TLIAD - By request - Unitas stays with Steelers; a very troubled NFL

[DTF955Baseballfan]

TLIAD – The Brazil of sports; an American football TL

Part 1 - Unitas We Stand

They say the Steelers almost cut Johnny Unitas. Hard to believe. They never had anyone else around them in those those days, and he was from the area. He might have gone to a place like Baltimore, but instead, he ended up beating the Giants in ’58 in Pittsburgh.

What would cause him to stay? Keeping one 2nd time head coach another year instead of replacing him with another in 1954 (the one who was replaced was a .500 coach, the OTL replacement had gone winless his last season in the early ‘40s) would let Sid Gillman be available for them in ’55. Being an Easterner, it’s likely Gillman picks Pittsburgh over Los Angeles. And the rest, as they say, is alternate history.

 

[DTF955Baseballfan]

Part 2 – The Inner Monologue

Does this go before or after the start?

I don’t know, but the start was sort of there to begin with, so I’m kind of reminding people of it..

So you’re doing it because someone said it should be a timeline?

We are – you’re me, remember?

Isn’t that what we’re not sure about, whether I’m you or you’re me?

This is AH.com, not a philosophical discussion on stuffed animals who are also imaginary friends.

Good point. So, you sort of did it in that AH challenge thread where someone challenged to destroy the NFL as a TLIAHH.

I didn’t keep track of how long it took, but a half hour sounds good.

But, why Brazil?

A potential power, with moments of greatness and lots of raw materials, but one which never quite lives up to all it can be. It’s sort of an AH.com cliché.


Makes sense; although it might be a bit bigger in your TL here, there are certainly missed opportunities and things which hurt it.

Certainly. Also, thanks to www.whatifsports.com for the results on a number of these games.

And we promise, back to a longer baseball what-if next time.

(Givess odd look.) They know that’s my favorite, and I guess with the way this weather’s going I might finally decide to take it past a point in the ‘70s I wondered about, but why are you advertising future timelines?

Would you rather I start blabbing about your “Completed Game” AH about baseball with no strikes in ’94 (or ’81) at lulu.com?

Let’s get back to the NFL.

 

[DTF955Baseballfan]

Part 3 - “It Could Have Been Us”

The NFL has had so much promise, especially once TV came along. College football remains popular, but it’s the sport of small college towns in many cases; of course, counting Green Bay and the shrinking Rust Belt cities one could argue the NFL is that, too. But, it’s more of a niche sport, on par with or maybe even lower than baseball (though the faster pace of society means the NFL is gaining on baseball) and well behind basketball, where the really athletic kids go to the 30-team NBA or 24-team Continental Basketball League.

Pro football, though, has been called the “Brazil of sports,” something with huge potential that has never lived up to its billing.

They could have been the ones sharing the spotlight, instead of having starts like Robert Griffith III weave their way to the basket or throw the ball up for an alley-oop perhaps Griffith would be starring in the NFL. However, at times it seems like nothing has gone right. “Brazil? They’re the Chicago Cubs, they’re so bad,” one commentator joked once of the team that hasn’t won a World Series since 1908.

It could have been them. When Johnny Unitas came of out the industrial towns of Pennsylvania to star for his home-town Steelers, he was all the rage. When the team decided to keep Joe Bach for one more year in 1954 after a .500 season, rather than go back with Walt Kiesling – who had done a lot worse than Bach in his own previous tenure, where he’s come a year after Bach int he late ‘30s – it opened the door for Sid Gillman to come in and coach the ’55 Steelers. They weren’t much to write home about, but Gillman had promised to groom a quarterback who could throw the ball downfield, and when Unitas came on the scene in ’56, a man Kiesling admitted he’d never have kept became the great Johnny U.

And, when they won NFL titles in 1958 over the Colts and young Len Dawson - who had taken over for the incumbent and done poorly, but who had a great defense behind him – and then over the Green Bay Packers(1), everyone said this would be the start of something big. The games hadn’t beent he blowout the Lions had in ’57 over Cleveland, but Baltimore had kept it close with their defense till the 2nd half when the Steelers pulled way to win 20-3, and the Packers had shown the grit and determination of a team there a year too early but still having promise as the Steelers beat them 27-17. And, the Packers had beaten the Colts in a playoff to get to the title game, so there had beent he same excitement of a Big Ten battle with the Rose Bowl to follow.

Then, however, the Pirates won the World Series in 1960, taking some of the luster off the Steelers, who fell flat. And, in Philadelphia’s game against the giants, the hit that shocked the world happened.

Chuck Bednarik, to his credit, says that while he might have hit Frank Gifford hard, he thinks – hopes, really – it wouldn’t have been his bad. However, he also admits It could have been him making the hit that everyone remembers.

Soon after Bednark had barely missed a jarring hit but still dazed him a bit with his sideways hit, another player on the eagles, seeking to top Bednarik, delivered a more cruashing blow. The already woozy Gifford – whom some later said may have had a slight concussion – went down and never got up.(2)

The NFL was devastated. The teams finished that game, but got permission to cancel their game the following week. The fact it was the Sunday before Thanksgiving made it worse. “The guys in the NFL are so much bigger than in college,” some said. Others said they played with too much intensity because of the pay; it wasn’t fun like baseball.A famous comedian’s comparisons between baseball and football – with football being more of a war – really hit home. And, a young man named Willie Joe Namath was convinced play baseball instead, or at least to pursue it in college if he wanted to go to Alabama.(3)

Bednarik’s Hall of Fame speech would greatly eulogize Gifford, among other important parts of the speech, as would Tommy McDonald when chosen by the Veterans’ Committee; Gifford, too, would be enshrined. Bednarik’s Eagles would even go out and win the NFL title versus the Packers in a monumental upset, but the upset wasn’t seen as the incredible one it could have been because the team was said to be winning it for Gifford, and determined to bring a lasting memory of him to the game. It’s said Bednarik played both ways in his honor.(4)

The Packers would beat the Giants 44-0 in the 1961 title game, though, and the Steelers would be the best of an awful division the next year, finishing 10-4 but with 19 fewer points scored than allowed. Everyone hoped for an upset but the final was 59-17, Packers, despite Unitas’ 2 touchdown passes to rookie and future Hall-of-Famer Lance Alworth.(5)

The Giants again fell short without Gifford in 1963, as the Browns took the division title before bowing to the Bears in the title game. They would shut out the Colts the following season, with Dawson now more experienced but still not quite able to big game, though he was putting up very good numbers for Don Shula as the Colts tried to wrest fans away from the very improved Baltimore Orioles now. Still, while Unitas had seemed to usher in a great passing era, that had been toned down in light of the Gifford tragedy, since there was less chance of a jarring hit with inside running, and Jim Brown and others would make running easy.

The biggest thing for the NFL, though, was the ordeal they faced with the American Football League. And yet, it faced its own ordeal, too, even as Davis – who with the Rooneys had pressured the NFL to increase the number of blacks allowed per team to no avail - .jumped to the troubled league in 1963.(6)

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(1) The Colts lose games they won OTL since they don’t have Unitas, and the PSteelers beat the Bear in a close game.

(2) OTL, Bednarik’s tackle shortened Gifford’s career, as he knocked him out, but Gifford survived. Here, Gifford is only a bit woozy and refuses to come out, allowing another player to lay a more jarring blow on him.

