The SCREWIEST PLAYOFF SCENARIO in NFL HISTORY | 1966 NFL Playoffs

[@lionsfan7500]

Wow that boggles my mind that a coin flip almost determined all this. What a great and informative video. I'm a NFL junkie who thought I knew everything about this great game. After watching your incredible channel there is so much I don't know about this great game and I'm having a lot of fun learning by watching your channel! Keep up the AWESOME WORK!

[@justinkoepsell5904]

At 14:17 did they just shovel snow off the goal line to goal line and not bother with clearing the end zone.

[@LaslowF1997]

Hey man, at least in 1966 they had the excuse that they had to come up with something the fly (even though they should have already been prepared for that very foreseeable scenario, as you said). This thing with the Bengals, Ravens, and possibly the Chiefs and Bills is totally ridiculous. The NFL rulebook has addressed this scenario literally since the inception of the league. Teams always played uneven numbers of games back in the 1920s, and the standings determination procedure always has - and still does - allow for it. The NFL is changing rules on the fly and it's dumb. Especially since officials are saying "we prepared for things like this during COVID. But, you know, even though we talked about it then, we decided not to change the rules until it actually happened." Imagine if, in the 2009 NFC Championship Game, after the Saints took the kickoff in overtime and scored a field goal, the refs came in and said, "OK, Vikings, now you get a shot. No, that's not in the rulebook, but we TALKED about it during the off-season, so we're gonna go ahead and implement that rule change right now, on the fly, because the situation actually came up." Absolutely batshit insane, right? Of course the league had to accept what happened in that game and then they reacted by changing the rule the following season, which was a fair way to do it (even though I personally think it's the dumbest rule change ever implemented, but that's not the issue here). Not sure why the league is allowing themselves to change rules on the fly here. The Bengals, Ravens, and all 30 other teams entered the season knowing that won/loss/tied percentage was the first determinate for end of season standings. The Bengals played 15+ games believing that, and now it's like "oops, sorry! We changed out minds!". Idiotic.

[@rickhaavisto9023]

You’d rather the NFL follow rules from when the most important invention to modern day football’s success (the television) hadn’t even been sold yet than try to remedy the situation???

[@LaslowF1997]

@@rickhaavisto9023 100% yes. I wouldn't mind seeing them CHANGE the rule on the off-season, because it is archaic and can lead to some screwy situations, but changing rules on the fly just because a situation actually came up is beyond stupid. The worst part is they seem to have discussed this possibility in 2020 and realized the rule was unsatisfactory, but they decided not to change it then. Why now?

[@talenmename]

When talking about screwy playoff scenarios I got one for y’all. When I played little league football my team went 5-2 during the regular season. We ended up tied with another team we beat in head-to-head matchups. The conference then decided that wasn’t enough and we needed to do a coin flip for home field in the first playoff game (4 teams make the playoffs and we were tied for 2nd meaning that was our playoff matchup). Not only did they win the senseless coin flip but they were awarded a ref from their town and the other refs came from our biggest rival in the conference. ( Our conference had refs that came from each town which didn’t make sense in the first place) To wrap this up we ended up getting bad call after bad call once we got up, we lost, my coach mf’d every ref and got ejected and the refs needed police escorts out of the stadium because the parents of my team were going crazy. All this for a 11-12 years old football game.

[@MarloSoBalJr]

Home field advantage is a smoke in mirror. If you can play, you can win anywhere.

[@erickennedy3322]

My 6th grade semi final flag football game , my uncle the ref did not us our timeout we had 6 seconds. We lost by 1.

[@danspille6508]

Texas? Sounds like you're in Texas.

[@talenmename]

@@danspille6508 far western North Carolina

[@jeffanderson3962]

That hit at 16:08....☠

[@CTubeMan]

At 6:11, anything can happen. And stop calling me Shirley.

[@rjflesher]

Excellent "Airplane!" reference

[@tm-cv3qt]

Just watched your Jaguars beat the Titans up here in Wisconsin. I don't comment on all, or even most of your videos. But I watch every single one of them, some of them more than once. I'm glad you've decided to live the life you want to live, a life surrounded by football and sharing your love of sports with others. I appreciate you and all you do. Thanks for the awesome videos and sharing your knowledge.

