1965 NFL season
Encyclopedia
The 1965 NFL season was the 46th regular season
of the National Football League
.
Because the Green Bay Packers
and Baltimore Colts
ended up tied in the Western Conference standings after the regular season ended, a conference playoff game was held in Green Bay. Although the Packers had defeated the Colts in both of their games in 1965, there were no tiebreaking rules
at the time. In the playoff game, both Colts starting quarterback Johnny Unitas
and backup Gary Cuozzo
could not play, so Baltimore was forced to use Tom Matte
, normally a running back, as the starting quarterback. Packers starting quarterback Bart Starr
was injured on the first play from scrimmage and did not return to the game. Green Bay's Don Chandler kicked a 27-yard field goal with less than two minutes remaining to tie the game. Chandler then kicked a game-winning 25-yard field goal after 13 minutes, 39 seconds of overtime
. The Packers went on to defeat the Cleveland Browns
in the NFL Championship
Game, the last before the Super Bowl
era.
Meanwhile, the NFL's war with the rival AFL
began to increase as the two leagues competed for the top players coming out of college. Prior to the season, both the NFL's Chicago Bears
and the AFL's Kansas City Chiefs
selected running back
Gale Sayers
in their respective league drafts. Sayers eventually decided to sign with the NFL's Bears in a victory for the established league. On the other hand, quarterback
Joe Namath
was selected by both the NFL's St. Louis Cardinals
and the AFL's New York Jets
, but Namath decided to play for the Jets after signing a $427,000 contract.
This war between the AFL and the NFL would escalate until just before the 1966 season
, when they would agree to merge
and create a new AFL-NFL World Championship Game
between the winners of the two leagues, that later would be known as the Super Bowl.
As in 1964, the Eastern Conference race started out as a battle between the Cardinals and the Browns. By Week Five (October 17), both had 4–1–0 records, but the Cards won only one more game after that, finishing 5–9. The Browns won all seven of their remaining divisional games during the same stretch, losing only their two inter-conference games against Western opponents. The Browns had clinched the conference title by November 28.
In the Western race, Green Bay won its first six games, before a 31–10 loss, at Chicago on Halloween, put it in a tie with the Colts. In Week Eight (November 7), the Packers lost again, 12–7 to Detroit, while the Colts beat Chicago 26–21. Both teams won their next two games, but in Week Eleven, the Packers lost 21–10 to the Rams, and the Colts averted a loss by tying the Lions, 24–24. In Week Twelve, Green Bay closed the gap with a 24–19 win over the Vikings, while the Colts fell to Chicago, losing the game (13–0) and their star quarterback, Johnny Unitas, to a knee injury.
With backup Gary Cuozzo passing for the Colts, they met the Packers again, in Baltimore, on December 12, and Paul Hornung scored five touchdowns as Green Bay won, 42–27, to take a half-game division lead, 10–3 to 9–3–1. Along with the conference lead, the Colts lost another quarterback when Cuozzo was injured. In the final weekend, the Colts were in Los Angeles for a Saturday game that they had to win, but were losing 17–10. A tying touchdown by fourth-string quarterback Ed Brown helped the Colts knot the game 17–17, but a tie wasn't enough. It took Lou Michaels' field goal to get a 20–17 win and a 10–3–1 record. A Green Bay win the next day in San Francisco would have ended the race, and the Packers leading and were slightly more than a minute away from the title game, but the 49ers tied the game, 24–24, with 1:07 to play. Both Green Bay and Baltimore had 10–3–1 records, forcing a playoff for the day after Christmas.
Note: Prior to 1972, the NFL did not include tie games when calculating a team's winning percentage in the official standings
Western Conference Playoff Game
NFL Championship Game
Regular season (NFL)
The National Football League regular season begins the weekend after Labor Day. Each team plays 16 games during a 17-week period. Traditionally, the majority of each week's games are played on Sunday afternoon, with weekly games on Sunday night and Monday night, and occasional games on Thursday...
of the National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
.
Because the Green Bay Packers
Green Bay Packers
The Green Bay Packers are an American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Packers are the current NFL champions...
and Baltimore Colts
Indianapolis Colts
The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. They are currently members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League ....
ended up tied in the Western Conference standings after the regular season ended, a conference playoff game was held in Green Bay. Although the Packers had defeated the Colts in both of their games in 1965, there were no tiebreaking rules
Tiebreaker
In games and sports, a tiebreaker or tiebreak is used to determine a winner from among players or teams that are tied at the end of a contest, or a set of contests.-In matches:In some situations, the tiebreaker may consist of another round of play...
at the time. In the playoff game, both Colts starting quarterback Johnny Unitas
Johnny Unitas
John Constantine Unitas , known as Johnny Unitas or "Johnny U", and nicknamed "The Golden Arm", was a professional American football player in the 1950s through the 1970s, spending the majority of his career with the Baltimore Colts. He was a record-setting quarterback, and the National Football...
and backup Gary Cuozzo
Gary Cuozzo
Gary Samuel Cuozzo was a former professional American football player. An undrafted quarterback from the University of Virginia, Cuozzo played in 10 NFL seasons from 1963-1972. He began his NFL career on the Baltimore Colts as a backup to Johnny Unitas...
could not play, so Baltimore was forced to use Tom Matte
Tom Matte
Thomas Roland Matte was an American football player who played quarterback in college and primarily running back in the NFL in the 1960s and 1970s and earned a Super Bowl Ring. He attended Shaw High School in East Cleveland and is an Eagle Scout...
