The FUNNIEST MISTAKE in NFL Divisional Round HISTORY | 1971 Dolphins

While preparing for the divisional round of the 1971 NFL playoffs, the Miami Dolphins and head coach Don Shula were watching film on the Cleveland Browns, were sending scouts to watch them play, and were game-planning for this big game. The only problem? They weren't playing the Browns. They were playing the Kansas City Chiefs. Don Shula, accidentally, wound up scouting the wrong opponent. This is the story behind the hysterical mistake from the 1971 divisional round
OFFICIAL JAGUARGATOR9 MERCHANDISE: jg9shop.com/
New listings every week! Get your official JG9 merchandise at jg9shop.com, featuring t-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, and much more! Includes merchandise of the JG9 logo, the JG9 Live logo, some minigames played on JG9 Live, and a shirt symbolizing your passer rating if you did nothing but spike the ball into the ground on every single play
LINK TO PATREON: / jaguargator9
Get early access to videos, your name featured in the credits, and the ability to request future video topics by joining today for as low as $3!
LINK TO TWITCH: / jaguargator9_nfl
Play live NFL trivia every Wednesday night at 9 PM Eastern/6 PM Pacific with the chance to win cash prizes! Join me every Sunday night at 11:30 PM Eastern following the conclusion of Sunday Night Football to discuss the day’s action!
Check out the video below to learn more: • WEEKLY LIVE NFL TRIVIA...
LINK TO DISCORD: / discord
LINK TO TIK TOK: vm.tiktok.com/ZMJmVTKpr/
See videos like this condensed down to 60 seconds by following JaguarGator9 on Tik Tok!
SUBSCRIBE TO 60 SECOND NFL HISTORY: / @jaguargator8
See videos like this condensed down to 60 seconds by subscribing to 60 Second NFL History on KZbin!
SUBSCRIBE TO JG9 HIGHLIGHTS: / @jg9highlights184
See daily highlight videos on random players throughout NFL history!
HIRE JG9 ON FIVERR: www.fiverr.com/jaguargator9/c...
Let JaguarGator9 create customized questions for your next NFL trivia show! Whether you want to play with a group of friends and family, or whether you want to host a trivia show for your business or company, JG9 has you covered!
#nfl #dolphins #nflplayoffs #nflthrowback #playoffs #chiefs #miamidolphins #divisional #football #sports #highlights
Members of the 1971 Dolphins:
Garo Yepremian
George Mira
Bob Griese
Jake Scott
Charlie Leigh
Larry Seiple
Jim Kiick
Mercury Morris
Tim Foley
Lloyd Mumphord
Terry Cole
Hubert Ginn
Larry Csonka
Dick Anderson
Paul Warfield
Curtis Johnson
Bob Petrella
Ray Jones
Bob Matheson
Jesse Powell
Mike Kolen
Dale Farley
Doug Swift
Bob DeMarco
Jim Langer
Larry Little
Bob Kuechenberg
Jim Riley
Frank Cornish
Bob Heinz
Norm Evans
John Richardson
Manny Fernandez
Doug Crusan
Wayne Mass
Wayne Moore
Marv Fleming
Howard Twilley
Otto Stowe
Bill Stanfill
Nick Buoniconti
Vern Den Herder
Jim Mandich
Karl Noonan
Don Shula (head coach)

[@nasetvideos]

What an incredible story--Never heard this one before. How you find these NFL pieces of history is awesome. That's one of the million reasons why this is the best channel on KZbin for NFL history. Great job

[@sparkypikachu7776]

How'd you post this 2 hours ago but the vid came out 40 minutes ago? 🤔

[@nasetvideos]

@@sparkypikachu7776 I'm a Patreon supporter of JaguarGator9 so I get all videos hours before they are released. One of the many advantages of being a Patreon supporter of his

[@sparkypikachu7776]

@@nasetvideos ohhh okay! Just looked strange lol, have a great day! 😃☀️

[@nasetvideos]

@@sparkypikachu7776 you too :)

[@bpe1283]

I have never been a fan of patreon on yt there are very young people on here and it’s just gonna cause some kids to ask moms for there credit cards I’m 15 and don’t even have a bank account so I can’t pay for it

[@josephnofil3780]

I've heard that in 1993, Don Shula made a slightly similar error. While watching the Bills/Oilers playoff game, with the Oilers up by 32 points, he decided to go watch film of the Oilers, assuming they would be the Dolphins next opponent. At some point an assistant coach had to inform him of the Bills comeback.