[@j6t714]

This scenario came even closer to happening in 1957. The Lions, 49ers and Colts were tied for the West lead at 7-4 with one game left in the season. The Lions and 49ers won but the Colts lost, thus avoiding the three-way tie. The Lions then beat the 49ers in San Francisco and walloped the Browns in the NFL championship game in Detroit.

[@kevinmadden1645]

In 1949, the Bears finished 9-3 and the Rams finished 8-2-2.. Because ties were not included in the won- lost record, the Rams winning percentage was .800 and the Bears winning percentage was .750 and the Rams were awarded the Western Division Championship . They lost the championship to the Eagles 14-0 in a game played in monsoon - like conditions.

[@jeffs3752]

And now, a coin flip comes back into play. You're right though, people would complain no matter what.

[@inwalters]

00:39 - dude, did we really have to have film with O.J.?

[@ryanjacobson2508]

O.J.'s son Jason did it. Off his meds, a history of violent rages, and he even got in trouble for knife play at one point.

[@chrisguardiano6143]

A coin flip also happened 12 years earlier in World Cup qualification in Europe as Turkey and Spain were facing each other in a 2 game playoff to determine who qualified for the tournament. Spain won the first game 4-1 while Turkey won the second 1-0. However since both teams each won a game, FIFA ordered that a 3rd game be played to settle things. What makes this story very similar to the one that mentioned in the video is that the 3rd game ended in a 2-2 draw & since the concept of penalty kicks or extra time had not been invented yet, FIFA had no idea what to do to break the tie. What ended up happening was that FIFA told the referee to pull out a coin & conduct a coin flip in the tunnel of the stadium to determine who qualified for the World Cup. Turkey won the coin flip and qualified for the 1954 World Cup. I should point out that coin flips, replays & even drawing straws/lots were a common way to decide tied matches in soccer until the early 1960's when the concept of extra time was created & penalty kicks were invented a decade later & first used at the World Cup in 1982.

[@dddripz]

Love your content! So glad your team is finally making the playoffs.

[@stevenevert9162]

CONGRATULATIONS!! Since I've been watching Your videos for only a year or so the one thing that I know to be true is Your Love for the Jags. Since Y'all hired Dougie P the Jags have become my AFC Team and I'm Happy for the Fans like You who've been through it all. CONGRATULATIONS BRO.

[@runrafarunthebestintheworld]

11:29 😅

[@anthony0358]

Excellent video. Great analysis

[@Giantsfanlewis]

The cards need to go back to that bird as their logo. I know the arch doesn't fit anymore, but that bird is actually creative and interesting

[@paulnye6025]

That St.Louis Cardinal’s logo from back in the day kicks ass. The Brown’s logo looks awful

[@CyberchaoX]

Took me a little bit to figure out how it would even properly make sense for the Bengals to outright be treated as the 6-seed, until I looked at the actual standings. The idea that the Ravens would get home field in that game is based on the fact that if the Bengals _had_ lost to the Bills, a loss to the Ravens would've dropped them to 11-6, same as the Ravens, and the Ravens would have the tiebreaker. The thing is, for the 3-6 matchup to be 11-5 Cincinnati against 11-6 Baltimore, the Chargers would have to also be 11-6, and their tiebreaker win over the Ravens was *not* the result of a head-to-head matchup, but a better conference record--8-4 vs. 7-5, in this case; 7-5 vs. 6-6 in reality. The Bengals conference record, had they lost to both the Bills and the Ravens, would be 7-5, so the Chargers would indeed have the tiebreaker over a wild-card Bengals team as well. Imagine the headache if the Bengals actually had a head-to-head win over the Chargers! If the Ravens and Chargers had both won in Week 18, we'd have had a scenario where the canceled Week 17 game would've resulted in Ravens 3, Bengals 5, Chargers 6 with a Bills win and Bengals 3, Chargers 5, Ravens 6 with a Bengals win. Though this of course pales in comparison to the oddity that would result from the Bengals winning and the Bills and Chiefs both losing in Week 18. We'd be left with the 13-4 Chiefs, 12-4 Bills, and 12-4 Bengals. The decision to make the AFC Championship Game a neutral site game in that scenario is, of course, wholly justified, because in that case the "rightful" 1-seed would almost certainly have played in the 2-3 game, as both the Bills and Bengals had head-to-head wins over the Chiefs and as such the only way the Chiefs could still be the 1-seed would be if Bengals-Bills ended in a _tie._ But of course, it'd be wrong to assume that the one that won the playoff game would've also won the regular season game, so no way to know if the Chiefs would be home or away.