(3) Namath was scouted and almost signed with the Cincinnati Reds, according to a book on the 1975 Big Red Machine.

(4) He did OTL anyway, but this would add to it.

(5) Al Davis was spotted bny Sid Gillman at a coaching clinic and impressed him enough to be hired. Chuck Noll also is on Gillman’s staff. Davis signed Alworth out of college by running onto the field and signing him under the goalpost. Here, he just recommends they draft him.

(6) While it’s possible butterflies could keep Bert Bell alive and cause no expansion, this, too, is possible, and since I don’t like to do other than direct cause butterflies, and AltSptHist already did a great “no American Football League” timeline, I figured I’d have the AFL form, but go differently.

 

[DTF955Baseballfan]

Part 4 – American Football League – AAFC the Second

The NFL had withstood a challenge from the All-American Football Conference in the late 1940s; it did poorly because of the lack of competitive balance. Here, some say Al Davis being there faster would have saved it; instead, the AFL struggled mightily, but like the AAFC it did bring excitement into football for a few years.

However, the AFL’s Western Division was a mess. The Chargers had won at 9-5 and then lost to the Houston Oilers in the AFL title game, then the next year won one more game but still lost 10-3 in the AFL title game – again to the Oilers – despite a great defense, built since they were having trouble maintaining their offense, sicne they couldn’t’ lure Sid Gillman away from the Steelers.; Al Davis was the only one listening. He was still with the Steelers in ’62 when they got Alworth away from the AFL after drafting him. The Dallas Texans had just beaten the Oilers, but then they moved to Kansas City.

Not only that, but the Gifford tragedy had soured some on football in New York, and while the league tried to help them stay afloat, it was very hard. They also had to give the raiders some money to stay afloat.(2)

Enter Al Davis, who suggested a merger of his raiders and Chargers if the league was doing that poorly. The Chargers had improved a little, limping to 7-7 as their defense started to show signs of trouble. The Raiders beat the Patriots handily in the AFL title game, and then in 1964, as the Chargers sank further and the rest of the league caught up to the Raiders, the Chiefs limped home as the Western Division winner at 7-7 before losing big to the Bills in the AFL title game. In 1965, the Chargers didn’t repeat their disastrous 0-4-1 start of ’64, but they limped home instead after a decent start and a division lead partway through the season.

Not only that, but 2 of their only wins had been against the Jets, who were still doing poorly. Except for the very rich Hunts luring Len Dawson away from the Colts after the 1964 season, along with a few high draft picks, only Al Davis had been able to sign really big names away from the NFL, though others had signed a few, and the Chiefs were doing very well at building a good team; they’d finished only half a game behind the Raiders and would win the AFL title in 1966.

The Chargers were in financial trouble, the jets we4re again near bankruptcy, and the raiders were still looking to merge with the Chargers. Davis suggested that 5 teams could merge, and then an expansion Miami team could also join.

Talks had been under way for a few years. There were, in the words of one analyst, “Just enough teams to create a viable continuing annoyance,” and it was eating into the NFl’s popularity. However, the struggling Jets, who went 3-8-1 in the AFL’s last season, would not be among them. The Raiders, who had absorbed the Chargers as the Miami Dolphins came into the league, would be, as would the Bills, Patriots, Oilers, Chiefs, and Dolphins, who would nelp the NFL add to its growing base in the South, where college football was huge.

Ratings hadn’t been great for the NFL or AFL at this time, and it was said that the struggle for money had kept the AFL from being viable enough to last, but yet there had been enough to force a merger. That had been credited to Al Davis, who continued to coach the club.

It was a good time for the NFL to expand – they were changing their format as it was, going to 4 divisions instead of 2, so 6 more teams would work. The 1967 order of finish:

NFL East NFL North NFL South NFL West
Baltimore Green Bay Dallas Oakland
Pittsburgh Chicago Houston Los Angeles
Cleveland Detroit Washington Kansas City
New York Minnesota Miami San Francisco
Philadelphia Buffalo New Orleans St. Louis
Boston Denver

It seemed like a very good season. The Packers were on their way to winning a 3rd straight NFL title. However, after all the excitement of the Cowboys just edging the Oilers, and the Raiders finishing just ahead of the Rams, despite being in the supposedly inferior league, the NFL semifinals were not much to behold at first. The Packers easily beat Baltimore and Earl Morrall in a defensive slugfest in the first game, a 20-3 win. Then came a game that would be remembered forever in infamy for a different reason.

The NFL’s contract required them to jump to a showing of the Sunday movie after the game. Oakland, which had shocked people by being the top seed in a very tough division, thanks to the many players Davis had signed, hosted Dallas’ high-powered offense, which had been the 4th seed because of the powerful Oilers in their division and some injuries; Don Meredith was good but by no means a Hall of Famer. Still, Meredith began to lead a comeback, and his team was driving to possibly take the lead when the network jumped into the movie “Heidi.”

Fans were outraged, but as it turned out, Dallas threw an interception and it was returned for a score by the Raiders. The upset that brought Oakland to the title game hadn’t been seen in its entirety, though.

People thought maybe the Packers would be given a run for their money, too, but in Lambeau Field, the Raiders faced the worst weather imaginable. “The Cowboys might have stood a chance, but the Raiders would have been outgunned on a neutral field,” one analyst wrote. “They were lucky to have beaten the rams once and tied them once, and had the Chiefs do the same thing. It was a war of attrition in that division.”

Final score – Green Bay 41, Oakland 7.(2)

Still, in 1968, the NFL had gotten back to being as popular as it had been in 1958. And, that was enough to let Atlanta get a team so there would be an even 24, since Paul Brown had been itching for a franchise to put in Cincinnati; the Bengals would join the East while the Falcons joined the NFL South.

The Morrall-led Colts got to the title game versus the Chiefs, and many fans expected that they would face the Vikings. However, Minnesota went to Kansas City, where Len Dawon was nursing an injury but insisting on playing, and lost. The NFl tried to hype it as being like the 1950 title game where the Browns, recently then from the AAFC, beat the rams in a classic. Others said why bother tuning in, because it would be a Colts blowout. Instead, many turned off their TVs and fans in Baltimore left because the Chiefs led 20-3 at the half on their way to a 23-10 victory, with Morrall throwing 5 interceptions. The Vikings, after turning down a trade for Fran Tarkenton,(3) won the title the following year over the Cowboys in frigid Minnesota. The defense was superb, but it was Tarkenton’s running more than anything that helped them keep the ball away from Dallas; they each missed 2 field goals in the blustery conditions.

The Colts finally won an NFL title, 16-13 over Dallas, the next year, but the fact there were 11 turnovers marred it. Dallas came back to beat the Chiefs 24-3 in the next NFL title game, but even though Roger Staubach was now firmly at the helm, it was still very much a defense and running league.

By 1972, the NFL was up to 24 teams, and gaining some popularity, but it had a problem. They had stagnated in several areas. There had never been a 4,000-yard passer(4), and in fact it was still rare for there to be a 3,000-yard one.(5) Offense was still mostly running, as strategy had disappeared somewhat.

