Another "alternate Super bowl" thread

But this one will be a little different. And I might not get much past the 80's but let's see where it goes. First off no butterfly effect, each reworking is going to be contained in what could have happened in that season. Now if yall want to get into the ramifications of my changes in the future, go for it! Also I am going to try and keep the total points scored the same. You will see what I mean.

But first I am going to take a little creative license and give a changed point of departure. And yes it will involve a use of one of the most popular tropes in the field of AH.


The Kennedy Cup of Professional Football

February 9th, 1964

The Orange Bowl, Miami Florida

San Diego Chargers vs New York Giants
Kickoff 4pm

Attendance 75,000

Network: CBS

Master of ceremonies: Ed Sullivan

Special musical guest: The Beatles


On December 29th 1963 John and Bobby Kennedy sat in the residence of the white house with their families to watch a pair of professional football games. In the first game the Giants used a pair of YA Tittle touchdown passes as the early lead and a raw blustery day in Wrigley Field allowed the Ahab of pro football to finally get his white whale as the Giants outlasted the bears 17-7.

In the second game, in the title for that "other" league the brothers went in with a biased mindset since a team from their home was competing. Yet three hours later after the awe inspiring 51-10 display put on by the Chargers it left them in wholehearted agreement that the Chargers were the gold standard in the game.

Afterwards Mr. President decided to place a call to each coach to congratulate them on their respective championship. The first call went to Sid Gillman of the Chargers. The man who in many ways developed the prototype of the modern pro passing game was gregarious and still humble by the honor. The legend has it the president was gushing in his praise. At the end the president said he would really like to see how they would match up against the Giants. To which Coach Gillman replied that maybe someday we will.


He would have no idea just how quickly that day would come.

It was getting late are the white house as the clock on the wall read 10:13 as the president had the staff operator dial the home of Giants coach Allie Sherman. Sure it's a little late, but hey he is the president, and he didn't think coach would mind. On the other end the phone rang, five times,six,seven, and just before the operator was about to give up a groggy voice came on the other line.

Operator: Good evening, may I please be connected to Mr Sherman? The coach, sounding unamused, asked just who the hell at this hour wanted to know! When told he thought it had to be a gag, and by God he was going to let the sumbitch on the other side have it for waking him up! Probablythat bastard George Halas. So instead of a humble and honored man like he had in Gillman Mr President got a ear wax melting profanity laced tirade and a dead line. Afterwards he finished his last drink, had a last smoke and joined Jackie for a nice restful night chuckling to himself.

The next day Pierre Sallinger asked the president how his weekend went. The president gladly retold his tale from the night before, having a good laugh along the way. He was not upset, he even understood why coach Sherman acted like he did, he might have done the same. And J.D also found this antidote to be amusing and decided to call his friend NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle to relay the tale. However the commissioner was not pleased at all to hear this, first he apologized profusely and even after being told it was nothing was still agast the coach of the leagues champion would be so crude, so dismissive. He asked Mr Sallinger to have the president call him if he has the chance so he could personally apologize.

He had his secretary place a call to the patriarch of the Mara family to apprise him . After that he called the home personally of coach Sherman stating he wanted to see him first thing the next morning, when asked why he would only say he will discuss it when he arrives. Meanwhile coach Gillman was so giddy about getting the congratulatory call that he was telling everyone he knew. And commissioner Foss of the AFL was so happy to hear this, especially on hearing that Kennedy thought one of HIS teams was the best in the game that he authorized a press release.

This would quickly make the rounds in the sports page of every paper in America, and even into the fair share of front page and society news. When asked a few days later the president did confirm he had spoken to both coaches and that he did think that in his eyes the Chargers are a worthy match for anyone on the planet, though with a wink he did say the Texas Longhorns might have a little something to say about that. He also added he wonders what Allie Sherman would have to say, but that his attempts to reach him did not go too well "I've had more cordial contact with the Kremlin" the president remarked.

Two days after securing what in his mind was the real world championship Allie Sherman entered the Madison Avenue office of the NFL. When called into Rozelles office he was greated cordially yet cooly. After congratulating the coach the commishioner asked how the rest of his evening went. Coach Sherman talked about how drained he was from the stress of the day and that he actually went home and went to bed a little early. Years later in the great MLPF (Major league of professional football) documentary on the storied history of the cup. Sherman memorably would recall his realization of what Rozelle was trying to tell him.

