1967 NFL season

1967 NFL season

Regular season
Duration	September 17 – December 17, 1967
Playoffs
East Champions	Dallas Cowboys
West Champions	Green Bay Packers
Championship Game
Champions	Green Bay Packers
← 1966 NFL seasons 1968 →

Cowboys

Eagles

.... Redskins

Saints

Browns

Giants

Cardinals

Steelers ....

Rams

Falcons

49ers

Colts

Packers

Lions

Vikings

Bears

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NFL teams: Coastal, Central, Century, Capitol

The 1967 NFL season was the 48th regular season of the National Football League. The league expanded to 16 teams with the addition of the New Orleans Saints.

The two eight-team conferences were split into two divisions each: the Eastern Conference divisions were Capitol (Dallas, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Washington) and Century (Cleveland, New York, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis), and the Western Conference divisions were Central (Chicago, Detroit, Green Bay, and Minnesota) and Coastal (Atlanta, Baltimore, Los Angeles, and San Francisco). Each division winner advanced to the playoffs, expanded to four teams in this year. The Saints and the New York Giants agreed to switch divisions in 1968 and return to the 1967 alignment in 1969. This was done to allow all Eastern Conference teams to visit New York at least once over the three-year period. Initially the Capitol Division was called the Federal Division when the NFL decided upon the divisions on November 30, 1966.

The NFL season concluded on December 31, when the Green Bay Packers defeated the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL Championship Game (known as the "Ice Bowl"). Two weeks later, on January 14, 1968, the Packers handily defeated the AFL's Oakland Raiders 33–14 in Super Bowl II at Miami's Orange Bowl. This was Vince Lombardi's final game as the Packers' head coach. At the time, it was officially the "AFL-NFL World Championship Game," though the more succinct "Super Bowl" was commonly used. The 1965-67 Packers became the second team in NFL history to three-peat (the first being the same Packers team from 1929-31), and no one has done it since.

The Baltimore Colts had tied for the NFL's best record in 1967 at 11–1–2, but were excluded from the postseason because of new rules introduced for breaking ties within a division. ^[1] The L.A. Rams won the division title over Baltimore as a result of the Rams' 34–10 win over Baltimore in the last game of the regular season and a 24–24 tie in Baltimore in mid-October. L.A. had a 24-point edge over Baltimore in head-to-head meetings, giving them the tiebreaker and the Coastal division title. The other three division winners had only nine victories each. A total of nine NFL games ended in ties, the most since 1932 – including the two ties in the AFL (considered official NFL records since the merger) makes this the only season since 1932 with ten or more tied games.

Prior to 1975, the playoff sites rotated and were known prior to the start of the season. The hosts in 1967 were the Capitol and Central division winners for the conference championships (first round), and the Western Conference for the championship game. The 1968 playoff hosts were Century, Coastal, and Eastern, respectively, and 1969 featured the same hosts as 1967.

Draft

The 1967 NFL/AFL draft was held from March 14 to 15 at New York City's Gotham Hotel. With the first pick of the first common draft, the Baltimore Colts selected defensive tackle Bubba Smith from Michigan State. ^[2]

Expansion Draft

The 1967 NFL expansion draft was held on February 9, 1967, with the New Orleans Saints selecting 42 players from the other NFL teams. The one-year old Atlanta Falcons were exempted from losing a player in this expansion draft.

Major rule changes

• The "slingshot" or "tuning fork" goalpost, with one curved support from the ground and offset behind the crossbar, was made standard in the NFL. This replaced the previous year's offset goalpost, which had two non-curved supports from the ground. Before the introduction of the offset goalpost, the supports were directly on the goal line. Posts also had to be painted bright gold.
• A 6-foot-wide (1.8 m) border around the field was also made standard in the league. Its outer edge designates the closest that non-participants can be to the field, and thus enables the game officials to have a running lane to work in.

Division races

The Eastern Conference was split into the Capitol and Century Divisions, and the Western Conference had the Coastal and Central Divisions. (Each of the new division names began with the letter C and contained seven letters.) Under the new system, each team played six division games (a home-and-away series against teams in its division); a game against each of the other four teams in its conference; and a nonconference game against all of the four members of one of the two four-team divisions in the other conference, for a total of 14 games. In the past, if two teams were tied for the division lead at season's end, a one-game playoff was conducted to break the tie. Starting in 1967, a tiebreaking system was implemented that started with net points in head-to-head competition, followed by the team that had less recently played in a title game. As such, only one team in a division would be the division winner, even if the win–loss record was the same.