Johnny Unitas was on his last legs in Pittsburgh, soon to be replaced by Terry Bradshaw, as Chuck Noll had risen from Sid Gillman’s staff to replace him in the late ‘60s. However, while Gillman had brought quite a bit to the team, and a 2-1 record including their first NFL titles ever, by the late ‘60s Unitas was getting injured more and more, and the Stelers slipped enough they were able to start building a great team in the ‘70s, too.(6) They began by making a trade just to get where they could get Bradshaw – helped by the fact Unitas had had a poor year in ’69, leaving the Steelers 4-10.

So, when the Dolphins under Don Shula finally won their division at 12-2 in 1972(7), and wound up beating the Packers – who had beaten the Raiders in Green Bay - 26-3 in the NFL title game in Miami, the NFL began considering adding wild card teams. However, some argued against it – they argued that all the games meant something now, like in the Big Ten or Pac 10 or SEC; sure, 2nd place teams could go to lesser bowls, but only the champs would be in line for the AP mythical national title.

The NFL didn’t want to stagnate like it had, though. And, they knew they had to do something. One of their franchise was in serious trouble as it was.

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(1) This happened OTL, too, but would be worse here.

(2) Worse than Super Bowl II because of the elements but also because the defense would be even more active in this game, so the Packers would be getting points off of turnovers even if their offense didn’t move the ball as well.

(3) The lack of a couple teams means the giants have more chance at a quarterback, but more importantly, no Namath and no Jets means the Giants don’t try to make the trade to get back some of their lost popularity.

(4) Namath was first OTL in 1967, and it wouldn’t happen here.

(5) True OTl, too, after the merger a couple times the leader had fewer than 3,000 yards passing.

(6) With Unitas, the Steelers are a bit better, but they can still trade for picks and only 1-2 were really high in the first round like Bradshaw. Noll’s judging of talent would be what helps him here, and they probably only miss out on 1-2 of OTL Hall of Famers and core players, if that.

(7) No undefeated season for these Dolphins facing Washington and Dallas twice this year.

 

[DTF955Baseballfan]

Part 5 – Two-Sport Joe and Those Crazy Cardinals

Joe Namath was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals’ football team at a time when they needed all the help they could get. Football was still suffering some from the Gifford tragedy stigma, and St. Louis was a baseball-crazy town. The city also had a basketball team and would get an NHL team in 1967. Many said it ‘deserved to be 4-sprot city” like a few others, but the problem was that the city was losign population. Since being one of the nation’s biggest in the early 1900s. Still, the Cardinals could have contended except for one thing.

They were really bad.

Okay, usually not in last, the Denver Broncos didn’t have much success either in that period. However, once the NFL went to the different divisions in 1967, they were suddenly in a division with the Chiefs’, Raiders’ and Rams’ incredible defenses, and the 49ers and Broncos often played good defense, too.

Their starting quarterback, though, wanted to be a star. He clearly preferred the lights of the Big Apple, and in a contract dispute threatened to sign with the Yankees. He’d played baseball in college, too, after all, though he’d been a far better football player.

The New York Yankees, owned by CBS, had needed fans. They’d drawn so few people they were willing to give Namath a shot. In 1967, Namath agreed with the cardinals that he would return for training camp. He played minor league baseball and did well enough the Yankees called him up in early August, but he played a few games before going back to the NFL for training camp. He got a hit and stole a base, so people knew it wasn’t just a publicity stunt.

He finished by passing for 3,100 yards and having his best season as a quarterback, but he threw 30 interceptions versus only 25 touchdowns. He did well in 1968, , but by 1969, as the Mets captured baseball’s imagination, “Broadway Joe,” also known as “Two Sport Joe,” began playing both sports at the same time in September to give the Yankees some time on the front page of the sports section, with the mets charging toward a series win. Why not? He became the first man to score a touchdown and hit a ome run in the same week in late September. And, baseball fans loved it.

Football fans, not so much.

Baseball’s Cardinals had won 2 straight pennants and were still good in ’69. The Hawks had moved but the Blues were big, and the Cardinals of the NFL went from 5-7-2 in a very tough division to a respectable 8-6 and a surprising 2nd place, thanks to the Raiders’ slump in 1968. In 1969, though, they finished 2-12, losing all their division games, and since Pittsburgh wanted a quarterback to replace the aging Johnny U., they gave up their first round pick to the Steelers for a variety of other picks, as they needed help in many places. They’d lost 58-38 to the Saints!

They demanded that Namath come to training camp – especially because his having hung around Mickey Mantle much of his time in New York, even after Mantle was done playing, had had an impact on him. The joke was, “Namath’s batting average is .250, his completion percentage is .550, and his nightclub success rate is .950.”

The “party animal” wound up getting hurt in 1970, letting Jim Hart take over and do well. The Cardinals said the job was Hart’s in the spring and Namath would have to come back and be a backup if he kept playing baseball, so he did; and he ended up winning back the starting job by the end of 1971, a year which saw the Cardinals go from around .500 again to 4-9-1. Namath led them to a 2-1 record his final three games.

In 1972, after another season when they tied for last at 5-8-1 despite the division being somewhat weak, Hart was traded – Namath had seemed to mature and the Yankees’ new owner, George Steinbrenner, released him, wanting to focus on “real baseball” – and Don oryell was hired. However, the damage was done.

The 1973 Cardinals finished last again, s Namath wasn’t healthy; rookie Dan Fouts actually had to start a few games. They had a good defense in 1974 and Namath led them to a 7-6-1 record, tied for 2nd with the Broncos in a weaker division, but fans were uite apathetic. The team had been losing money for quite a while, thanks to having to pay Namath to keep him there, and while they had contended for a while card position here, Namath had begun to show signs of age as they slipped to 7-7, wasting what many said was an excellent defense. They were still 3rd in what was now a mediocre division, but the problem was, now the fans didn’t have a sinner or the satisfaction of seeing other grat teams all the time in their divisional games.

San Diego had lost its team when they merged with the Raiders. They had a nice stadium and fans seemingly hungry for football. They could have a great rivalry with L.A., and the area was ripe for the taking; the padres were awful and it could become a football town. Sure, people liked the beach, but surely they could get fans to come out 7 times a year plus preseason games. The World Football league had done okay there, too.

The St. Louis area might have accepted the team, some said. And, Namath kept things interesting for a while. Maybe, they said, in a more popular NFL, they’d have stuck around, but maybe they’d have moved anyway; the owner was hungry for a winner but also for money. And, Fouts and Coryell did seem to be building something good once they got to San Diego.

As for Namath? He didn’t play the whole ’74 season with the Cardinals, either. He actually signed with Oakland as one of Charlie Finley’s gimmicks, and while he wasn’t on the postseason roster, he won a World Series ring with them. He said his only had 2 regrets – that he couldn’t have won an NFL title as well, and that he didn’t win either in New York. That was where he clearly belonged in either sport.

 

[DTF955Baseballfan]

Part 6 – Is It A Rivalry If One Team Always Wins?

One problem the Cardinals had had was they lost quite a few straight games to a number of their supposed rivals in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. The Dolphins actually went throughout the 1970s winning every game against one of their rivals!(1) This made the argument that the divisions were set up like college football seem quite weak; there was supposed to be a closer level of talent there than there was between, say, Ohio State and Northwestern.