In those opening days of 1964 two things were the talk of the American people. First was this battle of words which had erupted in the press between the NFL and AFL. The second was about a band from England with a funny sounding name and a infectious sound which had teenagers, especially the girls, in a real tizzy. From his New York office a joweled man who carried more cultural weight than perhaps anyone in the country took mental note of both phenomenon. Suddenly a light went off in his head. Nah, just too many moving pieces to make it happen.

John Kennedy was preparing to enter into his campaign to retain the presidency and it was time to brainstorm with his staff on how to make the biggest splash possible. Matters we're discussed involving policy and programs. Civil rights, the space race the economy etc. But Bobby made a little off hand comment during a meeting that the only thing people were talking about was The Beatles, oh and which football league is better. Suddenly John has a lightbulb go off...Nah just too many moving pieces.

That night while preparing for bed the president mentioned his brainstorm to Jackie, and she said something that would put it all in motion and which would influence our culture ever since, "why don't you call Ed Sullivan".

In the meantime the AFL had become more brazen in their attempts to get the NFL's goat. They offered to play the NFL champion anywhere, anytime and that they would use their ball. Many in the NFL started to get a little testy. Halas was demeaning in his assessment. Legend has it Lombardi called up Allie Sherman and said it was a good thing for Sherman that Hourning got suspended or the Packers would have beat the Giants ass again. Perhaps the most incendiary comment was made by the young coach of the Oakland Raiders Al Davis who said "the NFL is yellow, plain and simple. I look at the Giants and I see a old slow team with half the players my age who play in a antiquated style. Speed and skill are what will win in this day and age, the Chargers would run circles around them" . Howard Cosell said "football wants to be the modern game of the people, and this is what the people want, give it to them Mr. Rozelle."

But there was one man who could make it truly all come to pass. From the white house a call is made to Tiffany's of New York.
 
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To say my backstory has gotten unweldly is a understatement. But we're all in, or at least I'm all in .


Jack Kennedy at this point decided that perhaps his pull could being everyone together . Sports he thought might cause dissent depending on who one pulls for, but that nothing pulls people together like a good ball game. The first lady was dispatched to work on a design and her decisions were so spot on, so elegant that he commsioned it. A few days later on January 15th 1964 at a hastily called press conference the Kennedy Cup was shown to the world. And with it came a challenge, for the two teams who two weeks earlier won their respective titles to play for the right to hold his trophy, and that whoever wins can do what they please with it .

And now the sports world waited for an answer

The response from the AFL came within moments. Foss was informed the moment the news broke and gladly accepted the Challenge. The NFL was not long to respond, but it was more in the form of how to logistically make this happen. Not only that NBC chimed in and was very insistent they were given the broadcast rights since they had just accuired the AFL package. CBS responded that if a game was going to involve one of their teams they were duty bound to broadcast it, and legend has it that lawyers were sent to NBC to let them know CBS was not playing around .
 
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In San Diego Gillman had been very discreetly preparing. He was able to secure some film of the Giants from George Halas, he managed to talk most players, especially starters, into coming in for film study and low impact workouts. And in New York Allie Sherman had also been coerised into getting his team together though rumor had it that his troops were no where near as enthusiastic over the prospects. Or as Frank Gifford later said " I had vitalis commercials to make, why the hell would I want to let some psycho like Ron Mix come after me for three hours for a chalice."

Eventually though a mutual motivation was put into place, $10000 to each winning man and $5000 to the loser. San Diego would have played for nothing, but the cash did make all the difference to the Giants, or as Gifford says, ten g buys a lot of vitalis. February 9th was set as the date and the orange bowl as the site . Broadcast right still needed to be hammered out, but the manner in which they were would change television forever.
 
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SUNDAY JANUARY 26TH 1964

Setting: the white house

You know I don't think we thought this very well through gentleman said the president to Mr Foss and Rozelle. Getting the numbers to go down to Miami in the middle of winter on short notice is a lot tougher than I thought. What is the number of tickets sold, 15000, god that's going to look awful. Not only that these broadcast rights are turning into a mess. Can't we just do it on both networks? Foss speaks up, " Pete and I are fine with that, CBS is ok with it, but NBC will not budge, then again they just paid us about as much as CBS pays the NFL so I can understand they want to get their money's worth."

I tell you what this needs gentlemen is something that makes this more than a game. Just look at the nonsense going on about the Beatles, I've never seen such hype in my life. I bet those guys could sell....out....the...