, normally a running back, as the starting quarterback. Packers starting quarterback Bart Starr
Bart Starr
Bryan Bartlett "Bart" Starr is a former professional American football player and coach. Wearing #15, he was the quarterback for the Green Bay Packers from 1956 to 1971 and head coach from 1975 to 1983, compiling a record of 52–76–3 ....
was injured on the first play from scrimmage and did not return to the game. Green Bay's Don Chandler kicked a 27-yard field goal with less than two minutes remaining to tie the game. Chandler then kicked a game-winning 25-yard field goal after 13 minutes, 39 seconds of overtime
Overtime (sports)
Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw. In most sports, this extra period is only played if the game is required to have a clear winner, as in single-elimination...
. The Packers went on to defeat the Cleveland Browns
Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns are a professional football team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are currently members of the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
in the NFL Championship
NFL playoffs, 1965
The 1965 NFL playoffs determined the champion of the National Football League. Although a single championship game between conference winners was the current format for the league, a tie in the Western Conference standings between the Green Bay Packers and Baltimore Colts necessitated a divisional...
Game, the last before the Super Bowl
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
era.
Meanwhile, the NFL's war with the rival AFL
American Football League
The American Football League was a major American Professional Football league that operated from 1960 until 1969, when the established National Football League merged with it. The upstart AFL operated in direct competition with the more established NFL throughout its existence...
began to increase as the two leagues competed for the top players coming out of college. Prior to the season, both the NFL's Chicago Bears
Chicago Bears
The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
and the AFL's Kansas City Chiefs
Kansas City Chiefs
The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. They are a member of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Originally named the Dallas Texans, the club was founded by Lamar Hunt in 1960 as a...
selected running back
Running back
A running back is a gridiron football position, who is typically lined up in the offensive backfield. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback for a rushing play, to catch passes from out of the backfield, and to block.There are usually one or two running...
Gale Sayers
Gale Sayers
Gale Eugene Sayers also known as "The Kansas Comet", is a former professional football player in the National Football League who spent his entire career with the Chicago Bears....
in their respective league drafts. Sayers eventually decided to sign with the NFL's Bears in a victory for the established league. On the other hand, quarterback
Quarterback
Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...
Joe Namath
Joe Namath
Joseph William "Joe" Namath , nicknamed "Broadway Joe" or "Joe Willie", is a former American football quarterback. He played college football for the University of Alabama under coach Paul "Bear" Bryant and his assistant, Howard Schnellenberger, from 1962–1964, and professional football in the...
was selected by both the NFL's St. Louis Cardinals
Arizona Cardinals
The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in Glendale, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix. They are currently members of the Western Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
and the AFL's New York Jets
New York Jets
The New York Jets are a professional football team headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, representing the New York metropolitan area. The team is a member of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
, but Namath decided to play for the Jets after signing a $427,000 contract.
This war between the AFL and the NFL would escalate until just before the 1966 season
1966 NFL season
The 1966 NFL season was the 47th regular season of the National Football League, and the season after which was played Super Bowl I, though it was called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game. The league expanded to 15 teams with the addition of the Atlanta Falcons, thus an odd number of teams...
, when they would agree to merge
AFL-NFL Merger
The AFL–NFL merger of 1970 was the merger of the two major professional American football leagues in the United States at the time: the National Football League and the American Football League...
and create a new AFL-NFL World Championship Game
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
between the winners of the two leagues, that later would be known as the Super Bowl.
Major rule changes
- A sixth official, the Line Judge, is added to the officiating crew. This change is sometimes referred to as the "Fran TarkentonFran TarkentonFrancis Asbury "Fran" Tarkenton is a former professional football player, TV personality, and computer software executive....
Rule" after the Minnesota VikingsMinnesota VikingsThe Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Vikings joined the National Football League as an expansion team in 1960...
quarterbackQuarterbackQuarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...
, who developed the nickname scrambler as he ran around the backfield to avoid being sacked by the opposition. With the Line Judge stationed on the line of scrimmageLine of scrimmageIn American and Canadian football a line of scrimmage is an imaginary transverse line beyond which a team cannot cross until the next play has begun...
opposite the Head Linesman, it made it easier for the officials to judge whether or not Tarkenton or any mobile quarterback crossed over the line before throwing the ball.
Conference Races
Each team played each of the six other teams in its conference twice. In addition, each team played two of the seven teams from the other conference to complete the 14 game schedule. Thus each week's schedule included 6 intra-conference games (3 from each conference) and one inter-conference game. In 1965 the Western Conference dominated the Eastern winning 13 out of the 14 interconference games. The lone win for the Eastern Conference was a 39–31 victory by Dallas over San Francisco in week eight.As in 1964, the Eastern Conference race started out as a battle between the Cardinals and the Browns. By Week Five (October 17), both had 4–1–0 records, but the Cards won only one more game after that, finishing 5–9. The Browns won all seven of their remaining divisional games during the same stretch, losing only their two inter-conference games against Western opponents. The Browns had clinched the conference title by November 28.
