1967 NFL season

1967 NFL season
Regular season
DurationSeptember 17 –
December 17, 1967
Playoffs
East ChampionsDallas Cowboys
West ChampionsGreen Bay Packers
Championship Game
ChampionsGreen Bay Packers
1967 NFL season is located in the United States
Cowboys
Cowboys
Eagles
Eagles
.... Redskins
.... Redskins
Saints
Saints
Browns
Browns
Giants
Giants
Cardinals
Cardinals
Steelers ....
Steelers ....
Rams
Rams
Falcons
Falcons
49ers
49ers
Colts
Colts
Packers
Packers
Lions
Lions
Vikings
Vikings
Bears
Bears
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 divisions became two eight-team conferences split into two divisions each: the newly renamed Eastern Conference divisions were Capitol (Dallas, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Washington) and Century (Cleveland, New York, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis), and the newly renamed 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.

  1. ^ "NFL fixes plans to decide ties". Spokane Daily Chronicle. (Washington). Associated Press. December 1, 1966. p. 33.