It was fairly clear he was giving himself up at the time anyway, but I don't think the rules actually allowed for that.

In a thoroughly disgusting act, the Raiders' Ben Davidson chose to spear Dawson in "downing" him. Davidson was flagged for a personal foul on the play. Otis Taylor, I believe, was also flagged for a personal foul for reacting against the Raiders well after the play was over.

For whatever ridiculous reason, both penalties were considered "part of the play" and therefore offset Dawson's run. The Chiefs had to run another play, didn't make a first down, and punted. The Raiders drove down for a game tying field goal. What a fiasco.

By today's rules one or both penalties would have been "after the play" and not affected it. The Chiefs also should have been given a lot longer leash. Davidson would be suspended today. This wouldn't be the last time the rules were changes because of something the Raiders did.

The game had repercussions. Giving the Chiefs the win would have made both teams' final records 8-5-1. In that case, the Raiders still would have won the division because of a better division record. However, the Raiders were blown out by the 49ers in a meaningless to them finale. The Chiefs also lost their last game to the Chargers. With a Chiefs win in KC, both games would have mattered.

Had the Raiders beaten the 49ers (the game was in Oakland) the Rams would have won the NFC West, winning the tiebreaker with the 49ers based on division record. Could George Allen finally win a Ram playoff game in the cold given a third chance? Would he still have been fired if the Rams made it to the NFC Championship game? We never found out.

Anyway, that was one case where the good old days weren't so good. How about some others?

Receivers (or defenders) running into the goal post on the goal line.

The lack of clearly visible yard numbers and hashmarks on the playing field. Watching old game film, it is often very difficult to determine exactly where the ball is and how many yards a player gained on a particular play as opposed to today.

Poorly maintained grass playing surfaces. I for one don't miss the mud battles where you can't tell which side is which.

You can't "not miss" something you never experienced anyway but am glad I never had to go through the six week preseason (hence regular season not starting until...late-September)!

I don't know how you all who actually went through it could stand it?

74_75_78_79_ wrote:You can't "not miss" something you never experienced anyway but am glad I never had to go through the six week preseason (hence regular season not starting until...late-September)!

I don't know how you all who actually went through it could stand it?

There was an other sport called baseball that was really quite popular then and
was reaching the conclusion of its season.

This one goes back only a few years.... When a receiver caught a ball near the sideline and was pushed out before he could get two feet in, it would be ruled a catch because he would have gotten two feet in had he not been pushed. So on every play like that, the official had to make a judgement call on something that may have happened had the defender not made a play. That's one rule change I was overjoyed they made a few years ago.

74_75_78_79_ wrote:You can't "not miss" something you never experienced anyway but am glad I never had to go through the six week preseason (hence regular season not starting until...late-September)!

I don't know how you all who actually went through it could stand it?

It helped that at least a portion of the time, the players and coaches actually gave a damn about playing (and winning). Until maybe the mid-70's, there was actually no guarantee that a road exhibition game would be shown on TV back to the home market--much less home games. The 1974 games were the first to have the 72-hour blackout rule, but with very few exceptions, games weren't sellouts since teams didn't mandate purchasing game tickets in order to buy them for the whole season.

Rupert Patrick wrote:The lack of clearly visible yard numbers and hashmarks on the playing field. Watching old game film, it is often very difficult to determine exactly where the ball is and how many yards a player gained on a particular play as opposed to today.

In my early teen years in Green Bay, I occasionally worked as a sideline spotter at exhibition games. My dad was the Packers' official scorer but, as you note, it was often hard to tell from the pressbox exactly where the ball was located. The sideline spotter's job was to note where the ball was after every play.

The notations were quite simple. They might read something like this:

GB 1-10 on GB 13
GB 2-7 on GB 16
GB 3-1 on GB 22

After the game, Dad and I would compare his play-by-play sheet with my sideline notes and changes occasionally had to be made. This could result in slight discrepancies between game accounts and stats and the official accounts and stats, because sportswriters were given the original play-by-play sheets, before corrections were made. The final, corrected sheets were sent to the NFL office.

74_75_78_79_ wrote:You can't "not miss" something you never experienced anyway but am glad I never had to go through the six week preseason (hence regular season not starting until...late-September)!

I don't know how you all who actually went through it could stand it?

This!

ChrisBabcock wrote:This one goes back only a few years.... When a receiver caught a ball near the sideline and was pushed out before he could get two feet in, it would be ruled a catch because he would have gotten two feet in had he not been pushed. So on every play like that, the official had to make a judgement call on something that may have happened had the defender not made a play. That's one rule change I was overjoyed they made a few years ago.

And this, because questionable sideline calls cost my Vikings the Hail Mary game and a spot in the 2003 playoffs.