1965 NFL season

1965 NFL season

Regular season
Duration	September 19 – December 26, 1965
East Champions	Cleveland Browns
West Champions	Green Bay Packers (playoff)
Championship Game
Champions	Green Bay Packers
← 1964 NFL seasons 1966 →

Eagles

Browns

Giants

Cardinals

Steelers ....

.... Redskins

Cowboys

Packers

Lions

49ers

Colts

Bears

Rams

Vikings

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NFL teams: West, East

The 1965 NFL season was the 46th regular season of the National Football League. The Green Bay Packers won the NFL title after defeating the Cleveland Browns in the championship game, the last before the Super Bowl era.

War with the AFL

The NFL's war with the rival American Football League began to increase as the two leagues competed for the top players coming out of college. Prior to the season, both the NFL's Chicago Bears and the AFL's Kansas City Chiefs selected running back Gale Sayers in their respective league drafts. Sayers eventually decided to sign with the NFL's Bears in a victory for the established league. On the other hand, quarterback Joe Namath was selected by both the NFL's St. Louis Cardinals and the AFL's New York Jets, but Namath decided to play for the Jets after signing a $427,000 contract for three years.

This war between the AFL and the NFL would escalate until just before the 1966 season, when they would agree to merge and create a new AFL-NFL World Championship Game between the winners of the two leagues, that later would be known as the Super Bowl.

Draft

The 1965 NFL draft was held on November 28, 1964, at New York City's Summit Hotel. With the first pick, the New York Giants selected back Tucker Frederickson from Auburn University.

Major rule changes

• A sixth official, the Line Judge, is added to the officiating crew. ^[1] This change is sometimes referred to as the "Fran Tarkenton Rule" after the Minnesota Vikings quarterback, who developed the nickname scrambler as he ran around the backfield to avoid being sacked by the opposition. With the Line Judge stationed on the line of scrimmage opposite the Head Linesman, it made it easier for the officials to judge whether or not Tarkenton or any mobile quarterback crossed over the line before throwing the ball. ^[2] Five officials had been used since 1947, when the back judge was added. ^[3]
• Head linesman Burl Toler became the NFL's first black official. He worked in the league through 1989.
• Officials were permitted to wear short-sleeved shirts for the first time.

Division races

Each team played each of the six other teams in its division twice. In addition, each team played two of the seven teams from the other division to complete the 14-game schedule. Thus, each week's schedule included 6 intra-divisional games (3 from each division) and one inter-divisional game. In 1965 the Western Division dominated the Eastern Division winning 13 out of the 14 interdivisional games. The lone win for the Eastern Division was a 39–31 victory by Dallas over San Francisco in week eight.

As in 1964, the Eastern Division race started out as a battle between the Cardinals and the Browns. By Week Five (October 17), both had 4–1–0 records, but the Cards won only one more game after that, finishing 5–9. The Browns won all seven of their remaining divisional games during the same stretch, losing only their two inter-divisional games against Western opponents. The Browns had clinched the conference title by November 28.

In the Western Division race, Green Bay won its first six games before a 31–10 loss at Chicago on Halloween put it in a tie with the Baltimore Colts. In Week Eight (November 7), the Packers lost again, 12–7 to Detroit, while the Colts beat Chicago 26–21. Both teams won their next two games, but in Week Eleven, the Packers lost 21–10 to the Rams, and the Colts averted a loss by tying the Lions, 24–24. In Week Twelve, Green Bay closed the gap with a 24–19 win over the Vikings, while the Colts fell to Chicago, losing the game (13–0) and their star quarterback, Johnny Unitas, to a knee injury.

With backup Gary Cuozzo passing for the Colts, they met the Packers again, in Baltimore, on December 12, and Paul Hornung scored five touchdowns as Green Bay won, 42–27, to take a half-game division lead, 10–3 to 9–3–1. Along with the division lead, the Colts lost another quarterback when Cuozzo was injured. In the final weekend, the Colts were in Los Angeles for a Saturday game that they had to win but were losing 17–10. A tying touchdown by fourth-string quarterback Ed Brown helped the Colts knot the game 17–17, but a tie wasn't enough. It took Lou Michaels' field goal to get a 20–17 win and a 10–3–1 record. A Green Bay win the next day in San Francisco would have ended the race, and the Packers leading and were slightly more than a minute away from the title game, but the 49ers tied the game, 24–24, with 1:07 to play. Both Green Bay and Baltimore had 10–3–1 records, forcing a playoff for the day after Christmas.

