Three referees--Walt Fitzgerald, Bob Finley and George Rennix--retired following the 1970 season. Bob Frederic,Dick Jorgensen andFred Wyant were promoted to fill those vacancies.Rich Eichhorst, a back judge in 1970, resigned to concentrate on officiating college basketball; he was replaced by Don Orr, who officiated in the league through 1995.
Teams will not be charged a time out for an injured player unless the injury occurs inside the last two minutes of a half or overtime (since1974).
Missed field goal attempts which cross the goal line can be run back. Previously, only those which fell short of the goal line could be returned; those which broke the plane of the goal line resulted in an automatictouchback.
September 5 -George Trafton, age 74. Center for theChicago Bears from 1920-1932. Elected to the Pro Football Hall Of Fame in 1964.
October 24 -Chuck Hughes, age 28. Wide receiver,Detroit Lions. Died shortly after catching a pass in a game against theChicago Bears. Hughes was the last player to die during an NFL game.
November 27 -Joe Guyon, age 79. Wing back for the New York Giants andOorang Indians, elected to the pro football hall of fame in 1966.
Starting in 1970, and until 2002, there were three divisions (Eastern, Central and Western) in each conference. The winners of each division, and a fourth “wild card” team based on the best non-division winner, qualified for the playoffs. The tiebreaker rules were changed to start with head-to-head competition, followed by division records, record against common opponents, and records in conference play. More tiebreakers were provided in 1971 because, in 1970, reversing just one game’s outcome would have led to a coin toss between Dallas and Detroit for the NFC wild card berth.
Teams listed with an asterisk in these tables are leaders on tiebreak
Note: Prior to the1975 season, the home teams in the playoffs were decided based on a yearly rotation of division winners. Had the playoffs been seeded, the divisional round matchups would have been #3 Cleveland at #2 Miami and #4 wild card Baltimore at #1 Kansas City in the AFC; #4 wild card Washington at #1 Minnesota and #3 San Francisco at #2 Dallas in the NFC (since the Cowboys and Vikings both had 11-3 records and did not play during the regular season, the tiebreaker would have been conference record. Minnesota was 9-2 vs. NFC teams compared to Dallas' 8-3).
New England Patriots:John Mazur began his first full season as Patriots head coach. He replacedClive Rush after seven games into the 1970 season for medical reasons.
San Diego Chargers:Sid Gillman returned to the field after sitting out half of the 1969 season and all of the 1970 season due to poor health.
Washington Redskins:George Allen was named as Washington's head coach.Vince Lombardi was diagnosed with terminal cancer in late June before the 1970 season, dying on September 3. Offensive line coachBill Austin served as Washington's head coach for 1970.
11 teams played their home games onartificial turf in 1971. This was up from 7 teams in the NFL in 1970. The teams were: Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Houston, Miami, New England, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis and San Francisco.
TheAtlanta Falcons switched their primary jerseys from black to red
TheChicago Bears adopted a second white jersey with block numbers, which was worn four of the five games in which the Bears wore white jerseys. Also, a second navy blue jersey without sleeve stripes was added for warm weather games.
TheNew York Jets wore a modified white jersey in the first half of the season which did not have green stripes over the shoulders
TheOakland Raiders switched from silver to black numbers on their white jerseys
TheSan Francisco 49ers added alternate jerseys with no striping or TV numbers for hot games
This was the second year under the league's four-year broadcast contracts withABC,CBS, andNBC to televiseMonday Night Football, the NFC package, and the AFC package, respectively.Frank Gifford's contract with CBS expired. He was then hired by ABC to serve as play-by-play announcer forMNF, whileKeith Jackson returned to call college football for the network.Jack Whitaker andPat Summerall replaced Gifford as hosts onThe NFL Today, which was still a pre-recorded pregame show. At NBC,Al DeRogatis andKyle Rote swapped color commentator positions, with DeRogatis joiningCurt Gowdy as the network's lead broadcast team and Rote joiningJim Simpson at #2.[2]
