In the late s, few professional football games took longer than two and a half hours to play, and the Jets—Raiders three-hour time slot was thought to be adequate. A high-scoring contest, together with a number of injuries and penalties for the two bitter American Football League rivals, caused the game to run long. NBC executives had ordered that Heidi must begin on time, but given the exciting game, they decided to postpone the start of the film and continue football coverage.
Heidi began as scheduled, preempting the final moments of the game and the two Oakland touchdowns in the eastern half of the country, to the outrage of viewers. The Heidi Game led to a change in the way professional football is shown on network television; games are shown to their conclusion before evening programming begins.
To ensure that network personnel could communicate under similar circumstances, special telephones dubbed " Heidi phones" were installed, with a connection to a different telephone exchange from other network phones. In , the Heidi Game was voted the most memorable regular season game in pro football history. Any time we went into a Raiders game, we knew we were gonna come out of it sore. Guaranteed to get the crap beat out of you.
They were a rough, physical team. Dislike isn't the word I'd use to describe how we felt about them. Downright hatred would be more accurate. The two teams did not play in the same division. However, each AFL team played all other teams in the league each year, allowing the Raiders and Jets to forge a bitter rivalry. Namath called the draw, and handed the ball off to running back Emerson Boozer for 47 yards and a touchdown. After a Jets two-point conversion , the game ended in a 28—28 tie, and an embittered Davidson stated, "I'll get even.
They still have to play us next year. Sportswriter Paul Zimmerman said of the second Jets-Raiders game:. The game was one of the most vicious in Jet history. Namath was slugged to the turf; he was hit late, punched in the groin.
They aimed for his knees, tried to step on his hands And Davidson got Namath. He got him on a rollout, with a right that started somewhere between [California cities] Hayward and Alameda. It knocked Namath's helmet flying, and broke his jaw, but Namath didn't miss a play, and he threw for yards and three TD's in that 38—27 loss.
Going into Week 11 of the AFL season, each team had lost only two games; the Chiefs, who had not yet had a bye week , had eight wins, the others seven. In an era with no wild card teams, the Raiders needed a victory over the Jets in Week 11 to avoid falling a game and a half behind the Chiefs in the AFL West—finishing second, however good their record, would end their season.
The Jets, on the other hand, would clinch at least a tie for the AFL East title with a victory over the Raiders in their only regular season meeting. The photographed play was said to have broken the quarterback's jaw though Namath stated he had broken it on a tough piece of steak, and some claim it was Raiders defensive end Ike Lassiter who injured Namath.
Although the poster, which had been placed by Davis, was removed before the game, word of this "intimidation through photography" reached the Jets in New York. When the Jets went to Oakland in , that photo on the Raiders' wall symbolized the rivalry as well as Coach Weeb Ewbank's distrust of Davis. Whenever a helicopter flew anywhere near a Jets practice the week before a game against the Raiders, Ewbank would look up and shake his fist.
He just knew Davis had somebody spying on the Jets. The Raiders declined to allow New York reporters to watch practices, a courtesy Ewbank extended to Oakland pressmen. Raiders assistant coach later head coach John Madden was responsible for the exchange of game films with upcoming opponents; he sent the films to the Jets through Chicago so they would arrive a day or two late, reasoning that Davis, not him, would be blamed for the delay.
Ewbank blamed Davis for heavily watering the Coliseum field to slow the Jets' speedy receivers, a tactic the Oakland co-owner credited to Madden.
This was a nationwide telecast, to be shown to the entire country at 4 p. NBC hoped that viewers who tuned their television channel selectors to the game would not walk over to the television and change the channel or turn off the power switch, but would watch the evening's programming. They anticipated a good game, which would cause the audience to remain in their seats and watch the game in full, "a perfect lead in for the network's special presentation of Heidi , the Johanna Spyri children's classic, which was scheduled to air after the game at 7 p.
EST ". Pacific Standard Time , the western half of the country would have to wait after the game for 7 p. Heidi was heavily promoted by NBC in television commercials and newspaper advertisements. The network hoped to gain a large audience, especially among families, whom the network anticipated would watch the entire two-hour film.
Commercials for the film were not sold by NBC; instead, the entire block of two hours was sold to the Timex watch company which would air the film and have its own commercials run. Eastern 6 p. Central , and could not be delayed or joined in progress for any reason.