Suddenly everyone starts to slowly look over each other. And the president's mind goes back to the comments made to by his wife a few weeks ago
 
"Mr. Sullivan Mr. Sallinger on line 2"

"You want the Beatles to do what? I don't know if they are ready to play in front of a stadium full of people, or in this case a stadium empty if people. Who ever heard of football in February? Yes I know it's my president asking but what is he doing here anyway? And for that matter I'm not on NBC. To be honest Pierre the only way I even remotely consider this is if I got the whole broadcast rights. But I got to tell you this is going to be more than just a little game. If i am going tk do this you will in essence get my kind of show better ask Sam Huff how he feels about following lambchop and Kermit thetfrog? oh yeah, I want a 1/3 of the gate"
 
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DougM

Donor
The damn Lions will still find a way to never make the big game (but maybe they can win a second playoff came).
SOL (Same Old Lions)
 
Well the 1/3 of the gate was a shot from the hip. After 10% came off the top for rent it was runored for years that he was giving about 10% of balance The leagues split about 70%, Brian Epstein it was later reveled got 10% and the Kennedy's donated their 10% to the Red Cross starting a tradition that continues to this day. Another tradition started was this game being played President's Day weekend.

At the gate what looked to be a flop fanned to life quickly as 50000 seats sold inside 2 days and it was a sellout a week in advance. But it was a strange mix, more teenyboppers with Mom and Dad than hardcore fans. In fact the loudest cheers from the crowd was when the Beatles came on.

The lads from Liverpool we're each given a aggregate sum of 2 winner shares and two loser shares as to how that 30k got divied has always been considered a great mystery, Ringo got all of $500 and George would never talk about it. The Beatles would be seen three times that day. First was a barbershop style quartet version of the star spangled banner. Then at half they performed at midfield wheeled out on a dolly where they played Please please me and from me to you. Then after the game and cup presentation they performed She Loves You and twist and shout. Also that afternoon and evening featured pregame and post game performances from the likes of Roy Orbison, Al Hirt and Little Stevie Wonder.

But what about the hits ON the field?
 
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Note: when we get to the recounts of the SB our outcomes will be based on the points scored in the original. But for this one I will be taking the too totals of the original games (24 for the NFL in bears 14-10 win, 61 AFL in chargers 51-10 beat down) combined that's 85, divided by 2 is 42.5 but let's take it to 43 for our total.


Line Giants -14

President Kennedy may have thought the Chargers were the best outfit in pro football. But the betting public and oddsmakers disagreed. The line opened at -10 and steadily went up all week as most thought this was going to be a laugher. But the Giants knew better, Sam Huff said they were a nervous wreck, especially coach Sherman who many in the NFL blamed for putting them in a game they had no desire to play. The NFL thought as a group it was better and that they did not need to prove anything. Or at least that was the image presented. Behind the scenes there was real worry as everyone knew the Chargers just had more flat out speed. Particularly troublesome was Keith Lincoln and especially Lance Alworth. But the NFL gaurd was comforted in the knowledge that in Tittle they had the better QB. Or as Alex Webster said years later, we all knew what Tobin Rote could and could not do.

Then again Rote never had a Alworth to throw to when in the NFL. This was proven on the games third play of the game when Alworth extended perfectly for a 28yd catch along the sideline taking the Chargers past mid field. Two plays later Lincoln turned a circle route into a 38yd score leaving the great Sam Huff grasping at air. And it would be something Lincoln would pay dearly for later on.

This stunning start served as a wake up call for the Giants as Tittle immediately moved his team 70 yards on 10 plays to methodically equal matters. Six runs, 4 passes, Webster, Gifford and Shofner all making solid contributions. Joe Morrison capping matters with a 5 yard run.

But just when it looked like we might be in for a gunfight the big blue wrecking crew decided to strut their stuff. Over their next five possessions in the first half the Chargers gained one first down, had three punts, an interception and a fumble. The Giants fared no better with four straight punts and two total first downs. But following a Keith Lincoln fumble caused by the irrepressible mr Huff Tittle survived the withering rush long enough to find Shofner deep for a 42 yard gain getting the Giants in scoring range as Don Chandler connected on a 25 yard try to give New York a 10-7 halftime edge.


After intermission with the sun setting and day becoming night the Giants dealt what many thought was a death blow when Tittle found Joe Walton uncovered down the middle and the sudden 64 yard strike seemed to point the way towards the Giants finally putting down these pesky Interlopers. Chandler pushed off the PAT but at the time it seemed to matter little as the Giants now held a seemingly safe 16-7 edge.