[@Dave-fs5uu]

JaquarGator congratz on your Jags winning AFC South. Pederson is an excellent coach and proves it again with how quickly he's turned that team around. The streak continues huh? :) Love your vids, very interesing look at the history of the NFL in a way no one really does.

[@johnmanier7968]

The prospect of a three-way Eastern tie was a big reason the date for Super Bowl I (January 15, 1967) was not finalized until December 13, 1966-only 33 days in advance. This was one of two big reasons ticket sales were slow. The other was that LA wasn’t even chosen as the host until December 1. The potential of a three-way tie was eliminated on December 11 when Cleveland lost at Philadelphia, 33-21. St. Louis remained alive despite a shocking loss at expansion Atlanta, 16-10, and Dallas became the inevitable champion despite a home loss to Washington, 34-31. The Cowboys clinched on Saturday, December 17, when the Browns crushed the Cardinals, 38-10. This rendered the Cowboys-Giants finale meaningless. Ironically, second place in the East and a Playoff Bowl berth didn’t go to either Cleveland or St. Louis, but to Philadelphia-which had been eliminated back on December 4. If you ever branch out to baseball videos, you should look at the 1973 National League East (or “Least”), when everybody was hovering near .500 and provisions were made for a *five*-way tiebreaker among the Mets, Cardinals, Pirates, Expos, and Cubs. By coin flips, naturally, because MLB was even further behind logic than the NFL.

[@lrg123100]

They should've finished the Bills-Bengals game at another date in that week, but by not doing that they put themselves in a bind. There was no way to take care of this in a way that would be fair to the Bills, Bengals, or other teams involved.

[@nathanjm000]

If they wanted to add more drama because they were so close in point differential they could have done Point Differential Points Scored Playoff on neutral ground

[@CatherineJessicaNatof]

The Cowboys were 135-28-1 at home from 1965-1985. That said, they were only 1-4 at home versus the Rams in the playoffs during this time.

[@WaltGekko]

Yep. Including a Wild Card game played the day after Christmas in 1983 in frigid conditions (mid-20s with high winds) where the Cowboys barely averted the game being blacked out in Dallas because it almost didn't sell out.

[@SF49ersfanatic]

Are you the memory of the NFL on youtube ? 👌🙏🏻

[@carloscolon3331]

Congrats on your jags for winning the afc south

[@barbaracaroll]

1970 would have been coin toss also

[@jesusisking1741]

May the Lord bless everyone who reads this🙏🙏🙏

[@benjaminbrown1620]

Would love to see a vid for what was on the line in the 2002 finale specifically what was on the line for jets/packers. Top 3 nfc seeds would shift and the lives of the dolphins, pats, jets and browns all on the line on that game.

[@marcus813]

The Packers needed to win to get the NFC's No. 2 spot and the 1st-round bye that came with it. However, the Buccaneers got that bye instead after the Jets dragged the Packers and the rest is history.

[@benjaminbrown1620]

@marcus813 the Packers were actually playing for the #1 seed (eagles lost the pervious day to open the door). The pats win over the dolphins made things go crazy. If the jets lost the pats would win the east and the dolphins would have got the final wild card over the browns (setting up pats colts and dolphins seelers) along with the Packers getting the #1 seed and seemingly a trip to the superbowl having never lost at home in the playoffs to date. The jets win had them get the east and a date with the colts the browns get the Wildcard tiebreaker over the pats. Then the famous #6 seeded falcons victory over the pack on Saturday night in madden's first ABC playoff call.

