| Regular season | |
|---|---|
| Duration | September 15 – December 15, 1974 |
| Playoffs | |
| Start date | December 21, 1974 |
| AFC Champions | Pittsburgh Steelers |
| NFC Champions | Minnesota Vikings |
| Super Bowl IX | |
| Date | January 12, 1975 |
| Site | Tulane Stadium, New Orleans,Louisiana |
| Champions | Pittsburgh Steelers |
| Pro Bowl | |
| Date | January 20, 1975 |
| Site | Orange Bowl,Miami,Florida |
The1974 NFL season was the 55thregular season of theNational Football League. The season ended withSuper Bowl IX when thePittsburgh Steelers defeated theMinnesota Vikings 16-6. Players held astrike from July 1 until August 10,[1] prior to the regular season beginning;[2] only one preseason game (that year'sCollege All-Star Game) was canceled, and the preseason contests were held with all-rookie rosters.
The 1974 season was the first played under a major rules reform intended to promote offensive football, including a reduction of the penalty for offensive holding from 15 yards to 10, elimination of unlimited "chucking" of pass receivers and banning low blocks against them, moving the goalposts to the end line to incentivize more aggressive play-calling, and implementing sudden death overtime to reduce tie games.
The1974 NFL draft was held from January 29 to 30, 1974, atNew York City'sAmericana Hotel. With the first pick, theDallas Cowboys selected defensive endEd "Too Tall" Jones from theTennessee State University.
There were two new referees in 1974,Cal Lepore andGordon McCarter. Lepore replaced the retiredJohn McDonough, the referee forSuper Bowl IV and the NFL's longest game, the 1971 Christmas Day playoff between the Dolphins and Chiefs which lasted 82 minutes, 40 seconds. McCarter succeededJack Reader, who left the field to become chief lieutenant to NFL Director of OfficiatingArt McNally at league headquarters in New York.
The NFL faced growing criticism in the early 1970s that its game had become too conservative — run-centric and field position-oriented.[3] The league'scompetition committee had worked for several years attempting to craft rules changes that would make long touchdown drives more achievable and reducing the number of possessions ending with long field goal attempts.[3]
Unfortunately, various piecemeal attempts to implement rules changes to open up the game had devolved into arguments and been shot down at the annual meetings of team owners.[3] Ahead of the 1974 a new approach was taken by the competition committee, however, and a broad suite of major rules reforms were presented to the other owners as a package on a take-it-or-leave it basis.[3] With changes implemented by the rivalWorld Football League (WFL) helping to spur action lest the NFL be left behind, this set of rules changes was approved:
Although the package of rules changes were approved by ownership for the 1974 season, substantial dissent remained, with at least eight owners expressing disapproval off the record.[12] Chief among these wasJoe Robbie, owner of the world championMiami Dolphins, who objected that the changes were "frankly intended to tip the scales toward passing and against running."[12] Robbie asserted that his team had "proved that football fans like to watch a good running game" and that "you aren't making it exciting when you put in a new rule making it harder to block sweeps."[12]
Those favoring passing were more positive, withSt. Louis Cardinals head coachDon Coryell enthusiastically declaring, "The new rules definitely encourage offense."[12]
In addition to its sweeping changes to playing rules, the NFL eliminated the "future list" ("taxi squad") of players a team could sign without placing them on an active roster. The future list had been formalized by the league in1965 and had informally existed for over a decade before that. The concept returned in1977, renamed thepractice squad.
From 1970 to 2001, 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, records against common opponents, and records in conference play.
| Week | Eastern | Central | Western | Wild Card | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | St. Louis, Washington, Dallas | 1–0–0 | Chicago, Minnesota | 1–0–0 | Los Angeles, San Fran. | 1–0–0 | 4 teams | 1–0–0 |
| 2 | St. Louis | 2–0–0 | Minnesota | 2–0–0 | Los Angeles, San Fran. | 2–0–0 | Los Angeles, San Fran. | 2–0–0 |
| 3 | St. Louis | 3–0–0 | Minnesota | 3–0–0 | Los Angeles, San Fran. | 2–1–0 | 4 teams | 2–1–0 |
| 4 | St. Louis | 4–0–0 | Minnesota | 4–0–0 | Los Angeles | 3–1–0 | Philadelphia | 3–1–0 |
| 5 | St. Louis | 5–0–0 | Minnesota | 5–0–0 | Los Angeles | 3–2–0 | Philadelphia | 4–1–0 |
| 6 | St. Louis | 6–0–0 | Minnesota | 5–1–0 | Los Angeles | 4–2–0 | Philadelphia | 4–2–0 |
| 7 | St. Louis | 7–0–0 | Minnesota | 5–2–0 | Los Angeles | 5–2–0 | Washington | 4–3–0 |