But what happened next was one is still considered one of the most savage and stunning moments in the history of the game. After being kept under wraps after his early score Lincoln took the ensuring kickoff and in dramatic fashion bobbed and weaved his way 75 yards, he would have gone all the way but Sam Huff got his revenge for getting juked out early on as one last bob and weave led to Lincoln getting heaved onto the ground in the famed "hit heard accross the world" as Huff laid into him with a tackle so precise, so technically sound but so brutal that no one who saw it will ever forget it . But Lincoln somehow held on to the ball. And amazingly enough he didn't end up hurt, though he was so haunted by the hit he was no longer a factor. But the Giants did not realize that until a couple of series later, following a incompletion on first down Rote faked a pitch to Lincoln, gave the ball to Alworth on a end around and he scampered 18 yards to a TD cutting the Giants edge to 16-14.

But once again just when it seemed the offenses we're ready to take over the defenses roared back to the forefront . As the third period gave way to the 4th both defenses grew stronger. Both aging quarterbacks were feeling the brunt of this savage contest . Lincoln and the Chargers running game with left inert. Alworth shadowed by two men on every play, Sid Gillman's intricate offense rendered moot. The Giants however faired no better and eventually much worse. With just under six minutes to play facing a third and six Tittle went looking for Joe Walton, what he found instead was linebacker Paul Maguire who stepped in front of his Arial and found no one in his path as the stunning 37 yard return gave the Chargers a 20-16 edge.

Sensing the upset the crowd on both sides and even all the little girls in the audience wondered if Tittle had one final trick up his sleeve. In fact he would have 12 as following a touch back the Giants slowly, methodically, inexorably moved down the field to the closed end of the orange bowl. It was a drive filled with poise, but also one filled with real drama and angst. Twice on the drive the Giants would convert 4th downs. First Joe Morrison squeezed thru a slight crevass to gain four on a 4th and two just inside midfield to keep the March going. The second is still considered one of the great clutch plays in the history of mr Kennedy's cup. After driving down to the Chargers 7 with a minute to go the Giants had two incompletions as both times Tittle sought his favorite receiver Del Shoffner on a fade to the corner. But much like the Giants with Alworth the Chargers were not going to let the Giants big gun beat them. On third down to the shock of everyone Earl Faison came crashing in and crushed Tittle for a nine yard loss.

4th and goal from the 16...

Years later Tittle would describe the look in everyone's eyes. "all that day we thought it was our day, no matter how tough it got, and it was tough. The Chargers were a great team but we figured we would find a way . But after that sack when we got to the huddle we looked beaten. The sideline looked beaten. Allie Sherman looked like he was about to face a firing squad which if we had lost he most certainly would have. But one man looked in my eyes and I could tell he thought we could still win...that man was Frank Gifford ."

Frank Gifford " I told YA, Del is gonna be doubled, I can beat my man. Just put it up there I will catch it."

Previously Gifford had run inside routes and Shofner worked the corners, this time the roles reversed. "the ball hung there forever" said Gifford, " I knew it was going to be a tight fit but the pass felt true coming off my hand" . Sa. fety George Blair and Paul Maguire were both close to the play, Blair just missed getting a hand on the ball as it floated down. Gifford makes the grab that much is certain and he tumbles to the ground in the corner directly in front of the Beatles. But in what is still the most disputed call in cup history the question has always been....did he get both feet down? Paul McCartney always has said yes, Ringo always contended no. But at the end of the day it was a NFL crew and the score stood. Though even most AFL refs did agree with their colleagues assessment. Chandler added the point after, San Diego did have :38 left to work with but we're unable to do a thing a four straight incompletions finished the day the final coming as time expired and a very relieved Allie Sherman leaving the field with a 23-20 triumph. Tittle would receive MVP honors as he was 22-39 for 335 yards and two scores he was also picked off twice and was sacked on five other occasions.


The NFL took this victory with a sigh of relief and the knowledge that this previously thought of budh league might be a little better than they thought. The AFL left feeling bolstered and of vindicated, they were a fools club no more, they had teams that they knew can compete with the best that other league has to offer. President Kennedy left with a lot more popularity than he had before. He was our first TV president, and by God his little idea did turn out to be one hell of a show. The Beatles left feeling honored to be part of such a Grand gala. And America left knowing they had just watched a five act human drama/ vaudeville show that had something for everyone, they watched in droves as almost 75 million tuned in and that our country truly had a new national obsession.
 
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