That Sunday evening at pm the family classic Heidi was scheduled. This is the well-known story of a little Swiss girl who lives with her grandfather in the [Alps], a staple of wholesome entertainment. It was on once a year. If one missed it, they missed it until the next year. Dick Cline, the network BOC supervisor for sports telecasts, prepared the series of network orders which would result in the game running as scheduled, followed by Heidi.
Cline had no reason to believe that the game would run over three hours; no professional football game presented by NBC ever had. However, other NBC executives stressed that Heidi must start as scheduled. NBC President Julian Goodman told his executives before the weekend that the well-sponsored, well-promoted film must start on time.
Connal told Ellis that NBC had sold the time, and was obligated to switch to the film. In the era before satellite transmission , programming was transmitted by coaxial cable line, with the cooperation of the telephone company.
For this game, the Burbank BOC was to receive the feed from Oakland, insert commercials and network announcements, and send the modified feed via telephone wire to a switching station west of Chicago near the Mississippi River.
An engineer was stationed there to activate the Oakland feed into the full network when the game began, to cut it on instruction and then to return to his base. He had been told to expect at EST a network announcement for Heidi , after which he was to cut the feed from Burbank, and the Heidi feed from New York would begin. This placed Burbank in effective control of whether the engineer would cut the feed, since he would act upon hearing the announcement.
Connal, Cline's boss, was available in case of trouble, watching from his home in Connecticut. On the opening kickoff, the Jets were penalized for a personal foul against the Raiders. The Jets took an early 6—0 lead on yard and yard field goals made by kicker Jim Turner.
The Raiders, led by quarterback Daryle Lamonica , who had been battling recent back and knee injuries, scored the game's first touchdown , taking a 7—6 lead on a yard pass to receiver Warren Wells towards the end of the first quarter.
The Raiders added to their lead when Lamonica threw a yard pass to tight end Billy Cannon at the beginning of the second quarter. However, the Jets cut into Oakland's lead when Namath drove the offense 73 yards down field and ran the ball in for a 1-yard touchdown with five seconds remaining in the first half. The Jets lined up as if to kick the extra point, but holder and backup quarterback Babe Parilli tried to complete a two-point conversion pass, which fell incomplete.
The Raiders led the Jets 14—12 at halftime. Approximately five minutes into the third quarter, Namath forged another Jets drive, following an interception by safety Jim Hudson , that ended with halfback Bill Mathis scoring a 4-yard touchdown behind blocking guard Dave Herman to give New York a 19—14 lead.
The Raiders responded with an yard drive that saw running back Charlie Smith score his first touchdown of the game on a 3-yard pass from Lamonica.
The Raiders took a 22—19 lead on a two-point conversion with Lamonica completing the attempt to receiver Hewritt Dixon. As he left the field, he gave the jeering crowd the finger. The penalties caused the ball to be placed at the Jets' 3-yard line, and Smith scored for Oakland one play later.
The fourth quarter began with Smith fumbling the football with Oakland in scoring position. New York defensive end Gerry Philbin recovered the football at the Jets' 3-yard line setting up a yard drive, consisting entirely of two Namath passes to Don Maynard , who was covered by Raiders' rookie cornerback George Atkinson.
The yard touchdown pass followed a yard throw, and gave the Jets a 26—22 lead. Turner added another field goal to the Jets' total, giving them a 29—22 lead. The Raiders promptly responded with Lamonica orchestrating an yard drive that ended with a yard pass to receiver Fred Biletnikoff with less than four minutes remaining in the game, tying the contest.
I would have outrun Hudson, too. The play that was called back was a circle pattern, but teams were getting wise to that. So on the touchdown, I ran to the hash mark on the right side and then broke to the sideline. That play was open all day, but Daryle told me to be patient, that we would get to it.
Our wide receivers ran deep patterns to clear out the secondary and then I just cut underneath. Turner made a yard field goal to break the tie and give the Jets a three point lead with a little over a minute remaining in the game.
Turner kicked the ball off to the Raiders' Smith, who took the kick out of the end zone and to Oakland's own yard line.
Lamonica completed to Smith for an apparent touchdown, but the play was called back due to a penalty, causing New York cornerback Johnny Sample to say to Lamonica, "Nice try, Lamonica. Better luck next year. On the ensuing play, Lamonica threw another pass to Smith who outpaced Jets safety Mike D'Amato , who replaced the ejected Jim Hudson, for a yard touchdown. Kicker George Blanda made the extra point attempt which gave the Raiders a 36—32 lead. With 42 seconds remaining, the Jets still had a chance to score; however, on the kickoff, New York return man Earl Christy fumbled the ball at the Jets' yard line when he was tackled by Raiders linebacker Bill Budness.