After the Dolphins’ big win over the Packers, they beat the Vikings 24-7 to win their 2nd straight NFL title. The Steelers had beaten the Bengals in a playoff, pushing things back a week, before losing to the Dolphins, and the fact a really popular team like that – not to mention Dallas – had been missing, combined with the threat from the World Football league – prompted the NFL to put a wild card team in. When one thought about it, that game had been like a wild card game, anyway. Then, there was enough consternation about the fact Pittsburgh would have been left out. Some clamored for a second wild card game, but most balked for now. There was talk of cutting the NFL from 6 preseason games down to 4 and adding 2 more regular season games, and they wanted to give teams extra rest if that happened. And, a playoff could still be held for a division if a team would not be the wild card.

In 1974, it was again the Steelers, Raiders, Dolphins, and Vikings – the only change was that the Vikings had to beat the Bills to win their division and then beat the Redskins before going to Pittsburgh, where the Steelers won before going on to beat the raiders 2016 with Harris rushing for 160 yards and 2 touchdowns. It wasn’t a great game, but as least it had been close for once. Though he didn’t play, Johnny Unitas could say he was part of another NFL title team. He retired after the game, having officially “passed the torch.”

In 1975, Baltimore, the Raiders, Cincinnati, Houston, and Miami all staged a spirited fight for the wild card spot, but the winners were again Pittsburgh, Minnesota, the Rams, and this time Dallas, with Miami barely losing out in the end, some said still because of the WFL. The Bengals were the wild card, and upset the Cowboys 21-20 on a Ken Anderson to Charlie Joiner pass with less than 2 minutes to go. However, they lost 20-3 to the Rams while the steelers

. The order was a bit different, the Rams had snagged home field throughout this time. But, the same clubs were again vying each time. And, when Pittsburgh beat Minnestoa and then went out to L.A., they beat the Rams 19-6 with one of the 2 touchdowns being on a punt return; their kicker missed an extra point. And, the quarterbacks had combined for just over 250 yards passing in that game. The Rams’ quarterback had done quite well, and being a black quarterback had earned a lot of praise for his efforts. However, fans wanted to to see more offense, it seemed. And, that was hard with cold weather teams always seeming to host the title game.

The league hoped that, by opening things up to one more wild card team, they could at least get more cities excited about football. There were actually some who suggested moving to 3 divisions of 4 teams each. But, nobody knew how that would work, as the divisions were perfect right now in their alignment. And, while the Raiders spoke of moving, that was to the new dome in Seattle or to Los Angeles.

When they did, though, it helped by giving New England a chance to shine – they actually won the North and were the 3rd seed. A new team had finally broken through, along with top seed Oakland, number two Dallas (in a surprisingly weak South) and fourth seed Baltimore. Pittsburgh was the second wild card, though, and despite a lot of injuries to their offense they went into New England and won in a close, controversial game before succumbing to the Raiders in Oakland. The Raiders won their first NFL title, 32-14, over Minnesota, the first wild card team to advance to the title game.

Dallas beat the Broncos in 1977, and the Orange Crush defense became the story of the league s for the first time, the 2 wild cards came from the same division – the West. And, the Steelers didn’t even make the playoffs.

When offense was opened up through rule changes in 1978, then, for the first time in a long while fans got the really good NFL title game they wanted, a 35-31 Steeler win over the Cowboys, denying them their 2nd straight title.

Finally, after wandering in the wilderness and seeing one franchise move and a couple others look into it – the Colts, Raiders, and even the Eagles, though they may not hve been serious about becoming a 2nd New York team – the NFL was starting to gain popularity. Whereas 1958 and 1968 had seen blown chances, and the league had done little to really excite fans, 1978 seemed to be a year when many could get excited about the game.

Of course, with Bird and Magic coming into the NBA, basketball could try to secure the top spot as well. It was a great 3-way battle between the 3 now. The NFl considered expansion, too, in fact, now that they seemed, for now, to have stadium issues settled; they hadn’t been sure if a city like Tampa could support a team, or if the Colts might try to go there. And, Seattle just gotten the dome in 1976 and the Raiders and Colts had made noise about going there.

1979 was even better. Division winners Pittsburgh (well, that was expected), San Diego, and Dallas (again, expected) were joined by 4th seed Chicago and wild cards Philadelphia and Houston. The Battle of Texas would be epic. Soldier Field, after years of doldrums, would host a playoff game and could theoretically host the title game. And, Washington had already barely missed the playoffs after a dramatic comeback win by Dallad that secured the division for them, when a a win by Houston by a large enough number of points kept them the 6th seed despite not being able to wrap up the division as they thought they would when the Cowboys were way down in the 2nd half.(2)

The Oilers upset the Cowboys in what would be Roger Staubach’s last game, while the Eagles beat the Bears. Pittsburgh handled the Oilers easily, meaning that whoever won the other game would have a chance for their first NFL title in decades.

It was the Chargers in a nailbiter. Then, the score was only 3-2 San Diego at the half. The Steelers blew it open in the 3rd quarter, though, en route to a 36-10 shellacking of San Diego. It would be the Eagles’ turn next year, as they lost 16-6 to the Raiders in the NFL title game in a very cold Philadelphia where the Raiders’ defense was the key. And there had been stories of great players like Earl Campbell and the Kardicac Kids of Cleveland, the 6 seed that almost beat the Cowboys in Dallas before Brian Sipe threw an interception in the end zone trailing 20-14 with under a minute remaining.(3) Dallas lost to Philadelphia and the Raiders beat San Diego.

Then, in 1981, Dan Fouts beat Dallas in Dallas as the 6 seed, 41-38, in a wild game where they went up 24-0, the Cowboys tied it at 24, then went up 31-24 and down 38-31 before tying it and losing in overtime. It was considered one of the greatest games ever. San Francisc, a real surprise at 13-3, beat them in a good game the next week – it ws clear that the Cahrgers were worn out by the wild game they’d played the week before – while the Bengals hosted and handily defeated the Dolphins, then the 49ers won their first NFL title. Two totally new teams met in the title game for the first time in living memory, it seemed.

Yes, now if the NFL could just straighten out this labor mess, they could expand and be sure to become the number one sport in America, which it had pretty much become thanks to the last few years of football.

Just one problem - they couldn’t.

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(1) OTL it was the Bills they did this to.

(2) Partly mirroring the strange circumstances that kept Washington from the playoffs in 1979 OTL after blowing a big lead to Dallas.

(3) Red right 88 – Sipe’s interception thrown when down 14-12 to the Raiders on a very icy Cleveland field - wouldn’t happen the same way as they’d clearly be very conservative without the ice factor in Dallas and in similar circumstances would kick the field goal. However, they’d make both extra points so would have 14 anyway. On the other hand, the Cowboys would score a little more because of Dorsett, so I give them a couple extra field goals. Thus, Sipe has a chance to win it and could have overthrown the receiver on 3rd down and still been able to try for it on 4th down but instead throws the pick.

 

[DTF955Baseballfan]

Part 7 – “We’re Better Than Baseball – Including At Messing Up Labor Stuff!”

The NFL had begun to hum along very nicely. They’d become the number 1 sport by 1982, especially because of the 1981 baseball strike. However, the Raiders had moved to Los Angeles for the 1982 season, suddenly the Rams were restless, Seattle seemed to play a few teams off against each other, and labor strife meant fans were really turned off.