[@mgb4692]

The Dolphins/Chargers matchup was already set. Whoever won in Buffalo (Bills) was headed to Pittsburgh. If anything, Shula probably was planning on going to Pittsburgh for the AFCCG

[@DolFan316]

That Bills win to this day is still the single most infuriating result not involving my team that I've ever seen 😡😡😡There's absolutely no doubt in my mind the Dolphins at least reach the Super Bowl if the Oilers don't choke. For one thing, they'd already beaten the Oilers that season.

[@tygrkhat4087]

@@DolFan316 Yeah, the Oilers beat the Bills the week before the Wild Card game. Previous results do not reflect future results.

[@DolFan316]

@@tygrkhat4087 In the first six quarters they played, the Oilers had outscored the Bills 55-6, and would tack on another TD in the 3rd. That means something. The Oilers were clearly a nightmare matchup for the Bills and just had to not pull a historic choke to win again.

[@SuperNuclearUnicorn]

My favourite thing about this channel is how often he says "which I talked about in another video" like man, his whole channel is just an interconnected web of football stories where every video has some other game, player, coach or situation that he's already done a video on. He's like the Wikipedia of interesting football stories

[@rocketsfan05]

Not only does he find the most obscure stuff; he's a gifted storyteller. Thats a rare combo

[@anthony0358]

I had never heard this story before! This is a great follow up to the video where the Colts lost to New England that year and it changed the matchups. Regarding that previous year, the first NFL game that I ever watched was the 1970 Dolphins-Raiders game

[@knowa745]

This is easily the most underrated nfl channel.

[@weegeemike]

Found it a couple months ago, wish I had found it sooner. Watch every day. I'm addicted

[@Sephiroth766]

Btw this predetermined playoff scheduling happened in baseball as well when the league expanded to two divisions. The playoffs seeding would alternate every year, it would be coming more silly when the league expanded to 3 divisions in each conference thus you et a scenario where the 95 Indians were on the road in every playoff series despite having more wins than anyone in baseball by a big margin. By 1998, it went to a normal "seed by record" format.

[@royveteto4134]

for years don shula was on the competition committee and i wonder if through that he was the 1 who encouraged the nfl to change it's playoff format so the best team was rewarded with home field

[@DolFan316]

That can't be true though, because the NFL didn't have seeding until '75, and I highly doubt it would've taken Shula three years to convince them.

[@andrewpadaetz5549]

Maybe you're thinking of the second wild card after the Dolphins went 10-4 in both 1975 and 1977 and missed the playoffs both times-1978 saw the entry of a second WC team.

[@Davepool-hs7vr]

According to this video the NFL stands for No Football Logic

[@andrewwinslow9315]

This reminds me of a NAPA Commerical, where Michael Waltrip was at the wrong track

[@DolFan316]

I officially approve of all the '71 Dolphins highlights 😎

[@msarzo]

Thankfully, the Dolphins beat the Chiefs in that double-overtime thriller or Don Shula's move would have ended up worse than if he had Bob Griese do nothing but spike the ball into the ground on every single play. Fun facts: Even though the Dolphins-Chiefs Christmas Day divisional game was the longest game by game time in NFL history, it wasn't the longest in professional football history. Titans-Dolphins in 2018 was the longest by real time (7 hours, 8 minutes), and the USFL's Los Angeles Express defeated the Michigan Panthers in triple-OT in the Western Conference semifinals in 1984 for the longest game ever played by game time.

[@stevep8445]

wrong. The Titans/Dolphins game suspended play because of weather. That does not count.

[@Rockhound6165]

@@stevep8445 actually it kinda does just like the Phillies/Padres double header in 1993 is the longest in MLB history because of weather.

[@kjell1979]

Schula would have had a tougher time in the Canadian Football League with both the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Ottawa Rough Riders.