Reserve running back Preston Ridlehuber picked up the fumbled ball and ran into the end zone, which with another Blanda extra point gave the Raiders a 43—32 lead, deflating any hopes of the Jets coming back to win the contest. Ridlehuber could not remember whether AFL rules permitted advancing a fumbled kickoff return they did , so tried to make it appear he was entering the end zone with the same motion he gathered in the ball.
Oakland kicked off to New York again, but it could do little with the ball in the final seconds, and the game ended. The two starting quarterbacks combined for 71 pass attempts, with the clock stopping on each incompletion, and the officials called 19 penalties, leading to more clock stoppages. As the fourth quarter began, it was EST, [29] and NBC executives began to realize the game might not end by They kept promoting Heidi , kept promoting Heidi.
I kept looking at my watch, and I said to myself, there's no way to me that Heidi' s going to make this at seven o'clock. Julian Goodman, the president of the company, told us going into the weekend that Heidi had to start on time I looked at my watch, looked at another table clock, looked at the game, and thought, no way is this going to happen.
Connal, watching the game from his home in Old Greenwich, Connecticut , also noticed the fourth quarter was running "terribly slow. Both supported running the end of the game, but given Goodman's instructions, his permission was required. After promising Cline a return call, Connal reached Lindemann by telephone. Lindemann agreed that the end of the game should be run, and both men began trying to reach Goodman. Lindemann was successful in reaching Goodman, and asked the network president, "What about the instruction to broadcast operations control that Heidi had to go on at ET, no matter what?
It's a terrible idea. After several minutes of discussion, Durgin agreed to delay the start of Heidi until after the game was completed.
Cline, watching the clock nervously, attempted to call Connal back, only to find both lines busy. He waited as long as he could, then made one final, unsuccessful attempt. Unknown to Cline, Connal was talking to Goodman, who had agreed to "slide the network", that is, start Heidi as soon as Curt Gowdy signed off from the game.
Connal called the game producer, Ellis, in Oakland, to tell him the news, then called the BOC supervisor in Burbank—who, not knowing Connal, refused his order, and insisted on speaking with Goodman directly. As Goodman had disconnected to allow Connal to call Oakland, this could not be done.
Beginning about , many members of the public began calling NBC network and affiliate switchboards. Some demanded the conclusion of the game, others wanted to know if Heidi would start on time. These calls jammed the switchboards, and even blew repeated fuses in them, preventing the executives from getting through to each other to resolve the situation.
NBC protocol required an operations order from Connal, to countermand the midweek written orders, but Cline received no call from the increasingly desperate Connal, who was frustrated by the switchboard issues. Without such an order, and not knowing of Goodman's approval, Cline made the decision that Heidi would start on time.
The play that was called back was a circle pattern, but teams were getting wise to that. So on the touchdown, I ran to the hash mark on the right side and then broke to the sideline.
That play was open all day, but Daryle told me to be patient, that we would get to it. Our wide receivers ran deep patterns to clear out the secondary and then I just cut underneath. Raiders running back Charlie Smith [29]. Turner made a yard field goal to break the tie and give the Jets a three point lead with a little over a minute remaining in the game. Turner kicked the ball off to the Raiders' Smith, who took the kick out of the end zone and to Oakland's own yard line.
Lamonica completed to Smith for an apparent touchdown, but the play was called back due to a penalty, causing New York cornerback Johnny Sample to say to Lamonica, "Nice try, Lamonica. Better luck next year. On the ensuing play, Lamonica threw another pass to Smith who outpaced Jets safety Mike D'Amato , who replaced the ejected Jim Hudson, for a yard touchdown.
Kicker George Blanda made the extra point attempt which gave the Raiders a 36—32 lead. With 42 seconds remaining, the Jets still had a chance to score; however, on the kickoff, New York return man Earl Christy fumbled the ball at the Jets' yard line when he was tackled by Raiders linebacker Bill Budness.
Reserve running back Preston Ridlehuber picked up the fumbled ball and ran into the end zone, which with another Blanda extra point gave the Raiders a 43—32 lead, deflating any hopes of the Jets coming back to win the contest. Ridlehuber could not remember whether AFL rules permitted advancing a fumbled kickoff return they did , so tried to make it appear he was entering the end zone with the same motion he gathered in the ball.
