So I Complain About Modern Football And I Get Two Fun Games As A Result

Last Sunday's games were awesome.

And although there was no mud or grass, it was a worthwhile expense of my time to watch.  Tony Romo made the experience of the AFC championship that much better.  The man is uncanny in the accuracy of his analysis and foresight.

So, we won't get the Chiefs in the Super Bowl for the first time in 49 years.  But we will get the Patriots for the 4th time in 5 years and 9th time in 18 years

Anyone seen this movie?  Yawn.

Strangely, I'll root for them anyway, against the Rams, the team without a home.  Can't stand them since they moved from St. Louis, to a land where no one gives a fleck of mud on their cleats about them.

The Super Bowl hype starts this week.  It's that time to manufacture some more news.  I've had enough of that as well.  Double yawn.

I guess the timing is right, then, for this post and the AFL history lesson that I've attached.  In it, we finally get to the leadup to the first Super Bowl in 1967.

I have grown to agree with the opinion, one stated in this series, that the NFL won those first two Super Bowls solely because it was the league of the Packers, not because the NFL was superior.  The Packers were simply the best team around in the '60s.

Those Super Bowls proved nothing about which league was better.  They just proved no one could defeat the Packers in that era.

Anyway, enjoy this next video, the 3rd in the 5 part series.

This Was Football

What you won't see today.

Mud, clotheslines, late hits, piling on...real football!

I've been watching a lot of old football clips from the late '60s and early '70s, as a result of the Showtime AFL series I am embedding.

The 2nd part of the AFL series, while worthwhile watching, is a probably the weakest of the 5 installments as far as star power.  But the stories are great fun!

Who goes to a desert dude ranch for training camp?!!  Rats, snakes, tarantulas...and the scariest thing of all...the non-working toilets.

Fun to see Jack Kemp and Ernie Ladd, though.  And Bill Belichick and John Madden.

Ernie Ladd.  My memories of him are really as a professional wrestler in the '70s which I watched on Saturday or Sunday afternoon All-Star Wrestling.  He was huge, I believe he was 6'9"...loved the crown, and the "Promises Promises" warm up.

He was a heel, though, and I never rooted for him that I can recall.  I was a Dick the Bruiser fan, and it seems he usually wrestled against him.

I am including as a bonus video the 1968 AFL Championship game highlights.  This is the famous Jets team that won Super Bowl III.

I think the Raiders team here, coming off a Super Bowl loss the previous year, would have won Super Bowl III against the Colts as well.

Loved those white and silver unis.

Enjoy both.

Double Doink And The Chiefs

I am finally recovered from last week's Bears playoff loss.

I hate to place the blame for the loss on one person...but...doinking field goals was this guy's specialty this year.

I just knew he wasn't going to make that FG...I saw it on his face as he took the field.  I tried to wish it in, but just knew deep down what was going to happen.

And it did.

That said, the Bears' defense bended too much to win the game.  I was very surprised by that.  It shouldn't have come down to a last second field goal.

And the offense looked a little off, too.

Conclusion- it was a team effort loss.

So I'm out of any rooting interest this year.  Kansas City is the closest team to me by geography still left, so I'll probably root for them.

I was hoping Indy might win, but I'll take it.

Because with KC's win, I finally get to post about something I have wanted to for about 4 years, but was waiting for the right opportunity.

And that time is now.

In 2014 I watched a series on YouTube that originated I guess on a cable network.

It's about the history of the AFL.  And no team in my lifetime epitomizes the AFL more to me than the Chiefs.

You see, I was born in 1963 and am too young to remember Super Bowl III.  The year the AFL officially became a legitimate power.

I remember Joe Namath and all that, and I remember him being a big deal, but I really didn't pay any attention to football in early 1969.  I was in kindergarten.

But I definitely remember Super Bowl IV.  I was all set to watch the Vikings clobber the Chiefs.

In my six year old mind, I had the odds of the Vikings losing to the Chiefs at near infinity:1.

I've posted about that game before, so I'll spare you the details.  Go here if you want to read about it.

Anyway, the leagues merged after that game, and the AFL was dead.  But my lasting memory of the AFL is of the Chiefs as champions, not just of the AFL, but of football.

My other memory of the AFL is of the Raiders and their rivalry with the Chiefs.  Naturally, I always rooted for the Raiders due to my Chiefs hatred.

But something funny has happened as time as gone by...I actually have grown to like that Super Bowl IV Chiefs team.

Mainly due to my liking of Hank Stram after he started to broadcast games, a lot of times on the radio with Jack Buck.

Anyway, I'm going to post that AFL history series over the next couple of weeks.  It's really a fun and informative documentary.  I learned a lot about the AFL and the early history of some of the NFL's more storied franchises.

Hope you enjoy it.  I sure did.  Try to watch it on full screen if you can.  The uniforms are awesome!

This is the football, very late '60s, early '70s, that got me hooked.

And I can't wait 'til next year...Go Bears...