There really is such a thing as too much football
The NFL-AFL merger brought all kinds of new things.
One was playing games on Christmas Day, something that both leagues had previously avoided like The Plague. The thought, and rightfully so, was that you don’t mess with Christmas, an opinion that the NFL has since completely abandoned.
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In 1971, the second season after the full completion of the merger, the first weekend of the playoffs fell on Christmas weekend. Because of that, the NFL had no choice but to play on the holiday itself, which fell on a Saturday. There were just four teams in each conference making the postseason back then, so the AFC and NFC each had to put a divisional game on both Christmas and the day after, Sunday, Dec. 26.
The Browns, champions of the AFC Central, hosted the Baltimore Colts on — thankfully — Sunday, allowing us to escape the wrath of my mother, who didn’t know much about football, only that it couldn’t interfere with Christmas. My dad and I attended the game, which the Browns lost 20-3.
My future father-in-law was not so lucky. He was a proud Kansas City native and a staunch fan of the Chiefs, who hosted the Miami Dolphins at 4 p.m. Christmas in the first AFC semifinal. It was the same day that he and his wife were hosting the holiday dinner for a houseful of people.
That late starting time was bad enough, but to exacerbate the situation tremendously so was the fact the game went two overtimes. As the game wore on and on, all the men sat in the family room relishing the fact that they were watching an instant classic long before that term was ever used, while all the wives sat in the kitchen seething that many hours of hard work in preparing the meal was being ignored and disrespected.
“My wife kept coming in and asking me how much longer until the game was over, and I would say that it wouldn’t be long,” he said. “She thought I was just messing with her, but I had no idea it was going to go two overtimes. Boy, was she ever mad.”
The Dolphins finally won 27-24 on Garo Yepremian’s 37-yard field goal. It was the first and only time that my father-in-law was not that upset that the Chiefs lost. It was the lesser of two evils.
There are three regular-season games on Christmas this year, the last of which is a Kansas City-Denver Broncos game at 8:15 p.m.
I just know that my father-in-law would be urging all NFL fans everywhere to tread lightly and wisely, lest they end up not eating but rather wearing an apple pie.
Indeed, there really is such a thing as too much football.
Whatever happens at your get-together, a very Merry Christmas to one and all!
Steve King
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