It didn’t matter quite as much during the first couple weeks, but as the NFl strike went on, owners became a little nervous. Without the intense popularity brought on by great NFl games of the past that could have propelled it into the public eye much earlier, the NFL wasn’t about to suggest they just cancel the season and put the 2 games already played on the 16 games of 1983.(1) No, they needed to end this and to break the union.

A hurried plan was put in place to bring in replacements, once the strike went a couple of weeks. It would have been tried eventually, though perhaps not till the next strike(2), but owners greatly feared what cancelling a whole season, or almost a whole one, would do.

On the other hand, a few owners were adamant that they not bring in replacements. The idea of replacement workers in cities like Philadelphia, Detroit, and Pittsburgh, whose fan bases were heavily unionized, was appalling. Not to mention the product on the field would surely suffer with people brought in off the street. The coaches couldn’t put in more than the most rudimentary plays, and there were players who wouldn’t even be able to execute those.

Nonetheless, as time and fan anger grew, some considered it. Meanwhie, there was also a rift among the players, as a small, vocal minority felt they hadn’t been well-informed and some, like Danny White of the Cowboys, even talked with Tex Schramm of the Cowboys during that time. The question seemed to be which rift would have the biggest impact.

In the end, the owners organized a week of replacement games,a nd almost nobody attended. With a better economy there might have been a few more, but in late 1982 the economy was still poor and the idea that owners would force “scabs” on the fans was insulting to many of the union workers in NFL cities of the north.

When it became clear that players wouldn’t bolt and cross the line in the 2nd week, the NFl became ready and willing to talk. The strike then got settled.

A 10-game season was played, but the worst part was, the NFL decided to expand their playoffs since they’d played so few games. An incredible 8 wild card teams were included.(3) However, instead of the 4 wild card winners playing the division winners, Los Angeles’ Raiders, Washington, Cincinnati, and Green Bay. They were seeded like in the NCAA tournament, with only the promise that the division winners would get put in somewhere; they said it wasn’t fair to name a division winner with so few games, which made sense in the case of the NFL’s North and South divisions.(4)

only Detroit was in the playoffs at 4-5-1, and the fans of Detroit were really upset; their scab game had ended in a tie so they hadn’t even gotten the satisfaction of seeing a win – well, the few hundred who showed up hadn’t anyway. And, they went to New England and lost 3-0 when a snowplow cleared the field for a field goal, or they might hve played a 0-0 tie through overtime in a blizzard and been 4-4-2 and had an even higher seed.(5)

The top seeds were the 9-1 Bengals from a weak East, 8-2 Raiders, and 7-3 Redskins and Cowboys. This angered Packer fans, but at 6-4, like the Vikings, it was easy to argue they wouldn’t have won over 16 games, or that the 5-5 Patriots would have come out on top.

The wild card round featured 7-3 Pittsburgh, San Diego, and Miami, 6-4 Green Bay, and Minnesota, 5-5 New England and Atlanta, and Detroit. And, the Saints would have made it in at 4-5 had the Lions lost their last game, which would have made 5 teams from the NFL South out of 6 in the playoffs!

Minnesota lost 6 turnovers in a blowout loss to Miami, Green Bay beat New England by 14 and it wasn’t that close, Pittsburgh obliterated the Lions, and only San Diego had trouble against the Falcons before Dan Fouts’ last-minute touchdown to win 34-31.

Dallas won their rematch against the Steelers and the Redskins beat the Chargers, but the top 2 seeds fell, as the Dolphins’ defense forced 2 key Jim Plunkett interceptions to beat the Raiders while the Packers humiliated the Bengals. Washington beat Green Bay by 10 while the Dolphins’ defense later held Dallas down just enough to force a win; as John Madden said famously during that game, “The last 3 teams left are all in the Southern division; maybe with a tournament like this, it’s kind of itting that where 5 teams almost made the playoffs, that 3 teams would come from here. Yeah, the North plays the truest brand of football with lots of good cold weather teams, just like the East has, but maybe the tide is turning and you’re seeing the best football come out of the South now.”

Washington beat Miami in the NFL title game, 27-17.

So, after all the confusion fans began to come back some in most places, and when the Dolphins and Cowboys were the 2 wild cards next year, too, fans thought maybe ’82’s results were pretty accurate. Detroit stunned 5th seed Dallas, with Billy Sims rushing for 202 yards as they won at home and took their first playoff win since 1957’s title, so there had been one upset. However, while Lions fans had come back since their anger over replacement players, thanks to that division title. However, Miami beat Pittsburgh handily, and the semifinals and Raiders’ win over the Redskins in the title game were all blowouts.

1984 and 1985 were the same. San Francisco beat the Dolphins 38-16, though it was only 28-16 at the half, then the Bears won 20-7 in cold Chicago, where the wind was such it was a shutout till a 55-yard Marino pass with around 3 minutes left.

However, people had become comfortable with the notion of great defneisve football that wouldn’t cause serious harm – at least they had till Larence taylor’s sack broke Joe Theisman’s leg on national TV. And, offense was such that great quarterbacks were showcased, there were still some dynamic runners, and when Taylor had his superb, MVP season in ’86 as the Giants won their first title in 30years, all seemed right with the NFL. They beat Denver 39-20, but it was only 10-9 at the half; it was a blowout like the title game 2 years earlier.

So, maybe things wouldn’t be so bad.

However, there was more labor strife in 1987, fans became even more upset with the NFL trying to use strikebreakers a 2nd time, but the worst part was what happened in New York.

Legendary Lawrence Taylor had drug problems. And, as the labor strife continued, his problems would up leading to a drug overdose. He would become one of the most controversial electees to the Hall of Fame years later, but for right now, it was an incredibly dark day for the NFL, as one of their best players, the MVP from last year, had died.(6)

The NFL had suffered another black eye, and while the game was quite watchable now, and interesting, the stigma was drawing people away. When a few teams began to dominate the title game worse than in the early ‘70s, it got worse for the TV audience.

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(1) An idea floated by some, though it’s not known how seriously, at the time.

(2) As it was in 1987. There, only a week was missed because the plan was in place faster; here, they’d only consider doing it after a few weeks.

(3) Not as wacky as it sounds. 8 of the 14 teams in each conference made the playoffs OTL, so in a 24-team league, 12 teams making the playoff tournament is actually a smaller percentage. Plus, the NCAA hoops-type format makes sense, as they called it a playoff tournament OTL. As OTL, the division winners weren’t given the top seeds.

(4) The North, if going by OTL standings, would have the 5-3-1 Packers, 5-4 Vikings, and 5-4 Patriots, along with the 4-5 Lions, who were a decent team that year. In the South, the 8-1 Redskins won enough close games Mark Moseley was MVP(!) and barely beat the Eagles and Giants a total of 3 times, the 7-2 Dolphins won a few very close games (including against the winless Colts and one where a made extra point would have forced overtime) but also lost 3-0 to the Patriots in the infamous “snowplow game” (or whatever it’s called) 3-0 where someone in Foxboro cleared the field for a field goal try in a blizzard, and the Cowboys at 6-3 lost to the lowly Eagles, so it, too, would have been quite close.

(5) The Patriots, in the North, would likely play a divisional game that day.

(6) Quoted in Sports Illustrated as saying golf had saved his life as he got cleaned up, it wouldn’t be a stretch to have him actually die from an overdose.