In the Western race, Green Bay won its first six games, before a 31–10 loss, at Chicago on Halloween, put it in a tie with the Colts. In Week Eight (November 7), the Packers lost again, 12–7 to Detroit, while the Colts beat Chicago 26–21. Both teams won their next two games, but in Week Eleven, the Packers lost 21–10 to the Rams, and the Colts averted a loss by tying the Lions, 24–24. In Week Twelve, Green Bay closed the gap with a 24–19 win over the Vikings, while the Colts fell to Chicago, losing the game (13–0) and their star quarterback, Johnny Unitas, to a knee injury.
With backup Gary Cuozzo passing for the Colts, they met the Packers again, in Baltimore, on December 12, and Paul Hornung scored five touchdowns as Green Bay won, 42–27, to take a half-game division lead, 10–3 to 9–3–1. Along with the conference lead, the Colts lost another quarterback when Cuozzo was injured. In the final weekend, the Colts were in Los Angeles for a Saturday game that they had to win, but were losing 17–10. A tying touchdown by fourth-string quarterback Ed Brown helped the Colts knot the game 17–17, but a tie wasn't enough. It took Lou Michaels' field goal to get a 20–17 win and a 10–3–1 record. A Green Bay win the next day in San Francisco would have ended the race, and the Packers leading and were slightly more than a minute away from the title game, but the 49ers tied the game, 24–24, with 1:07 to play. Both Green Bay and Baltimore had 10–3–1 records, forcing a playoff for the day after Christmas.
| Week | WESTERN | EASTERN | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 teams (Bal, Det, GB, SF) | 1–0–0 | 3 teams (Cle, Dal, Phi) | 1–0–0 |
| 2 | 3 teams (Det, GB, SF) | 2–0–0 | DALLAS COWBOYS | 2–0–0 |
| 3 | Tie (Det, GB) | 3–0–0 | 4 teams (Cle, Dal, NYG, StL) | 2–1–0 |
| 4 | GREEN BAY PACKERS | 4–0–0 | Tie (Cle, StL) | 3–1–0 |
| 5 | GREEN BAY PACKERS | 5–0–0 | Tie (Cle, StL) | 4–1–0 |
| 6 | GREEN BAY PACKERS | 6–0–0 | CLEVELAND BROWNS | 5–1–0 |
| 7 | Tie (Bal, GB) | 6–1–0 | CLEVELAND BROWNS | 5–2–0 |
| 8 | BALTIMORE COLTS | 7–1–0 | CLEVELAND BROWNS | 6–2–0 |
| 9 | BALTIMORE COLTS | 8–1–0 | CLEVELAND BROWNS | 7–2–0 |
| 10 | BALTIMORE COLTS | 9–1–0 | CLEVELAND BROWNS | 8–2–0 |
| 11 | BALTIMORE COLTS | 9–1–1 | CLEVELAND BROWNS | 9–2–0 |
| 12 | BALTIMORE COLTS | 9–2–1 | CLEVELAND BROWNS | 10–2–0 |
| 13 | GREEN BAY PACKERS | 10–3–0 | CLEVELAND BROWNS | 10–3–0 |
| 14 | Tie (Bal, GB) | 10–3–1 | CLEVELAND BROWNS | 11–3–0 |
Final standings
W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, PCT= Winning Percentage, PF= Points For, PA = Points AgainstNote: Prior to 1972, the NFL did not include tie games when calculating a team's winning percentage in the official standings
Playoffs
- Home team in capitals
Western Conference Playoff Game
- GREEN BAY 13, Baltimore 10 (OT)
NFL Championship Game
- GREEN BAY 23, Cleveland 12
Awards
| Most Valuable Player NFL Most Valuable Player Award The National Football League Most Valuable Player Award is given by various entities, most notably the Associated Press , to the player who is considered most valuable in the league. When the award is referred to without mentioning the organization, it generally means the AP award. The AP NFL MVP... |
Jim Brown Jim Brown James Nathaniel "Jim" Brown is an American former professional football player who has also made his mark as an actor. He is best known for his exceptional and record-setting nine-year career as a running back for the NFL Cleveland Browns from 1957 to 1965. In 2002, he was named by Sporting News... , Running back Running back A running back is a gridiron football position, who is typically lined up in the offensive backfield. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback for a rushing play, to catch passes from out of the backfield, and to block.There are usually one or two running... , Cleveland |
| Coach of the Year NFL Coach of the Year Award The National Football League Coach of the Year Award is presented annually by various news and sports organizations to the NFL head coach who has done the most outstanding job of working with the talent he has at his disposal. Currently, the most widely recognized award is presented by the... |
George Halas George Halas George Stanley Halas, Sr. , nicknamed "Papa Bear" and "Mr. Everything", was a player, coach, owner and pioneer in professional American football. He was the iconic longtime leader of the NFL's Chicago Bears... , Chicago |