The 1st ever AFC Champs, the Baltimore Colts? 😳

[Chandler#81]

Obviously not the Bills, though Dennis Shaw won ROY. Just 2 years removed from their shocking Super Bowl upset loss to Joe Willie & the Jets, the Colts with the newly formed, merger-induced realignment brought Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Baltimore into the new AFC along with the AFL teams. Since it’s a boring, football-less Saturday in Hell Month, here is perhaps NFL Films best ever production. Vivid, brilliant filmography, exquisite orchestration and armed with a fantastic script, John Facenda never sounding  better. 
For those of you around during this era, here’s a Saturday stroll waxing through nostalgia. Enjoy!

 

 

[Old Coot]

Johnny U -- Mr Football.

He played when mugging the opposing team's QB was legal.

[Charles Romes]

Teams combined for ELEVEN turnovers in that super bowl. Should have awarded the trophy to no one. 

[Chandler#81]

9 hours ago, Charles Romes said:

Teams combined for ELEVEN turnovers in that super bowl. Should have awarded the trophy to no one. 

Yep, affectionately dubbed the Blunder Bowl. Even Baltimore’s lone TD was a fortunate blunder.

[freddyjj]

Wow that was a time travel experience for me.  Totally forgot that year and SB Championship.  Liked the fight in end zone vs Bills.  John Pitts and Robert James laying dudes out. 

[machine gun kelly]

Before my time Chand, so thanks for sharing.

[SoCal Deek]

Thanks for sharing. I remember it well. It’s also interesting to note that up until the  1970 merger Pittsburgh was just a floundering NFL franchise not known for doing much of anything (unlike the Colts and Browns who saw lots of success throughout the 60s). Then, just a few seasons later the Steelers became an AFC dynasty and have remained a league super power to this day…almost fifty years later. 

[Chandler#81]

Yep! Butch Byrd drilling that dude into the endzone. Awesome! 
If yer gonna lose, leave ‘em something to remember you by!

3 hours ago, freddyjj said:

Wow that was a time travel experience for me.  Totally forgot that year and SB Championship.  Liked the fight in end zone vs Bills.  John Pitts and Robert James laying dudes out. 

 

[Chandler#81]

I loved Baltimore’s War Memorial Stadium. Like our own WMS, the late season shadows, the infield and old structure brought such character to the games.

[eball]

That was a fun watch.  Cool that a crappy 3-10-1 Bills team tied the world champs and lost the other game by only 6 pts.

[Stranded in Boston]

On 6/19/2022 at 10:58 AM, Chandler#81 said:

Yep! Butch Byrd drilling that dude into the endzone. Awesome! 
If yer gonna lose, leave ‘em something to remember you by!

 

Thanks for that, Chan!  I forgot that Butch Byrd briefly overlapped with (my man) Robert James in the same defensive backfield 😃 ... Also, while Norm Bulaich had a solid but unspectacular NFL career, it seemed like he always killed the Bills!