[@DolFan316]

Maybe those guys should wear chaps or use a saddle or do something else to make their horse riding smoother, dontcha think?

[@tygrkhat4087]

@@DolFan316 Different mascots. A Rough Rider is a logger, while a Roughrider is a cowboy.

[@DolFan316]

@@tygrkhat4087 I never knew that before! But why would loggers be called "rough riders"? What's the correlation there?

[@tygrkhat4087]

@@DolFan316 The loggers would ride the logs down river to get them to the mills. Truly, a rough ride.

[@DolFan316]

@@tygrkhat4087 I like it when I unexpectedly learn stuff 🙂

[@kenhill3230]

I always love these videos. Very informative and usually pretty funny on some level.

[@JWex-jy7sk]

6:53 I see what you did there! 👍😂

[@luisvaldes1568]

Every year, late season home games or playoff games at Memorial Stadium played in the dirt.

[@chiltonschilling2732]

Dolphins Owner: So Shula, ready to play the Chiefs? Shula: You mean the Browns right? Dolphins owner: Stares at Shula Shula: We are playing the Browns right?

[@andrewpadaetz5549]

I can actually see Joe Robbie (the Dolphins owner) having this conversation with his coach.

[@markbrian7179]

I guarantee You neither the Chiefs, who lost this epic game, or the Browns, who got spanked by the Colts, found this funny.

[@sakaridis]

Not a day goes by that I am not grateful for stumbling upon this channel. The amount of work and information provided is absolutely insane! I honestly can't comprehend how it's possible that it doesn't have at a least a few hundred thousand subscribers. It deserves to blow up NOW!

[@paultheaudaciousbradford6772]

The Colts never lose on the last game of the season with playoffs on the line.

[@Crunkboy415]

1971 is also the start of the great 49ers-Cowboys playoff rivalry, the latest of which was just played a few days ago. Well maybe not so great for the Cowboys 🤣

[@CTubeMan]

They met in the NFC Championship Game the year before.

[@timdere]

Thumbs up for the Whose Line reference at 8:29! 🤣 😜 😂

[@denisceballos9745]

The Dolphins were coming of age in those days, from expansion team in 1966 to division winner in 1971. The Orange Bowl would sell out every game with over 78,000 loud fans. This was before the ‘Canes, Gators, and Seminoles came of age, before Tampa and Jacksonville got franchises. The Dolphins were it in Florida. Crazy times.

[@stevenbauer4799]

why does fla. need two nhl teams and two mlb teams?

[@stevenbauer4799]

@@matthewdaley746yep. Fla. cats draw 5000 fans even with a first place team. 2/3rds of them are northern snowbird fans there to see their favorite northern teams.

[@denisceballos9745]

@@stevenbauer4799; I have no clue. Back then, the Dolphins were the only pro team in the state - and the college teams were just starting to make a name for themselves. Baseball wasn’t feasible because of all the rain.

[@Mateogreat]

Florida has so many teams because it third biggest population

[@stevenbauer4799]

@@Mateogreat yet fla. cats, tb rays, and marlins along with sucs when they suck are at the bottom of attendance every year.

[@CTubeMan]

Fun Fact: Vince Lombardi’s last game as Packers coach and Bart Starr’s last game as Packers quarterback were both in the Orange Bowl. This unofficial Official Jaguar Gator 9 historian will remind everyone you made a video explaining more about the bizarre home field determinations that occurred in the 1972 season.

[@andrewpadaetz5549]

That was crazy re: home field. Dolphins you'd think would have had the AFC title game at the Orange Bowl with their unbeaten record but noooooooooooo...

[@johnstebbins24]

Was Plunkett's performance in Baltimore better than spiking the ball into the ground on every single play?

[@JohnSmith-zw8vp]

Wasn't there a Peanuts strip about this where Lucy gave her scouting report and it turned out it was about her own team?

[@elliottastro-imaging9298]

So the colts blew it in 1971 and then again in 2021 lmao!!!!!!

[@marcus813]

Thank goodness there are seeds in the playoffs these days. The system the NFL had back then sucked and had no rhyme or reason to it.

[@DolFan316]

NFL finally adopted playoff seeding in '75.

