“We Almost Lost Detroit” – NFL Playoff Tiebreakers and the 1970 NFC Postseason

 

New York Times, December 19, 1970

Tiebreakers, Part Two

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“We Almost Lost Detroit” – NFL Playoff Tiebreakers and the 1970 NFC Postseason

In spite of the Rotating Home Teams playoff feature (which occurred from 1970-1974 and I will publish on this, too), 1970 is a different season than any of those four seasons because it had only had four tie breakers:

1) Head to Head;

2) Division Record;

3) Intraconference Record;

4) Points +- Head to Head

5) And Coin Flip

Clearly the League hadn’t thought through the fact that in these new conferences with unbalanced schedules many teams would not play each other. This was corrected later, as they added a points per game step for both divisional and conference tie breakers for 1971 after the near debacle of the 1970 NFC Postseason.  But a potentially controversial coin-toss end to the 1970 Season in the NFC came down to one lucky upset.  Here is how:

 

This is the 1970 NFC after Week 13, with a week to go:

 

1970
NFC	After week 13
East:
Dallas	9-4	play Houston
NYG	9-4	play Rams wk 14
Central:
Minnesota	11-2	clinched division
Lions	9-4	play Green Bay
West:	Road
SF	9-3-1	play NO wk 14
Rams	8-4-1	play NYG wk 14

 

Now the way it turned out in real life, Dallas, SF and Detroit all won, and the Giants lost, which meant Detroit was all alone as a Wild Card at 10-4.  The NFC West was the designated road team so the 49ers would play the Division Champion from the same division as the wild card.  San Francisco played at the Central Division Champion Vikings in Minnesota, and Dallas hosted the Lions. Easy Peasy!

 

But there was a nightmare scenario if all three teams, the Giants, Dallas and Detroit had won and they were all favored, playing at home:

 

1970 NFC Doomsday Scenario
(Click to Expand)

If all three won between New York, Dallas and Detroit, the Giants, with the best division record in the East, would beat out the Cowboys and take the Division Championship.  The next tie breaker would be HTH – but the Lions and Cowboys did not play. They also have the same Conference record, so the next tie breaker was a coin flip.  It’s important in this time, before the days of sneaker deals and massive guaranteed contracts, most players still had off-season jobs and the player’s cut of $25,000 for a playoff game was in doubt based on a coin flip for one of these three teams.

 

The original plan was a Backroom coin flip at NFL headquarters but there were conspiracy theorists about possible league interference in Dallas’ favor, and one such individual threatened to sue the league.  The flip was rescheduled to be televised live on CBS.  Thank goodness it wasn’t needed, but the League had a very close call.