 | |
| Stadium | Orange Bowl |
|---|---|
| Location | Miami,Florida |
| First played | 1961 (January 7) |
| Last played | 1970 (January 3) |
ThePlayoff Bowl (officially known as theBert Bell Benefit Bowl) was apost-season game for third place in theNational Football League (NFL), played ten times following the1960 through1969 seasons, all at theOrange Bowl inMiami,Florida.[1][2] It was originally known as theRunner-Up Bowl.[3]
The official title ofBert Bell Benefit Bowl came from the formerNFL commissioner,Bert Bell. Bell, who co-founded the Eagles and co-owned the Steelers, was commissioner of the NFL from1946 until his death during an NFL game in October1959. The game funded what is league pension plan for players, now the Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Players Retirement Plan, and reportedly raised a million dollars over the decade of the 1960s.[4]
All ten games in the Playoff Bowl series were contested at theOrange Bowl inMiami. The games were played in January, the week following theNFL championship game (and the collegiateOrange Bowl game on New Year's Day), except for the final year, when it was played the day before the NFL title game. TheNFL'sPro Bowl (all-star game) was played the week after the Playoff Bowl.
After the1959 season, NFL owners faced competition from the newly-formedAmerican Football League and wanted a vehicle through which to showcase more of its supposedly superior NFL professional football product on television, then carried through theCBS Television Network. At the time, unlike the AFL, which had a contract with theABC Television Network for their nationally televised games, often double-headers, few NFL games were televised nationally during the season and there was only one scheduled post-season game, the NFL Championship Game. The Playoff Bowl was devised to match the second-place teams from the NFL's two conferences (Eastern and Western). This doubled from two to four the number of top NFL teams appearing in post-season play on national television.
The1966 season required another game following theAmerican Football League Championship Game and the NFL Championship Game, the first of fourAFL–NFL World Championship Games between the champions of the two majorProfessional Football leagues for the undisputed championship. The establishment of the AFL–NFL World Championship Game (the Super Bowl name was not made official untilSuper Bowl III) was the first phase of theAFL–NFL merger of June 1966. This new mega-game between the rival leagues was played in mid-January at a warm weather location, two weeks after the championship games for each league. The NFL's Playoff Bowl was played during the idle week, and because of AFL's equally major league status, interest in the game was waning. In addition, the arrival of theMiami Dolphins in1966 as an expansion franchise in the AFL reduced local interest in the game.
In the1967 season, the NFL expanded to 16 teams and four scheduled post-season contests. The NFL sub-divided its two conferences (now eight teams each) into two divisions of four teams each: The Capitol and Century divisions in the Eastern conference, and the Central and Coastal divisions in the Western conference. The four division winners advanced to the post-season, competing for their conference titles in the first round of the NFL playoffs. The winners (conference champions) advanced to the NFL championship game, the losers (conference runners-up) appeared in the Playoff Bowl to vie for third place. For the three seasons (1967–69) preceding the1970 merger with theAFL, the loser of the NFL's third place game ended up with a peculiar record of 0-2 for that post-season. In its final season in1969, the AFL also expanded to a four-team post-season, adding two more playoff games.
The highest attendance was over 65,500 in January 1966 for theBaltimore Colts' rout of theDallas Cowboys;[5] the1965 season was the last one prior to the Dolphins starting play, theAFL–NFL merger agreement, and the creation of the Super Bowl. In January 1968 and 1969, the Super Bowl was played in the Orange Bowl the following week, which further contributed to the declining attendance for the NFL's consolation game.
When the merger was completed for the1970 season, there was discussion about continuing the Playoff Bowl, with the losers of theAFC andNFC Championship Games playing each other during the idle week before theSuper Bowl. There were now seven post-season games in the NFL (three for each conference, plus the Super Bowl), and thePro Bowl all-star game. A "losers' game" was not necessarily attractive for the league, and the Playoff Bowl came to an end.
The ten Playoff Bowls were officialthird place playoff games at the time they were played; today, the NFL consider the games as exhibitions.[6]
Green Bay Packers coachVince Lombardi detested the Playoff Bowl, coaching in the games following the1963 and1964 seasons, after winning NFL titles in1961 and1962. To his players, he called it "the 'Shit Bowl', ...a losers' bowl for losers." This lack of motivation may explain his Packers' rare postseason defeat in the 1964 game (January 1965) to theSt. Louis Cardinals. After that loss, he fumed about "a hinky-dink football game, held in a hinky-dink town, played by hinky-dink players. That's all second place is – hinky dink."[1]
Using the Playoff Bowl (and loss) as motivation in1965, the Packers won the first of three consecutiveNFL championships from 1965 to1967. The Packers remain the sole NFL team to win three consecutive titles in the post-season era, which began in1933. During this successful run, the Packers also won the first twoSuper Bowls in convincing fashion. Lombardi's final game (and victory) ashead coach of the Packers wasSuper Bowl II, played in the Orange Bowl in January 1968.
All-Prodefensive tackleRoger Brown appeared in five Playoff Bowls, the most by any player, and was on the winning side each time (Detroit Lions in 1960, 1961, 1962;Los Angeles Rams in 1967, 1969). He said playing in those seemingly meaningless contests was like having "the worstinferiority complex." He added, "I was in five of them, and to have played in it five in the ten years it was in existence is pitiful."[1]
The Lions also hold the dubious distinction of having the most victories in the Playoff Bowl, three, along with tying for the bestwinning percentage, 1.000.