Week	Western	Record	Eastern	Record
1	4 teams	1–0–0	3 teams	1–0–0
2	3 teams	2–0–0	Dallas Cowboys	2–0–0
3	Tie (Det, GB)	3–0–0	4 teams	2–1–0
4	Green Bay Packers	4–0–0	Tie (Cle, StL)	3–1–0
5	Green Bay Packers	5–0–0	Tie (Cle, StL)	4–1–0
6	Green Bay Packers	6–0–0	Cleveland Browns	5–1–0
7	Tie (Bal, GB)	6–1–0	Cleveland Browns	5–2–0
8	Baltimore Colts	7–1–0	Cleveland Browns	6–2–0
9	Baltimore Colts	8–1–0	Cleveland Browns	7–2–0
10	Baltimore Colts	9–1–0	Cleveland Browns	8–2–0
11	Baltimore Colts	9–1–1	Cleveland Browns	9–2–0
12	Baltimore Colts	9–2–1	Cleveland Browns	10–2–0
13	Green Bay Packers	10–3–0	Cleveland Browns	10–3–0
14	(tie) Baltimore Colts	10–3–1	Cleveland Browns	11–3–0
	Green Bay Packers	10-3-1

Final standings

NFL Eastern Conference view talk edit W L T PCT CONF PF PA STK Cleveland Browns 11 3 0 .786 11–1 363 325 W1 Dallas Cowboys 7 7 0 .500 6–6 325 280 W3 New York Giants 7 7 0 .500 7–5 270 338 L1 Washington Redskins 6 8 0 .429 6–6 257 301 W1 Philadelphia Eagles 5 9 0 .357 5–7 363 359 L1 St. Louis Cardinals 5 9 0 .357 5–7 296 309 L6 Pittsburgh Steelers 2 12 0 .143 2–10 202 397 L7 Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.

NFL Western Conference view talk edit W L T PCT CONF PF PA STK Green Bay Packers 10 3 1 .769 8–3–1 316 224 T1 Baltimore Colts 10 3 1 .769 8–3–1 389 284 W1 Chicago Bears 9 5 0 .643 7–5 409 275 L1 San Francisco 49ers 7 6 1 .538 6–5–1 421 402 T1 Minnesota Vikings 7 7 0 .500 5–7 383 403 W2 Detroit Lions 6 7 1 .462 4–7–1 257 295 W1 Los Angeles Rams 4 10 0 .286 2–10 269 328 L1

Playoffs

Main article: 1965 NFL playoffs

As the Green Bay Packers and Baltimore Colts were tied for first place in the Western Division standings after the regular season ended, a divisional playoff game was required, and was held in Green Bay at Lambeau Field: although the Packers had beaten the Colts in both of their games in 1965, there were no tiebreaking rules at the time.

In the playoff game, with both Colts starting quarterback Johnny Unitas and backup Gary Cuozzo injured, Baltimore was forced to use Tom Matte, normally a running back, as quarterback: Matte played the position in college at Ohio State. Further, Packers quarterback Bart Starr was injured on the first play from scrimmage and did not return to the game, being relieved by Zeke Bratkowski.

After Green Bay's Don Chandler kicked a 27-yard field goal with less than two minutes remaining to tie the game 10-10, the playoff went into overtime, where Chandler kicked a 25-yard field goal with 1:21 remaining in the period to win the Packers the Western Division title.

The following week at Lambeau, Starr returned as starter, with the Packers defeating the Cleveland Browns in the NFL Championship Game, the last before the Super Bowl era.

Home team in capitals

Western Divisional Playoff Game

• GREEN BAY 13, Baltimore 10 (OT)

NFL Championship Game

Main article: 1965 NFL Championship Game

• GREEN BAY 23, Cleveland 12

Playoff Bowl

Main article: Playoff Bowl

• Baltimore 35, Dallas 3 at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida on January 9, 1966

The Playoff Bowl was between the divisional runners-up, for third place in the league. This was its sixth year (of ten) and it was played a week after the title game.

Awards

Most Valuable Player	Jim Brown, Fullback, Cleveland
Coach of the Year	George Halas, Chicago

Coaching changes

• Detroit Lions: George Wilson was replaced by Harry Gilmer.
• Pittsburgh Steelers: Buddy Parker was replaced by Mike Nixon.

Stadium changes

The home of the Green Bay Packers, City Stadium, is renamed Lambeau Field in memory of team founder, player, and head coach Curly Lambeau

See also

• 1965 American Football League season

References

1. "Football so fast, complex: NFL adding sixth official". Spokesman-Review. Spokane, Washington. Associated Press. July 25, 1965. p. 3, sports.
2. Strickler, George (February 20, 1965). "Sixth N.F.L. official to watch scramblers, clock". Chicago Tribune. p. 1, sec. 2.
3. "National League officials to work in crews of six (five)". Milwaukee Journal. Associated Press. August 19, 1947. p. 6, part 2.

• NFL Record and Fact Book ( ISBN   1-932994-36-X)
• NFL History 1961–1970 (Last accessed December 4, 2005)

Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League ( ISBN   0-06-270174-6)