[@DavidYesUCan]

If they started 1-3 they had to lose multiple games in a row

[@Rockhound6165]

I think it's funny that the Browns and Colts met in the AFC playoffs in 1971 but in 1978 they met in the NFL championship game.

[@lamontbradford4630]

You mean 1968 when the colts beat the browns 34-0 at Cleveland.

[@Bruce12867]

The Colts and the Browns (as well as the Steelers) were the NFL teams that made the move to the AFC to balance out the two conferences.

[@Rockhound6165]

@@Bruce12867the Colts are the only team to represent both the NFL and AFC in the Super Bowl.

[@Rockhound6165]

@@lamontbradford4630Fun Fact: Had the Cardinals not tied the lowly Stealers that season they would have faced the Colts. The outcome would have been similar.

[@VinnyXwolf]

The rotation was in place from 1933-1974, also you miss one step if the wildcard was the same division as the team scheduled to host the WC they couldn't play each other in divisional. that lasted till 1989.

[@travismiller4320]

Packers would not beat Dolphins until 1997, Packers beat Panthers before Packers beat Dolphins. Hell Panthers and Jaguars both won a playoff game before Saints did, I just find that last fact amusing. Cowboys lose V and Win VI Dolphins lose VI and win VII…

[@daleschmieg9050]

I still don't understand how they did the rotation thing from 1970-74. I do understand that the NFL and even MLB before them, always did it by rotation, so it seems strange to us but more normal then. It was easy rotating amongst two league champions, or two conference champions, or two divisions each in those two conferences. However, here we have three division champions and one wild card, it gets a little goofy. Plus, throw in the rule that the wild card team cannot play its division champion in the first round, it gets even more goofy.

[@jackmessick2869]

@Dale Schmieg In 1970 the NFC Eastern Division champion and the AFC Western Division had the home field advantage, so the Cowboys and the Raiders had the guarantee. These Divisional Champions would play the sole wildcard, at the Division winner's stadium UNLESS the wild card was from the same division. The final schedule rule for the playoffs was that if you played against the wild card team in the Divisional round, you could NOT host the Conference Championship. So in the AFC that year, the 8-4-2 Raiders got a home game against 10-4 wildcard Miami. This left the 11-2-1 Colts to host the 8-6 Browns. In the NFC, the 10-4 Cowboys hosted the 10-4 Lions who were the Wildcard team, while Minnesota at a superior 12-2 record hosted the 49ers at 10-3-1. So it was known that the winner of the Colt-Browns game would host the AFC Championship, and the winner of the Vikings-49ers game would host the NFC Championship. So the Championships ended up in San Francisco and Baltimore. Two years later, in 1972, the guaranteed host teams in the Divisional playoff round were the AFC Eastern winner and the NFC Western winner, which meant the Dolphins and the 49ers got a home game. The Wildcard in the AFC was Cleveland, so they played the Dolphins in the Divisional. This guaranteed that Miami could NOT host the AFC Championship because they played the Wildcard team, and the AFC Championship host would be the winner of the Steelers-Raiders playoff (the Immaculate Reception game). In the NFC the wildcard 10-4 Cowboys played the 8-5-1 49ers at SFO. However, if the seeding by record had been in effect, the Cowboys would have played the 10-4 Packers instead (the Redskins had the best record at 11-3, but are also in the Eastern Division). In 1973 the rotation repeated 1970: NFC Eastern Division winners the Cowboys and the AFC Western Division Raiders hosted a game, but the 10-4 Cowboys could not play the wildcard Redskins, so they hosted the 12-2 Rams. The Redskins went to Minnesota to play the 12-2 Vikings. Since the Vikings played the wild card, they could NOT host the NFC Championship, so they had to go to Dallas despite having a better record. For the AFC playoff schedule, the 9-4-1 Raiders got the guaranteed home game against the wildcard 10-4 Steelers. While the 12-2 Dolphins hosted the 10-4 Bengals. This time, the Dolphins got their home game for the Championship against the Raiders. In the final year of this weird scheduling system, 1974, the NFC Western Division and AFC Central Division had the guaranteed home game with the conference wildcard (if not from the same division). So 10-3-1 Pittsburgh hosted wildcard Buffalo, even though the 12-2 Raiders had a better record. The reason for this system? I think it gave a home playoff game chance to everyone except the wildcard, as a way for owners to "spread the wealth" of the post season. By 1975 I think they realized there was more money from television than gate receipts, plus no more permanent "black-out" rule for broadcast of your teams home games (mandatory broadcast blackout rules in the game's locale were in effect for the playoffs, INCLUDING the Super Bowl, until the week before SB VII). Since the Redskins were the home team in the NFC Championship, the game was blacked out in Washington, DC, which angered the politicians. This spurred the Attorney General to threaten Pete Rozelle with a review of the NFL's immunity from monopoly regulations (so he lifted the blackout in the Los Angeles area on "an experimental basis"😂😂). Guaranteed home game during Divisional playoff week (I think): 1970: AFC Western and NFC Eastern 1971: AFC Central and NFC Western 1972: AFC Eastern and NFC Western(?) 1973: AFC Western and NFC Eastern 1974: AFC Central and NFC Western I can't find any year that the NFC Central seemed to have a first round home game against a wildcard. So there is likely some other rule in 1972 that I am missing?