In its second year, the players on the winning team received $600 each (equivalent to $6,313 in 2024), the losers $400 (equivalent to $4,209 in 2024);[7] and the fifth year game paid $800 (equivalent to $7,982 in 2024) and $600 (equivalent to $5,987 in 2024).[8] In its final years, the winners received $1,200 each (equivalent to $9,716 in 2024), and the losers $500 (equivalent to $4,048 in 2024).[4][9]
The Playoff Bowl was typically held in the Orange Bowl stadium in Miami. It led toSuper Bowl II being held in Miami, the first of 11 Super Bowls held in Miami area, and is credited byNFL Films for the creation of the expansionMiami Dolphins.
The 1966 season Playoff Bowl game was used byNFL Films to put a microphone onPhiladelphia Eagles' head coachJoe Kuharich, which is credited by the league as part of the signature of NFL Films' videos featuring microphones on coaches and players.
That same Eagles-Colts Playoff Bowl marked the debut of the "slingshot" or "tuning fork" goalpost, with one curved support, in American football. This style of goalpost was first used by theCanadian Football League for the54th Grey Cup the previous November. The NFL adopted the single-support post for the1967 season, and it continues to be used by the NFL and CFL, as well as most colleges and many high schools in both countries.
One vestige of the Playoff Bowl remained through the 2008 season in that the head coaches of the losing teams from the conference championship games were the head coaches of their conferences'Pro Bowl teams. From 1980 to 2009, thisall-star game was played atAloha Stadium inHonolulu the Sunday following theSuper Bowl. However, in2010, the Pro Bowl moved to Miami Gardens, Florida, and was played the week beforeSuper Bowl XLIV (as the Playoff Bowl was in the Super Bowl era).
For the 2009 season, a new rule for determining the Pro Bowl coaches resulted in the disappearance of one Playoff Bowl legacy. The coaching staffs for the 2010 Pro Bowl did not come from the losers of the conference championship games, but instead from the teams with the best regular-season records among those that lost in the divisional round of the playoffs in each conference.[10]
All ten games were played at theOrange Bowl inMiami,Florida. Most were played the week following the NFL Championship game, with two exceptions: the first was played two weeks after and the last the day before. The first two games and the last one were played on Saturday, with the rest being played on Sunday. The Western Conference team won eight of the ten games.
| Season | Date | Winner | Score | Loser | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | January 7, 1961 | Detroit Lions | 17–16 | Cleveland Browns | 34,981 |
| 1961 | January 6, 1962 | Detroit Lions(2) | 38–10 | Philadelphia Eagles | 25,612 |
| 1962 | January 6, 1963 | Detroit Lions(3) | 17–10 | Pittsburgh Steelers | 36,284 |
| 1963 | January 5, 1964 | Green Bay Packers | 40–23 | Cleveland Browns | 54,921 |
| 1964 | January 3, 1965 | St. Louis Cardinals | 24–17 | Green Bay Packers | 56,218 |
| 1965 | January 9, 1966 | Baltimore Colts | 35–3 | Dallas Cowboys | 65,569 |
| 1966 | January 8, 1967 | Baltimore Colts(2) | 20–14 | Philadelphia Eagles | 58,088 |
| 1967 | January 7, 1968 | Los Angeles Rams | 30–6 | Cleveland Browns | 37,102 |
| 1968 | January 5, 1969 | Dallas Cowboys | 17–13 | Minnesota Vikings | 22,961 |
| 1969 | January 3, 1970 | Los Angeles Rams(2) | 31–0 | Dallas Cowboys | 31,151 |
| Games | Team | W | L | PCT | Won (3rd) | Lost (4th) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Detroit Lions | 3 | 0 | 1.000 | 1960,1961,1962 | |
| 3 | Dallas Cowboys | 1 | 2 | .333 | 1968 | 1965,1969 |
| 3 | Cleveland Browns | 0 | 3 | .000 | 1960,1963,1967 | |
| 2 | Baltimore Colts | 2 | 0 | 1.000 | 1965,1966 | |
| 2 | Los Angeles Rams | 2 | 0 | 1.000 | 1967,1969 | |
| 2 | Green Bay Packers | 1 | 1 | .500 | 1963 | 1964 |
| 2 | Philadelphia Eagles | 0 | 2 | .000 | 1961,1966 | |
| 1 | St. Louis Cardinals | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 1964 | |
| 1 | Minnesota Vikings | 0 | 1 | .000 | 1968 | |
| 1 | Pittsburgh Steelers | 0 | 1 | .000 | 1962 |
| Season | Network | Play-by-play | Color commentator(s) | Sideline reporter(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | CBS | Ken Coleman (first half) andVan Patrick (second half) | Johnny Lujack | |
| 1961[11] | CBS | Chris Schenkel (first half) andVan Patrick (second half) | Johnny Lujack | |
| 1962[12] | CBS | Chris Schenkel (first half) andRay Scott (second half) | Warren Lahr | |
| 1963[13] | CBS | Ray Scott (first half) andKen Coleman (second half) | Frank Gifford | |
| 1964[14] | CBS | Jack Drees (first half) andEarl Gillespie (second half) | Frank Gifford | |
| 1965[15] | CBS | Frank Glieber (first half) andChuck Thompson (second half) | Pat Summerall | |
| 1966[16] | CBS | Chuck Thompson | Tom Brookshier | |
| 1967[17] | CBS | Frank Glieber | Frank Gifford | |
| 1968[18] | CBS | Ray Scott | Paul Christman | Frank Glieber |
| 1969[19] | CBS | Jack Whitaker | Frank Gifford andDon Perkins |
That game, the last Playoff Bowl ever, likely was the best postseason performance ever by the Rams. But don't look for it in the NFL record book. The NFL has since designated Playoff Bowl games as exhibitions.
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