 

[DTF955Baseballfan]

Part 8 – Winning isn’t Everything

The 49ers were back for the 3rd time in 7 years; just enough, people said, for fans to see a good team but not for them to seem overly dominant. Their opponents, the Redskins, were in their 3rd in 6 years. They were the wild card and 5th seed – Doug Williams had led them to a come-from-behind win over the Saints in New Orleans, as the Saints were clearly nervous making their first playoff appearance. The 49ers, meanwhile, had seen Joe Montana and John Elway hook up in a great battle won by Montana.

The 49ers’ defense had proven to be almost a sieve by Elway, and that meant that while favored, they might see Washington keep it close.

They didn’t – Washington blew out the 49ers 45-10, as Doug Williams threw 5 TD passes.(1) However, Montana kept his starting job in a battle over Steve Young, and next year they went into Cincinnati and won 24-17, as Montana threw a TD pass with a minute or so left and the Bengals couldn’t respond. “Good,” people thought, “Montana has his 3rd NFL title, he’s among the elites, now let’s see someone else win. Maybe Elway.”

Elway had done very well, and had been in the playoffs quite a bit, but the problem was, he was in the same division as Montana. Still, as a wild card, the 5th seed, he ended up winning along with the 6th seed Rams and making it to the NFl title game again, only to lose 55-10. Then, San Francisco was in their 4th finals and won their 3rd straight title in another blowout over the Bills as Steve Young filled in for the injured Montana and won, 37-24.(2)

After the Redskins beat the Bills 23-20(3), the Cowboys beat the 49ers and then the Bills in successive NFL title games. Then, the 49ers come back and beat the Cowboys before Dallas wins again over the Packers. Another team had been in 4 straight, and while it was fun to see for some fans, seeing so many of the same teams over and over for so long was becoming tiresome.

The worst part of 1995 was what happened in the preseason.

In 1983, Bob Irsay had hijacked the Cots to Tampa, choosing it instead of Seattle. Seattle had made overtures to quite a few teams. The Colts were doing very poorly in Tampa because they kept losing – even the one year they were decent the strike happened (1987) and they were well out of the playoffs, given the potency of the Browns, the Eagles’ rise, and the quality of the wild card teams. By the early ‘90s, a move seemed quite possible.(4)

However, the rams had already moved to Seattle before the 1994 season, because they had drawn rather poorly even when winning and had fallen really flat after 1989. And, the raiders were going to leave L.A. for Oakland.

The Irsays didn’t want to move to L.A. – they’d traded the Rams for the Colts in 1972 as it was. Instead, they decided to go back to Baltimore, as the Oilers had its eye on Phoenix. Therefore, the Colts moved back to Baltimore.

This caused news to leak that Art5 Modell, the Browns’ owner had been neogitating to move to Baltimore. Suddenly he had nowhere to move, and the fans were revolting in Cleveland because he was seen as so disloyal. “It figures,” one talk show host said, “he fires Paul Brown and now, 30 years after our last title, he wants to steal the whole franchise.”

He would eventually be forced to sell to Al Lerner, but as it was, the NFl again was prevented from expansion, this time because cities which might have landed the franchises were stealing other teams anyway. And, while they would have liked to put a team in L.A. and another somewhere in the East – perhaps Carolina – fan interest was just now starting to become great enough where they could.

The Packers, losers the ’95 title game (really January of 1996), were a very popular team, though, and they had a very wholesome image, unlike those Cowboys who had been in 4 straight and won 3. When Green Bay won 29-6 over New England next year, they were glad. Then, the Packers won 23-17, as John Elway avoided throwing an interception but couldn’t quite work his magic in the last minute.

One could almost hear the NFL begging Elway, who had planned to retire, to come back for 1 more season. He did, and the NFL saw one of its greatest quarterbacks ever finally win a title, as the Broncos prevailed 31-28; the Vikings scored a touchdown in the last minute but couldn’t get the onside kick.

Because the Oilers had moved to Phoenix, but the Chiefs’ rivalries were too big and they weren’t really “South” anyway, the NFL kept them in the South. They beat Baltimore in Baltimore for the right to face the incredibly potent Seattle Rams – the Greatest Show on Turf. Seattle finally had their NFl franchise, and it was well worth the wait. Some were annoyed that the NFl’s top 2 teams had just moved less than 6 years ago. However, the Seattle Rams – who with their royal bloe and yellow had added some lime green in spots to their uniforms - and the Arizona Rattlers had shown the NFL would be popular in new cities.

So what if the extreme home field advantage led Seattle to win 49-13 over the Rattlers, or the division races had been over so early. The NFL had a possible solution. They could add teams in Los Angeles and Houston, and maybe 2 other cities. (Carolina could get one, they thought, and a second one could go into New York or maybe Jacksonville or – if they won – Tampa) Even with only two, though, they could realign to have 6 divisions in 2 conferences, like the NBA’s conferences. There would be double the number of playoff teams, adding to the excitement. Or, they could just go back to wild card games with 2 wild cards per conference.

Other owners nixed the idea, however. They argued that the divisions made sense now – Arizona was still south of most of the country, after all - and that if the markets mentioned really wanted football there were teams who could move. And, how could Los Angeles lose both franchises, after all, and still be viable?

Seven teams in one division felt to some like too much – there would be 12 divisional games. Unless the NFL expanded to 18 games it wouldn’t make sense.

Still, the Dallas-Houston rivalry had been such a good one they felt they should do something. The NBA had just had a long labor stoppage and almost lost the season, so the NFl had started to really make headway against it, but baseball’s numbers were soaring, and they needed to keep pace; the 24/7 news cycle and all the new cable stations meant the NFL could be all over the sports pages all the time if they really tried; and they’d had good years the last half decade or so. Even before then, Dallas had been the team people loved to hate because of the antics of some of their stars and of their owner.

But, others argued that only 4 games outside the division wasn’t bad, and if they wanted to stick with 2 from each of the other divisions, why couldn’t they play 18 games? Money ws starting to roll in rather consistently now.

So, the NFL began 2000 planning for something big, and wound up with another great defensive team, built by a former player, Ozzie Newsome, in Cleveland. They, Oakland, Arizona, and Minnesota wee the division champs, in that order, and the high powered offenses in Baltimore (with Peyton Manning) and Seattle (the defending champs) could make things very interesting for the winners.

NFL East NFL North NFL South NFL West
Cleveland Minnesota Arizona Rattlers Oakland
Baltimore Green Bay Miami Seattle Rams
New York Detroit New Orleans Denver
Philadelphia Buffalo Washington Kansas City
Pittsburgh New England Dallas San Francisco
Cincinnati Chicago Atlanta San Diego Cardianls

Manning won once before going into Cleveland getting blown away, almost literally, while Kurt Warner won his playoff in Oakland 42-34 before the Seattle rams went to Cleveland and, as expected, got shellacked 35-14, with Warner throwing for the final TD and 2-point conversion with only 4 minutes left. Still, he threw 1 TD and only 2 interceptions and 313 yards overall, not nearly like his 4-touchdown performance of the Rattlers’ game in last year’s title game, but enough that – against an amazing defense – some saw him as a potential Hall of Famer. Yes, the NFL seemed to have it going well for them.

