Memory Lane - Relive the 1976 NFL Season

In The Grande Digest (pdf mag) we have a section called "Memory Lane" in which we recount some of the 100+ year history of the NFL. This year we will be covering the 1976 NFL season, week by week. Between now and the kickoff of the Hall of Fame game The Grande Report will give a preview of each of the 28 teams.

If you want to follow along in The Grande Digest, become a paid member to either relive the season or experience it for the first time.

Let's take a step back to the year 1966. In this year, the football world had two professional football leagues, The American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL). The two leagues were competing for fans, television viewers and for players which was driving up player salaries and affecting the bottom line of both leagues. After both leagues sat down to negotiations they announced the AFL would merge all ten teams into the NFL in 1970. Under the conditions, two conferences, the American and National conferences would be formed. Also, starting in 1967 the champion of each league would play in a game to determine who would be the champion of the football world. That game would be called The Super Bowl. After the merger the winner of each NFL conference would meet in the Super Bowl.

In the agreement all ten AFL teams plus three NFL teams (Baltimore, Cleveland and Pittsburgh) would form:

The American Fooball Conference:

Eastern Division - Boston Patriots, Baltimore Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, New York Jets.

Central Div - Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Houston Oilers, Pittsburgh Steelers.

Western Div - Denver Broncos, Oakland Raiders, Kansas City Chiefs, San Diego Chargers.

In the National Football Conference:

Eastern Div- Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, St Louis Cardinals, Washington Redskins.

Central Div- Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings.

Western Div- Atlanta Falcons, Los Angeles Rams, New Orleans Saints, San Francisco 49ers.

In 1975, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Minnesota Vikings finished the regular season with the best records, 12-2-0. The Steelers would make it through the playoffs for the AFC but the Vikings would get knocked out on the original "Hail Mary" and the Dallas Cowboys would meet the Steelers in Super Bowl X in Miami, FL. This would be the most exciting Super Bowl to date with the Steelers becoming world champions, 21-17. Minnesota QB Fran Tarkenton would be the seasons MVP.

In 1976, the NFL would add two additional teams, the Seattle Seahawks and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, bringing the league to 28 teams. Seattle would play in the NFC West division and Tampa Bay would play in the AFC West Division. A year later the NFL would switch both clubs, Seattle would move to the AFC West and Tampa Bay to the NFC Central.

Some of the things to note. The punting position hadn't developed into a specialty position yet, many teams had positional players doing the punting. Clevleand's Don Cockroft was both the punter and placekicker. Speaking of placekickers, straightaway, or conventional kickers were still hanging on until the retirement of Mark Mosely in 1986. Soccer style kickers were about a decade away from monopolizing the NFL.

Watching football on tv in 1976 was much different experience than today. We didn't have 60 inch flat screens, no internet, no sky cam and no sideline reporters. We had cathode ray tube tv sets with an average of 19 to 21 inch screens. There were no graphics continually on the screen. If you tuned in mid-game, you wouldn't have any idea of the score generally until a commercial break. Score updates on other games sporadically happened during the game. During halftime and after the game the networks would go back to the game studio to either "The NFL Today" with Brent Musburger on CBS or NBC's "Grandstand" with Lee Leonard. And then we would have Monday Night Football and Howard Cosell's "Halftime Highlights" of Sunday's action. Dandy Don Merideth briefly left MNF for NBC and the 1976 MNF line up was play-by-play Frank Gifford, color guys Alex Karras and Howard Cosell. Thanks to the gift of the internet, old MNF broadcasts are available. If you want to witness first hand the "train wreck" (My opinion) of Alex Karras performance, brace yourself.

Now the stage is set for the team previews. Stay tuned...