Week	Capitol		Century		Coastal		Central
1	Dallas	1–0–0	Pittsburgh	1–0–0	San Francisco	1–0–0	Detroit	0–0–1
2	Dallas	2–0–0	St. Louis	1–1–0	San Francisco	2–0–0	Detroit	1–0–1
3	Philadelphia	2–1–0	St. Louis	2–1–0	Los Angeles	3–0–0	Green Bay	2–0–1
4	Dallas	3–1–0	St. Louis	3–1–0	Baltimore	4–0–0	Green Bay	3–0–1
5	Dallas	4–1–0	New York	3–2–0	Baltimore	4–0–1	Green Bay	3–1–1
6	Dallas	5–1–0	Cleveland	3–2–0	Baltimore	4–0–2	Green Bay	4–1–1
7	Dallas	5–2–0	New York	4–3–0	Baltimore	5–0–2	Green Bay	5–1–1
8	Dallas	6–2–0	St. Louis	5–3–0	Baltimore	6–0–2	Green Bay	5–2–1
9	Dallas	7–2–0	St. Louis	5–3–1	Baltimore	7–0–2	Green Bay	6–2–1
10	Dallas	7–3–0	Cleveland	6–4–0	Baltimore	8–0–2	Green Bay	7–2–1
11	Dallas	8–3–0	Cleveland	7–4–0	Baltimore	9–0–2	Green Bay	8–2–1
12	Dallas	8–4–0	Cleveland	8–4–0	Baltimore	10–0–2	Green Bay	9–2–1
13	Dallas	9–4–0	Cleveland	9–4–0	Baltimore	11–0–2	Green Bay	9–3–1
14	Dallas	9–5–0	Cleveland	9–5–0	Los Angeles	11–1–2	Green Bay	9–4–1

Final standings

Eastern Conference NFL Capitol view talk edit W L T PCT DIV CONF PF PA STK Dallas Cowboys 9 5 0 .643 4–2 8–2 342 268 L1 Philadelphia Eagles 6 7 1 .462 3–2–1 5–4–1 351 409 W1 Washington Redskins 5 6 3 .455 2–3–1 4–5–1 347 353 L1 New Orleans Saints 3 11 0 .214 2–4 2–8 233 379 W1 NFL Century view talk edit W L T PCT DIV CONF PF PA STK Cleveland Browns 9 5 0 .643 5–1 7–3 334 297 L1 New York Giants 7 7 0 .500 5–1 7–3 369 379 W1 St. Louis Cardinals 6 7 1 .462 1–4–1 4–5–1 333 356 L2 Pittsburgh Steelers 4 9 1 .308 0–5–1 1–8–1 281 320 W1 Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.

Western Conference NFL Coastal view talk edit W L T PCT DIV CONF PF PA STK Los Angeles Rams 11 1 2 .917 4–1–1 8–1–1 398 196 W8 Baltimore Colts 11 1 2 .917 4–1–1 7–1–2 394 198 L1 San Francisco 49ers 7 7 0 .500 3–3 4–6 273 337 W2 Atlanta Falcons 1 12 1 .077 0–6 1–9 175 422 L7 NFL Central view talk edit W L T PCT DIV CONF PF PA STK Green Bay Packers 9 4 1 .692 4–1–1 6–3–1 332 209 L2 Chicago Bears 7 6 1 .538 3–2–1 5–4–1 239 218 W1 Detroit Lions 5 7 2 .417 1–3–2 3–5–2 260 259 W2 Minnesota Vikings 3 8 3 .273 1–3–2 1–6–3 233 294 L1

Tiebreakers

Los Angeles won the Coastal Division based on better point differential in head-to-head games (net 24 points) vs. Baltimore. The Rams and Colts played to a 24–24 tie in Baltimore in October before the Rams won 34–10 on the season's final Sunday at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The result would be the same under the modern tiebreaker, which relies first on head-to-head record (Los Angeles won the head-to-head series, 1–0–1).

Postseason

NFL playoffs

Main article: 1967 NFL playoffs

	Conference championship games				NFL Championship Game
	December 24 – Cotton Bowl
	Cleveland Browns  (9–5)	14
					* December 31 – Lambeau Field
	Dallas Cowboys    (9–5)	52
					Dallas Cowboys	17
	December 23 – Milwaukee County Stadium
					Green Bay Packers	21
	Los Angeles Rams   (11–1–2)	7
	Green Bay Packers (9–4–1)	28

                        

AFL–NFL World Championship Game

Main article: Super Bowl II

The Green Bay Packers defeated the Oakland Raiders, league champion of the 1967 American Football League season, 33–14, at the Orange Bowl in Miami on January 14, 1968.

Awards

Most Valuable Player	Johnny Unitas, quarterback, Baltimore Colts
Coach of the Year	George Allen, L.A. Rams; Don Shula, Baltimore Colts (tie)
Offensive Rookie of the Year	Mel Farr, running back, Detroit
Defensive Rookie of the Year	Lem Barney, cornerback, Detroit

Coaching changes

• Detroit Lions: Harry Gilmer was replaced by Joe Schmidt.
• Minnesota Vikings: Norm Van Brocklin was replaced by Bud Grant.
• New Orleans Saints: Tom Fears became the expansion team's first head coach.

Stadium changes

• The expansion New Orleans Saints began play at Tulane Stadium

See also

• 1967 American Football League season

References

1. "NFL fixes plans to decide ties". Spokane Daily Chronicle. (Washington). Associated Press. December 1, 1966. p. 33.
2. "Bubba Smith first draftee". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). Associated Press. March 15, 1967. p. 15.

• 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)