The Freakin' Weekend (1974)

Here's the game from Week 8 of the 1974 NFL season that NFL Films deep dove into for its NFL Game of the Week telecast ...

Sports Illustrated got excited about the same game and dispatched Joe Marshall to Schaefer Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, for the lowdown. Plus, SI uprounded the rest of the Sunday games, so I know how all of those came out. But given that Nov. 11 Ali/Foreman issue's coverage cut off at Nov. 3 and I was busy watching a lot of 2020 stuff last week, I don't know how the Nov. 4 NFL Monday Night Football episode comes out ...

Once I watch the game, I'll plan to update the standings in the comments, to get us all reset for Week 9 action. And to get us all fired up for the Sunday, Nov. 11, kicksoff, ABC is rerunning a made-for-TV movie shot during the Chicago Bears' 1971 training camp ...

More NFL74 in the Nov. 9-15 Sophia Loren TV Guide ...

Also, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

NFL72/71 and What's On TV Tonight? (Update)

I'm gradually recovering from the Dolphins' loss in Super Bowl VI, and now the prospect of this rerun of last summer's George Plimpton special is starting to turn me on for NFL72.

Super Bowl VI

I'm pretty sure Super Bowl VI--on Sunday, Jan. 16, 1972--was the first featured on TIME's cover, and there's starting to be quite a bit of mirth-making in the culture around the priorities-out-of-balance spectacle of the game specifically and football generally.

This all reminds me of the handwringing among my ilk (and me, to some extent) in the 1980s about whether R.E.M., U2 or Natalie Merchant had "sold out."

I ultimately sided with the sellers back then, too. Those ads are from the pull-out Super Bowl advertising supplement published in the Jan. 10, 1972, Sports Illustrated, and so is this beautiful thing:

Speaking of commercialism, out-of-whack priorities out and spectacles, I am thrilled to announce that 1972 me--I'm still not certain whether he is an adult or child or what his story is exactly--did receive NFL Strategy at Christmas71! I plan to be getting out that game and my football-card Cowboys and Dolphins to play with during Super Bowl VI.

I am rooting for Miami in today's game, but most of the (so-called) "experts" appear to be picking Dallas.

There has been so much great stuff work put out on today's game by the reporters, editors, photographers, illustrators, agate typists and other artists at America's great newspapers. I appreciate all of them and their work, and I want to give a special shout-out for the fine treatment provided by the Toledo (Ohio) Blade.

The Apache Belles obviously put in their work, too, and thank you to those folks, too (spoiler alert, resultwise, in the following video).

OK, it's almost time for the 1:50 p.m. Central kickoff ...

Thank you to NFL, TV and Internet for making this full-game video available, and thank you, HP, for giving me a framework for getting to have so much fun!

The Freakin' (New Year's) Weekend (1971/72)

This Week in Pro Football is a syndicated program that airs at different times in different markets in 1971--Friday nights in Chicago and Saturday afternoons in Salt Like City, for example--so check your local listings. But, by all means, check them, because This Week in Pro Football is outstanding (and has absolutely the best set in all of television history), even when Pat Summerall isn't available to join Tom Brookshier for the fun.

I am particularly interested in catching This Week in Pro Football this freakin' weekend because, as previously reported, I was tied up with Christmas doings and didn't get to see the opening-round NFL71 playoff games. 

It was Dallas over Minnesota, 20-12, in the noon Central game on Dec. 25.

Then Miami beat Kansas City, 27-24, in an AFC game that started at 3 p.m. Central but ended up needing two overtimes to decide.

In the early game on Sunday, Dec. 26, the defending-champion Colts won at Cleveland, 20-3. There were reports out of Baltimore after the Colts lost to the Patriots in Week 16 that the team might've thrown that game in order to play the Browns (and not the Chiefs) in the first round of the playoffs, but the team denied such suggestions.

In the late afternoon Sunday game, the 49ers outlasted Washington, 24-20.

This whole weekend is going to be huge for football, of course, with New Year's Day 1972 falling on a Saturday. We've got the Sugar, Cotton, Rose bowls all tomorrow afternoon and then, that evening, for the national championship, ...

The NFL conference championships are Sunday, Jan. 2, with the Cowboys and 49ers squaring off for the second year in a row for the NFC title and then the Colts and Dolphins playing for the AFC. I am very nervous about the Miami game, and I might just have to limit myself to only listening on the radio.

Hooray for Christmas! (1971)

My 2017 wife and daughter thinks this activity has been creepy, but I've been spending a significant amount of time watching various YouTube users Christmas home movies from 1971.

It's not so much the public-event films from the Monroe, North Carolina (above), and Allen, Texas (below), Christmas parades.

It's my watching the in-the-houses/in-their-pajamas stuff that has been creeping them out ...

But I love seeing them. I love to see what everybody got ... like this lucky dude, who got a Carrom game. We have a Carrom board that we use as a tray for drinks and stuff.

And this kid got an awesome Battle of Britain model kit.

Somebody at this house has gotten one of those AFX slot-car sets.

And, if you look very carefully, some kind of Cadaco game.

The racing sets are all over these Christmas 1971 videos.

I wonder if this dude got to take his on flight later in the day.

The fortunate sons of this HVAC contractor got G.I. Joes and bikes for Christmas.

Grandpa got gloves.

I can't tell what record this lady got, but she's obviously pleased.

This guy got the All in the Family record.

President Nixon was looking forward to an afternoon in front of the TV to see some NFL71 playoff action: "We’re like everybody else; we’re going to try to have dinner between football games … I think you’re going to win … If they win, they play in Dallas next, don’t they? I envy you." I watched a good many of these videos and saw some TVs playing in the background--but none playing the NFL games.

Some of my favorite parts in these videos ...

...were the creative hijinks, probably from Christmas71 afternoon and things had settled down from the Santa visits, gift exchanges and main-meal finery. 

Well, here's hoping all of the 2017 Christmases are going as merrily as these from 1971.