Tuesday, December 12, 2006

"What's his name?" "How much time is left?" and other quotes heard at a 60's football game


Sure there was no two-point conversion or instant replay, but what else was different about football in the 60's?

For starters, the goalposts were conveniently in the field of play. And there were no names on players jerseys. As for the game time? That was kept on the field, and not displayed to the crowd. Penalty flags were white until 1965. And before 1965, no one was a soccer-style kicker. And there weren't any regulations on jersey numbers based on positions. There wasn't any overtime in the regular season, and kickoffs were from the 40-yard line. And referees didn't get wireless microphones until 1975.

And I hope you lived in one of these cities, because there were only 16 teams, half of the current league:

Atlanta Falcons
Chicago Bears
Dallas Cowboys
Detroit Lions
Green Bay Packers
Los Angeles Rams
Minnesota Vikings
New Orleans Saints
New York Giants
Philadelphia Eagles
St. Louis Cardinals
San Francisco 49ers
Washington Redskins
Cleveland Browns*
Pittsburgh Steelers*
Baltimore Colts*


*Pre-merger NFL teams that went to the AFC. Note this cities' teams feel more like the smashmouth feel of the NFC.


By the way, of the original 14 franchise from 1920, how many are still active?

Two.

Chicago Bears (originally from Decatur) and
Arizona Cardinals (originally from Chicago, via St. Louis)

Also, the "head slap" was outlawed in 1977. So, I guess the 60's was a headslapping free-for-all.

No comments:

Post a Comment