Then, after the Patriots’ wild home win in a blizzard over Pittsburgh, as they prepared to face the Seattle Rams in Seattle for the 2001 title game – they’d won the division with Chicago a wild card and the Packers just being edged out of the playoffs by the wild card 49ers – some people noticed something suspicious. It wasn’t discussed till afterward what they’d seen, but it being the home team and not the Patriots’ or a neutral field, there was an investigation. Someone thought it had just been people sneaking in to get a peak at stuff when they weren’t supposed to.

As it turned out, it was the Patriots trying to spy on the Rams’ practice. It didn’t totally come to light till after the Patriots’ win by a field goal and all the expansion drafting and realignment had been done. However, in March, Spygate erupted. The Patriots had been found to be spying on the Rams’ workout.

The Rams had come back to make it close in January of 2002, the title wouldn’t be taken away from the Patriots. Still, head coach Bill Belicheck was suspended for a year in addition to them losing their first round draft pick and a couple others.(6)

A pall had been cast over the sport. Its attempts to become the top sport had been darkened as some began to spread rumors – all false – of other fixes. This caused the NFL to come down harder than they might have had it been discovered years later.

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(1) Lowly Minnesota scored 36 off of them in winning before losing 17-10 to Washington OTL.

(2) Their offense might be a tad better against the 49ers’ defense, but the Giants scored 20 with a backup quarterback.

(3) though at Washington, not a neutral field, butterflies let this be the close game with Thurman Thomas almost being MVO, since the 49ers do better the year before.

(4) The similarly awful Buccaneers also were rumored to be moving at this time. The GBrowns were more popular than the Bucs, and there was talk Cleveland could get them.

(5) It’s more likely to be caught here because home team fans would brag, whereas any hired help used OTL at the neutral site Super Bowl wouldn’t be talking.

(6) It’s uncertain how much harsher they would have been, but a penalty like that of the Saints’ coach for Bounty-gate sounds logical.

 

[AltSptHst]

The Rams had come back to make it close in January of 2002, the title wouldn’t be taken away from the Patriots. Still, head coach Bill Belicheck was suspended for a year in addition to them losing their first round draft pick and a couple others.(6)

A pall had been cast over the sport. Its attempts to become the top sport had been darkened as some began to spread rumors – all false – of other fixes. This caused the NFL to come down harder than they might have had it been discovered years later.

What's next, does Belichick try it again, and get kicked out of the league? That may have been more likely with Tagliabue (he is still the commish in this timeline, right?) than Goodell.

 

[DTF955Baseballfan]

What's next, does Belichick try it again, and get kicked out of the league? That may have been more likely with Tagliabue (he is still the commish in this timeline, right?) than Goodell.

Right, still Tagliabue for now. Although, Belicheck's too smart, I think, to try it again; but after a clean win, there might be a number of people who stop watching games they're in.

 

[DTF955Baseballfan]

Part 9 – Put On A Happy Face?

In the end, playoffs were expanded, because there were so many good teams, but the divisions remained the same. However, Arizona’s Bud Adams and the San Diego Cardinals’ owner agreed that it was best to keep the West solid. Kansas City, even in getting Joe Montana for a while, had not had a huge rivalry with any of the teams for a logn time because they’d been so bad. Why not let the Chiefs move to the North?

That’s what they did. 2002’s standings, with *-a wild card, for 2002 was as follows:

NFL East NFL North NFL South NFL West
Philadelphia Green Bay Atlanta Oakland
Pittsburgh* Kansas City Miami* Arizona Rattlers
New York Giants* Buffalo New Orleans* San Francisco
Baltimore Colts New England Washington Denver
Cleveland Minnesota Dallas Seattle Rams
New York Mammoths Chicago Houston Texans San Diego Cardinals
Cincinnati Detroit Carolina Panthers Los Angeles Leopards

The Patriots might not have made the playoffs anyway, since their division was easier, though, they could have won a game or two more. Still, there were plenty of teams st 10-6 and 9-7, so the 7-9 Patriots might have missed out on a tiebreaker, as the 9-7 Chiefs did.

The Falcons, at 12-4, were the 3rd seed. Their defense had been exceptional, with Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks each future Hall of Famers from the great 1995 draft, after a 6-10 team in 1994. They’d kept coming up just short, but this year, their defense was top notch.

Still, the NFL preferred to push quarterbacks, and Michael Vick was great at running and throwing. The extra round of playoffs hadn’t seemed to wear him down; in fact, in a 17-6 home win over the Giants, he ran for 102 yards. The top 3 seeds, Oakland, Green Bay, and Atlanta all won, as did Philadelphia over Pittsburgh. However, the Raiders won in Oakland, while the Falcons upset the Packers in Green bay, the first time the Packers had ever lost a home playoff game. It would be the Falcons going to Oakland for the title game.

When Atlanta won 30-13 – scoring 10 points off of turnovers – Vick was seen as a secondary star next to the vaunted Falcon defense, but he was the face of the Super Bowl champs, and that meant a lot for the 2nd year starter. The media began to pay lots of attention to him as the NFL trumpeted him as the start of the next big wave of athletic quarterbacks who would put Young and Elway to shame.

It would have come out sooner or later, but when by June the story began to break about Vick’s dog-fighting ring, NFL executives could only look up and sigh grievously. Two straight NFL champions had had major scandals.

When in 2003’s playoffs a now clean Patriots’ team got home field and beat the Eagles in Foxboro for the NFL title, it was a success for the rehabilitated Patriots. The Eagles returned the favor the following season; they thought they’d have to face the Steelers till the San Diego comeback from 31-16 down to beat the Colts in San Diego 34-31; Peyton Manning had hardly had the ball in he 4th quarter as the team completed its comeback. The Eagles upset the Patriots 20-16(1) before going to Pittsburgh and losing the Battle of Pennsylvania. The Steelers demolished the EaGles 24-3 after the Patriots had beaten them 28-6 the year before.

Ben Roethlisberger had become the youngest quarterback to lead a team toa n NFL title, and the Steelers might have had home field advantage throughout anyway, but for their playing in such a difficult division. They’d gone 15-3 in the new 18-game regular season; it had been determined that they should lop off 2 preseason games, though the union was balking at more wild card teams; the NFL thought about 6 wild card teams to give the top two seeds gbyes once more. As for now, though, despite poor quality of play in the first few weeks.

They weren’t for Pittsburgh, though.

That hope of Big Ben joining Unitas and Bradshaw was dashed when he suffered severe trauma in a motorcycle accident; h4e wasn’t wearing a helmet. He would return to play but would never be able to function as well as before.(2)

The Baltimore Colts won the next 2 NFL titles, one in an amazing game that had, once again, began to eliminate the NFL’s negative image and put it back into the top of the public mind. The Colts won 33-27 after getting a TD to go ahead, having Jason Elam’s field goal on the last play of regulation tie it at 27, then getting a touchdown to win 5 minutes into overtime. Manning and James had both done great in this game. Then, the following year, the Colts beat the wild card Patriots as Manning brought them from down 18 to win at home in a great game before the Colts beat the Bears in Baltimore.

Then, the North became host to more great play as the Patriots went 17-1. However, they lost to the last wild card, the Giants, in their first round game!(3) Then, they upset the Cowboys before beating the Packers in overtime in a very snowy Green Bay. Brett Favre would retire and unretired a few times after that.

