Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

A few questions about Super Bowl XVII:

1. Why did the NFL schedule the Redskins-Cowboys NFC Championship on a Saturday and the Dolphins-Jets AFC Championship on a Sunday that year? Was there any grousing at the time about the extra day's advantage for the NFC winner over the AFC winner to prepare for the Super Bowl?

2. With two minutes left in Super Bowl XVII and Washington leading 20-17, the refs apparently blew a call that involved Riggins fumbling close to the Dolphin goal line. Both Enberg and Olsen, upon viewing the replay, admitted it looked like a fumble, Olsen more confident it was a fumble than Enberg. On the next play, Theismann hits Brown for a TD that makes it 27-17, although no replay showed Brown's toes touching down in the end zone. The announcers said he was given the TD on the pushout rule (since discontinued in today's game). My question is, among Dolphin fans, is there any particular outrage about these two plays (the Riggins non-fumble call and the questionable Brown TD), or is there a sense that it was unlikely Miami could have tied or won the game anyway even if they had the ball with two minutes left, down 20-17, needing a long drive.

Evan wrote:A few questions about Super Bowl XVII:

1. Why did the NFL schedule the Redskins-Cowboys NFC Championship on a Saturday and the Dolphins-Jets AFC Championship on a Sunday that year? Was there any grousing at the time about the extra day's advantage for the NFC winner over the AFC winner to prepare for the Super Bowl?

After consulting the TV listings for 1/23/83, during the afternoon CBS aired a College Basketball game (Memphis State vs NC State seems to have been the National game) from 1-3 PM, and from 3-6 the finals of the Grand Prix Masters tennis tournament. I have a feeling CBS was already contractually obligated to carry the final round of the tennis tournament, since they didn't expect to be playing an NFC Championship game that day.

Looking at the 1982 and 1983 calendars, it does appear that Super Bowl XVII was supposed to have been played on January 30th all along. With the season starting on Sunday 9/12, Week 16 would have been on 12/26. This would have made the Wild Card weekend 1/2/83 and Divisional weekend 1/8-9/83. The Championship games would have been played on 1/16/83, which most likely would have put the Super Bowl at 1/30/83.