[@jasonfischer8946]

All they had to do was finish Week 18 and then see if the Bills Bengals game would even have a bearing on the seeding. If so, finish that game the following Saturday and delay the playoffs. If both teams can play each other in the playoffs, then they can play each other in the regular season.

[@20thCY]

They don't wanna delay anything.

[@runrafarunthebestintheworld]

Delay the playoffs and possibly overlap with beginning of the NASCAR season? No sir. The schedule is already crowded as it is.

[@Fireyninjadog]

The 66 cowboys began dallas' record 20 straight winning seasons

[@MarloSoBalJr]

Take it from this Ravens fan, this entire scenario for home-field isn't gonna matter naught to us cos we're likely down to our 3rd string QB; we can't win the division anyways AND we have a bad record as division winners, so why bother?... The fact it'll come down to a coin flip, we would be having a back-to-back match with Cincy that'll likely see us get blown out

[@ShrexyGuy]

Idk how, it was 32 years before I was even born. But I know this story well enough for it to pop into mind every year about this time lol

[@Snookbone]

Oh, another playoff scenario with a different adjective? Just pick one dude

[@CTubeMan]

This unofficial Official Jaguar Gator 8/9 historian will remind everyone you made videos about the following: 1. How home field advantage in the 1975 NFC playoffs could have come down to a coin flip. 2. How Boston College got two bye weeks in a row in 1983, and how that benefited them in historic fashion.

[@FishermanJustins]

Thing is a coin flip can be made to not be random. There are ways where you can train yourself to flip the coin the same way every time to get the same result.

[@danielvrodriguez81]

I understand why it's not fair but there were no tiebreakers. If you end up with the same record, they are all seen as equal. And if equal, no one has an advantage. So the coin flip was the right thing to do. You can't make up a rule in the middle of the year. Best thing is to not get in that position

[@crabbyeric900]

Maybe I'm missing something, but why is a potential coin flip determining the home team in the AFC Championship such a big deal to people. Its a neutral site game, so like the Super Bowl all it means is what color jersey you wear.

[@nathanjm000]

no it's not except for this year and the coin flip is for a wild card game

[@VinnyXwolf]

Christmas Still is very much a religious holiday to many many families. It's just marketed that way.

[@andrewpestotnik5495]

Saturnalia

[@jasonfire3434]

I think the league should have just declared Bills/Bengals a tie in the standings and done the home field and seeding based on that. Neutral site playoff games before the Super Bowl are so dumb.

[@stevengrvp]

It happens in today's era crazy

[@CTubeMan]

It seems to me the 2022 Bengals are trying to have it both ways. They’re objecting to having to play in Baltimore in the Wild Card Round, but I didn’t hear them objecting to possibly not having to play the AFC Championship Game in either Buffalo or Kansas City.

[@runrafarunthebestintheworld]

This was not a decision by the Bengals though. This was all of NFL's idea. I don't agree that this was unavoidable. This actually didn't need to happen. The Bengals have been supportive of Demar Hamlin the entire time. Playoff seeding should not be determined by a coin flip.

[@MarloSoBalJr]

Bengals would have an advantage cos the Ravens have an awful record as a division winner. Bengals gonna win either way

[@denisceballos9745]

The NFL top brass must’ve breathed a sigh of relief when Dallas finished the regular season strong - while Cleveland and St. Louis faded down the stretch. The Cowboys vs Green Bay NFL title game was a thriller - giving the NFL some high ratings in the TV game. Dallas helped out the NFL big time by winning the East that year.

[@Rockhound6165]

The Cardinals made late season collapses an artform. Even to this day.

[@Bruce12867]

This is why the NFL was wise to (eventually) come up with tiebreakers to deal with these scenarios. However, the whole coin flip thing was copied from baseball, as was a number of things the NFL copied from since their earliest days, which for some reason they held on to for several decades.

[@nathanjm000]

baseball had one game tiebreakers until this year (and most people want them to come back) and never had coin flips

[@big8dog887]

@@nathanjm000 They had coin flips to determine homefield advantage in the tiebreaker game.