[@daleschmieg9050]

@@jackmessick2869 - thanks for the info. The only pattern that I had seen consistently was that the winner of the division champions always hosted the conference championship while the winner of the game with the wild card always traveled for the conference championship. I was born during this era, so I did not experience this. Everything made sense in how rotating worked before 1970, but I could not figure out what they did in this era. I guess I always thought they were try to balance it out a little bit, that if you got to host a "weaker" wild card team then you had to travel for the championship game. However, you may be on to something with the other things you mentioned.

[@donsmith5479]

Pats beating the Colts was not one of the biggest regular season upsets of all time. The Pats out the Dolphins two weeks prior.

[@Bruce12867]

As I mentioned in a previous video, the rotation of home field by division/conference was copied from baseball. Fortunately in 1975, they got it right.

[@crowtservo]

It makes a lot more sense when there’s only two playoff teams per league or conference.

[@bwburke94]

Other way around. NFL did it first.

[@Bruce12867]

@@bwburke94 OK, please explain how baseball copied from a league that didn't even exist until 1920.

[@jackmessick2869]

@@Bruce12867 I think he is referring to having a second round of playoffs, which the NFL had two rounds starting in 1967, and MLB in 1969, when MLB established Divisions in each league.

[@stevenbauer4799]

Maybe shula should have spent a little time game planning for jets in III, or better yet spent some time changing his game plan as well. And he could have scouted skins and niners till there was no tomorrow and it wouldn't have mattered one bit. Shula did own the bills in the '70's, 20-0. No scouting needed there.

[@stevenbauer4799]

@@matthewdaley746 yep. Shula was fortunate raiders even with the 'great' john madden were chokers and that the super steelers weren't put together yet in '72. Of course he was even luckier to face bud grant and vikes in sb viii. And shula got marino because noll noll in love with senor sack. Luck came to him once again.

[@whataboutrob442]

Why would it matter... They knew at the end of the day that they were playing the Chiefs.

[@chadwickwhite6107]

Well it DOESN'T SURPRISE ME that the Miami Dolphins would make a mistake WORSE than a 39.6. They should just SPIKE the football into the ground on EVERY single OFFENSIVE play!!!!

[@bobma6342]

Blue laws?

[@diamonddog13]

Please do not use the term "double overtime" regarding an NFL game. When an overtime period is a set length of time like in basketball, that term makes sense - overtime is 5 minutes, double overtime is another 5 minutes, etc. You can even make a case for using the term in college football even though there is no clock running and it's just about possessions. But in sudden death situations like in hockey and the NFL, where the game ends with a score and not when the clock runs out, there is no set amount of overtime and therefore no "double overtime". Just call it the 2nd overtime period. (Sorry, this is just a pet peeve of mine. Also, in 1971 games ended with a gun, not a final whistle.)

[@michaelreddan3820]

Very longwinded way of telling a story

[@Bruce12867]

We're all patiently awaiting your Cliffs Notes version of this story.