| 8 | St. Louis | 7–1–0 | Minnesota | 6–2–0 | Los Angeles | 6–2–0 | Washington | 5–3–0 |
| 9 | St. Louis | 7–2–0 | Minnesota | 7–2–0 | Los Angeles | 7–2–0 | Washington | 6–3–0 |
| 10 | St. Louis | 8–2–0 | Minnesota | 7–3–0 | Los Angeles | 7–3–0 | Washington | 7–3–0 |
| 11 | St. Louis | 9–2–0 | Minnesota | 7–4–0 | Los Angeles | 8–3–0 | Washington | 8–3–0 |
| 12 | St. Louis | 9–3–0 | Minnesota | 8–4–0 | Los Angeles | 9–3–0 | Washington | 8–4–0 |
| 13 | St. Louis | 9–4–0 | Minnesota | 9–4–0 | Los Angeles | 9–4–0 | Washington | 9–4–0 |
| 14 | St. Louis | 10–4–0 | Minnesota | 10–4–0 | Los Angeles | 10–4–0 | Washington | 10–4–0 |
| Week | Eastern | Central | Western | Wild Card | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Buffalo, New England | 1–0–0 | Pittsburgh, Houston, Cincinnati | 1–0–0 | Kansas City | 1–0–0 | Denver, Kansas City, San Diego | 1–0–0 |
| 2 | New England | 2–0–0 | Pittsburgh | 1–0–1 | Oakland* | 1–1–0 | 8 teams | 1–1–0 |
| 3 | New England | 3–0–0 | Cincinnati | 2–1–0 | Oakland* | 2–1–0 | 3 teams | 2–1–0 |
| 4 | New England | 4–0–0 | Cincinnati | 3–1–0 | Oakland | 3–1–0 | Pittsburgh | 2–1–1 |
| 5 | New England | 5–0–0 | Cincinnati | 4–1–0 | Oakland | 4–1–0 | Buffalo | 4–1–0 |
| 6 | Buffalo | 5–1–0 | Pittsburgh | 4–1–1 | Oakland | 5–1–0 | New England | 5–1–0 |
| 7 | Buffalo | 6–1–0 | Pittsburgh | 5–1–1 | Oakland | 6–1–0 | New England | 6–1–0 |
| 8 | Buffalo | 7–1–0 | Pittsburgh | 6–1–1 | Oakland | 7–1–0 | New England | 6–2–0 |
| 9 | Miami | 7–2–0 | Pittsburgh | 6–2–1 | Oakland | 8–1–0 | Buffalo | 7–2–0 |
| 10 | Miami | 8–2–0 | Pittsburgh | 7–2–1 | Oakland | 9–1–0 | Buffalo | 7–3–0 |
| 11 | Miami | 8–3–0 | Pittsburgh | 8–2–1 | Oakland | 9–2–0 | Buffalo | 8–3–0 |
| 12 | Miami | 9–3–0 | Pittsburgh | 8–3–1 | Oakland | 10–2–0 | Buffalo | 9–3–0 |
| 13 | Miami | 10–3–0 | Pittsburgh | 9–3–1 | Oakland | 11–2–0 | Buffalo | 9–4–0 |
| 14 | Miami | 11–3–0 | Pittsburgh | 10–3–1 | Oakland | 12–2–0 | Buffalo | 9–5–0 |
| Dec 22 –Three Rivers Stadium | |||||||||||||
| WC | Buffalo | 14 | |||||||||||
| Dec 29 - Oakland Coliseum | |||||||||||||
| Cent. | Pittsburgh | 32 | |||||||||||
| AFC | |||||||||||||
| Cent. | Pittsburgh | 24 | |||||||||||
| Dec 21 –Oakland Coliseum | |||||||||||||
| West | Oakland | 13 | |||||||||||
| AFC Championship | |||||||||||||
| East | Miami | 26 | |||||||||||
| Jan 12 -Tulane Stadium | |||||||||||||
| West | Oakland | 28 | |||||||||||
| Divisional playoffs | |||||||||||||
| AFC | Pittsburgh | 16 | |||||||||||
| Dec 22 –Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum | |||||||||||||
| NFC | Minnesota | 6 | |||||||||||
| Super Bowl IX | |||||||||||||
| WC | Washington | 10 | |||||||||||
| Dec 29 - Metropolitan Stadium | |||||||||||||
| West | Los Angeles | 19 | |||||||||||
| NFC | |||||||||||||
| West | Los Angeles | 10 | |||||||||||
| Dec 21 –Metropolitan Stadium | |||||||||||||
| Cent. | Minnesota | 14 | |||||||||||
| NFC Championship | |||||||||||||
| East | St. Louis | 14 | |||||||||||
| Cent. | Minnesota | 30 | |||||||||||
| Most Valuable Player | Ken Stabler,quarterback, Oakland |
| Coach of the Year | Don Coryell, St. Louis Cardinals |
| Offensive Player of the Year | Ken Stabler,quarterback, Oakland |
| Defensive Player of the Year | Joe Greene,defensive end, Pittsburgh |
| Offensive Rookie of the Year | Don Woods,running back, San Diego |
| Defensive Rookie of the Year | Jack Lambert,linebacker, Pittsburgh |
| Man of the Year | George Blanda,quarterback, Oakland |
| Comeback Player of the Year | Joe Namath,quarterback, New York |
| Super Bowl Most Valuable Player | Franco Harris,running back, Pittsburgh |
ABC,CBS, andNBC each signed four-year contracts to renew their rights to broadcastMonday Night Football, the NFC package, and the AFC package, respectively. The major change was that ABC was also given the rights to thePro Bowl, instead of having the game rotate annually between CBS and NBC.[13]
Don Meredith left ABC to join NBC's lead broadcast team ofCurt Gowdy andAl DeRogatis in their own three-man booth. NBC also hired the then-recently retired quarterbackJohn Brodie to replaceKyle Rote as the network's #2 color commentator, alongsideJim Simpson. ABC initially hiredFred Williamson to replace Meredith in theMNF booth, but he was so inarticulate during the preseason broadcasts that Williamson was replaced byAlex Karras for the regular season.[14]
CBS abandoned its pre-recordedThe NFL Today pregame show in favor of a live, wraparound style program titledThe NFL on CBS.Jack Buck was originally promoted to replaceRay Scott as the network's lead play-by-play announcer alongside color commentatorPat Summerall; only for CBS to shift Summerall from color commentator to play-by-play at midseason.Tom Brookshier was then paired with Summerall.