[@pluxauag7555]

Hold on a minute, isn't there a 2 week gap between the Superbowl and Championship games, move the playoffs 1 week further into 2023, give the league a week off after week 18 and play the resumed game in that week off in week 19.....that's the solution, the 2 week gap becomes 1 week. dates change on non scheduled actual opponent games not purchased yet.

[@ryanjacobson2508]

I hate the two week gap anyway. The 2002 Superbowl (Rams/Patriots) had just a one week gap and the game turned out fine.

[@JedForge]

That was my suggestion too, however the suits don't want to lose the advertising revenue so it was never going to happen.

[@marcus813]

I'm not sweating the NFL over the Bengals/Ravens situation. The potential coin flip scenario from the old guard NFL in '66 is far worse than that.

[@americanidol30]

In 2001, some NFL teams had two weeks off because their bye weeks were either before or after 9/11. Arizona had a Week 1 bye while New Orleans, Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay had a Week 3 bye. Those teams ended up going two weeks in a row without playing a game.

[@WaltGekko]

And if 9/11 had NOT happened, Week 2 was where it was and the Pats did what they did, they would have had two weeks off (last bye and bye as 2 seed) before their playoff game with the Raiders. As it worked out, the Pats wound up with a tremendous advantage as they got their bye week (Chargers, who started 5-2 but then lost nine straight had the last bye in the re-done schedule), then played a Panthers team that lost 15 straight after winning their opener that season (and the Pats got a defacto home game as many Pats fans made the trip to Charlotte), then ANOTHER bye week and then the Raiders game. Pats used that to win the Super Bowl even having to win in Pittsburgh on the road in the AFC Championship Game.

[@allthingssports4957]

Even though I’m not a Jags fan I’m so happy that the Jags won the division somehow. After week 11 I thought Tennessee had locked up the division at 7-3 with the Colts in 2nd place at 4-6-1 2 and a half games back I thought Jacksonville was gonna miss the playoffs at 3-7 4 games back with 7 to go

[@jesusisking1741]

Reply to this with prayer requests

[@ooooo524]

Why cancel bills Bengals game

[@jasonfischer8946]

Yeah, it's dumb. If they can play each other on the playoffs, then they can finish the regular season game.

[@Backpackfiles]

Schedule havoc.

[@ryanjacobson2508]

Gen Z is soft plus political correctness.

[@Backpackfiles]

OK, Boomer.

[@jasonfischer8946]

@@ryanjacobson2508 I think they're called Gen Z because they're always asleep.

[@nicholaswinebrenner5164]

Good luck winning the AFC South.

[@mountaineernews2]

Well I guess the moral of the story is coin flips don’t solve games so now I really hope the Bengals beat the Ravens because that system just sounds stupid I mean it will be one thing but here’s the thing the Bengals already won the north and you’re gonna give them a disadvantage and make it in Baltimore why and we all know that the Chargers are gonna beat the Broncos that’s no debate so let’s just hope that the Bengals get home-field advantage because that system just sounds more stupider and stupider the more we talk about it and unfortunately no fan has a say in this trust me I’ve been through it so Let the chaos ring

[@maivrpinger]

Hi

[@mattpaul5441]

Buffalo bills should have forfeit the game. It was there player who got Injured. They were down in the game. And they believed the game should have been stopped. Prove that the only thing that matters above all is players safety and take the loss. Oh wait no. Ok then let's all go hound skip Bayless so no one draws attention to the fact that. Yes us the Buffalo bills care about the play off seating

[@ryanjacobson2508]

Thing is, The Bengals coach also agreed to suspend the game. So it isn't just Buffalo who should be punished. The league evidently wanted the game to continue but both coaches refused.

[@mattpaul5441]

@Ryan Jacobson just saying it was and is an option. And yeah bad stuff happened that was no ones fault. That said Buffalo was still down and it was still their player.

[@mattpaul5441]

@@ryanjacobson2508 also. I have no dog in this fight. Don't love or hate either team.

[@jesusisking1741]

Reply to this with prayer requests