In 2008, the incredible happened – all 4 wild card teams came out of the East!

When their star had trouble coming back, Kurt Warner was plucked off the waiver wire and he played well for the Steelers, leading them to a win over the Giants, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Cleveland, which just missed the playoffs thanks to the Los Angeles Leopards, who snuck in ahead of the Colts and Eagles, with all 3 going 10-8. Atlanta, Arizona, and New England – despite having Matt Cassel at quarterback due to injuries – won the other divisions.

A number of upsets occurred, until the Steelers beat the Leopards and star receiver Larry Fitzgerald 31-10 in Pittsburgh, as Warner cemented his Hall of Fame legacy. However, Steeler fans hoped he stuck around a while, as the wear and tear on players was making it very hard for anyone to stay around long.

New Orleans beat Baltimore in next year’s NFL title game, and the NFL’s popularity seemed as good as it had been before Spygate. It was sad to watch Roethlisberger try to unseat a clearly old Kurt Warner the following year, but as those Steelers struggled, Ray Lewis and the Cleveland Browns won their first division title since that great NFL title team. And, the New York Mammoths captured their first wild card spot after Mark Sanchez led them to their first winning season the previous year.

Upsets abounded again. The Mammoths beat the top-seeded Patriots, while the 2nd and 4th seeds also lost. The Packers, having beat the Falcons 48-21, then as the Browns hosted the Mammoths again, the Packers won their game on the road against the top wild card Bears while the Mammoths went into Cleveland to face Ray Lewis and company. . And, suddenly Green Bay got to host an NFL title game against New York again, this time the Mammoths.

The mammoths took the opening kickoff and controlled the ball for almost 5 minutes. The Packers controlled it for 42:07 the rest of the way in a 27-3 victory.

Fans were hoping for more. As it was, it would be the last they would hear of the NFl for a long time, because not only was there a strike, there was a lockout.

Players were upset at the lack of compensation for such increased work loads. There had been stories for years that injuries were piling up more; not only was Big Ben’s accident demed by some more serious because of a few more games of wear and tear over the season – those two games he started as a rookie would have been preseason games he barely played in – but concussions were becoming a bigger deal much more often.

Owners refused to cut back to 16 games unless the players took massive pay cuts.

The share of NFl revenues from the recent TV deal was also up for debate. Players wanted an extra bye week during the season, which the NFL might agree to, but the other items were among numerous things keeping the league and players so far apart, not only did training camps not open, but Hall of Fame game and eventually the entire preseason was cancelled. As they headed intot he regular seson, a good baseball pennant race and postseason and the spectre of basketball becoming more exciting as LeBron tried to win his first title after getting to the finals in his first year with the Heat threatened to dwarf the NFL.(4)

The worst part was, fans were beginning to become quite apathetic. The NFL want4ed to expand the playoffs to 12 teams like in 1982, but have the 4 division winners get byes while the wild card teams duked it out. The number of division winners who had lost in the opening round the last few years, except for the year the Colts and Sainta met in the title game, was astonishing. Home field advantage has almost disappeared.

Not only that, but when Los Angeles had made that title game run, fans had been somewhat apathetic – there really had been a reason the city had lost both its NFL teams. San Diego was also having trouble.

Players said an expanded playoff was fine, as long as they cut it back to 16 regular season gams. Otherwise, they didn’t want to have to potentially play 4 games on top of 18 regular season games. And, the NFl did seem likely to lose on this one.

It wouldn‘t matter this year. Once the baseball playoffs started, they were incredibly engaged. The lockout was finally resolved, but nobody seemed to notice that an 8-game season would have to be played, with 6 division games – one against each team, 3 at home, 3 on the road - and 2 outside, 1 at home, one on the road.

“We managed to save the season,” the commissioner said, “but nbody got what theyw anted. “But, we did get to try our new format.”

Fans were underwhelmed at the results. The league agreed to go back to 16 games the next season, but teams in a number of cities were having serious problems. Including the Lions, who had gone an incredible 0-18, still managing to score less than 300 points while allowing over 500 in one of the worst displays of football ever. They improved this year, though.

NFL East NFL North NFL South NFL West
Cleveland Green Bay(8-0) New Orleans(8-0) San Francisco(8-0)
Cincinnati* New England*(7-1) Atlanta* Arizona Rattlers*
New York Giants* Detroit* Houston Texans* Denver*
Philadelphia Chicago Dallas Oakland
Pittsburgh Kansas City Carolina Panthers San Diego Cardinals
New York Mammoths Buffalo Miami Los Angeles Leopards
Baltimore Colts Minnesota Washington Seattle Rams

The wild card teams were the Patriots, Falcons, Bengals, Giants, Texans, Broncos, Rattlers, and Lions. The 1, 2, 4, and 6 seeded wild cards won those games. The Packers managed to overwhelmed Tim Tebow’s Broncos – he was put in when the coach figured, with so little time left to start the season, he’d rather just let the guy freelance out there. The Saints beart the Giants 35-21. San Francisco beat the Falcons, while the Patriots beat the Browns.

New England ended up going to San Francisco for the title game, where the 49ers won 31-10 to capture the NFL title and complete a “perfect season,” though with very few games. It was 31-3 till 3:43 left in the 4th. Alex Smith threw 3 TDs but was only 8-11 for 125 yards.

In 2012, everyone was unhappy. Fans were frustrated by playoffs that seemed too long as the NFL tried to make up revenue they knew they’d likely have lost anyway, as the players were insisting on going back to 16 games way back in 2009. Stories about concussions and what the NFL knew, as they became more widespread, made the NFl seem even worse for going to an 18-game season, and fans let them hear about it.

When small market Cleveland and Ray Lewis won the NFL title after barely winning the weakening East over Andrew Luck and the Colts, then downing the 49ers in the finals, the public was again somewhat apathetic. The NFl had followed a disastrous lockout/strike with replacement officials who hadn’t been replaced by regular referees till wee 9.(5) And, the smaller markets aren’t as big of a problem as the defense when it comes to these games played at the very end of the season. Cleveland won this game by a final score of 8-3.

It’s not that the NFL isn’t popular, but it seems terribly dysfunctional. It’s clearly 3rd behind college football and the NBA, and baseball is pushing to stay ahead of it. While the league keeps trying to make inroads, it keeps shooting itself in the foot at the wrong time.

And, the athletic quarterbacks who seemed to be coming out? In the last few years, the Vick stigma has gotten them mostly turning to baseball when they can be drafted gby MLB. For every Cam Newton in the NFL there’s a Colin Kaepernick or Russell Wilson who choose baseball, partly from the stigma but just like Namth decades before because of the threat of injury.

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(1) They stand more of a chance with Tetrrell Owens’ broken leg butterflied away.

(2) Worse weather combines with the fact that he might have been even a bit more daring being a year younger.

(3) The Giants nearly beat the then 15-0 Patriots, and had they had to, it’s easy to imagine them doing so in a playoff game, since they did in the Super Bowl.

(4) The sides argued over a very thriving sport before; here, the share is less, and while still rather healthy, there isn’t as much to go around. Not only that, but the move to 18 games, which seemed okay a decade earlier, would be much worse as players got bigger and the laws of physics meant there was more damage and more wear and tear as collisions occurred.

(5) Butterflies keep a blown call from impacting a game at the very end for longer.