Oakland kicked off to New York again, but they could do little with the ball in the final seconds, and the game ended. The two starting quarterbacks combined for 71 pass attempts, with the clock stopping on each incompletion, and the officials called 19 penalties, leading to more clock stoppages.
As the fourth quarter began, it was EST, [27] and NBC executives began to realize the game might not end by seven. They kept promoting Heidi , kept promoting Heidi. I kept looking at my watch, and I said to myself, there's no way to me that Heidi' s going to make this at seven o'clock.
Julian Goodman, the president of the company, told us going into the weekend that Heidi had to start on time I looked at my watch, looked at another table clock, looked at the game, and thought, no way is this going to happen. Connal, watching the game from his home in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, also noticed the fourth quarter was running "terribly slow.
Both supported running the end of the game, but given Goodman's instructions, his permission was required. After promising Cline a return call, Connal reached Lindemann by telephone.
Lindemann agreed that the end of the game should be run, and both men began trying to reach Goodman. Lindemann was successful in reaching Goodman, and asked the network president, "What about the instruction to broadcast operations control that Heidi had to go on at ET, no matter what?
It's a terrible idea. After several minutes of discussion, Durgin agreed to delay the start of Heidi until after the game was completed. Cline, watching the clock nervously, attempted to call Connal back, only to find both lines busy. He waited as long as he could, then made one final, unsuccessful attempt. Unknown to Cline, Connal was talking to Goodman, who had agreed to "slide the network", that is, start Heidi as soon as Curt Gowdy signed off from the game.
Connal called the game producer, Ellis, in Oakland, to tell him the news, then called the BOC supervisor in Burbank—who, not knowing Connal, refused his order, and insisted on speaking with Goodman directly.
As Goodman had disconnected to allow Connal to call Oakland, this could not be done. Beginning about , many members of the public began calling NBC network and affiliate switchboards. Some demanded the conclusion of the game, others wanted to know if Heidi would start on time. These calls jammed the switchboards, and even blew repeated fuses in them, preventing the executives from getting through to each other to resolve the situation. NBC protocol required an operations order from Connal, to countermand the midweek written orders, but Cline received no call from the increasingly desperate Connal, who was frustrated by the switchboard issues.
Without such an order, and not knowing of Goodman's approval, Cline made the decision that Heidi would start on time. Burbank BOC played the closing football theme and gave the word cue, to the outraged shock of Ellis and Connal, and the connection was irretrievably broken.
Although the western United States continued to view the game, the eastern half of the nation, including those expecting the finish of the football game saw instead a little girl on a Swiss mountain, and was unaware that Oakland was in the course of scoring two touchdowns to win the game.
Oakland Tribune reporter Bob Valli reported on the Heidi Game: "Television missed one of football's most exciting and exhausting minutes of emotion. In that minute, Oakland fans saw despair turn to delirium.
On realizing that NBC was switching away from the game, Goodman said to Lindemann by phone, "Where the hell has our football game gone? When Cline answered it, Goodman ordered him to go back to the game. Although Cline knew there was no way to reconnect the feed, he promised to do the best he could. Others called newspapers, television stations, even the New York City Police Department, both to seek the final score, and simply to vent. Ellis replied, "It's too bad America didn't see it.
In an attempt to inform the audience of the outcome of the game, NBC flashed the final score across the screen. It did so just as Heidi's paralyzed cousin, Klara, was taking her first, slow steps. According to sportswriter Jack Clary, "The football fans were indignant when they saw what they had missed. The Heidi audience was peeved at having an ambulatory football score intrude on one of the story's more touching moments.
Short of pre-empting Heidi for a skin flick, NBC could not have alienated more viewers that evening. At , Goodman issued a statement apologizing for the incident, and stating that he had missed the ending of the game "as much as anybody". He was told that if he had done anything other than what he did, NBC would have been at the mercy of Timex and Cline would have been fired.
A special " Heidi phone", a hotline connected to a different exchange and unaffected by switchboard meltdowns, was installed in BOC.
In the promotional newspaper advertisement for the film, Pinocchio assured football fans that they would view the entire game before the film and that he would sooner cut off his nose than "have them cut off" the action. NBC started The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn eight minutes late, and announced that all network programming would be eight minutes late. In subsequent television contracts, the merged NFL required language which obligated the networks to show games to completion in the road team's television market.
The game went into overtime, but NBC stayed with the game for almost 45 minutes despite angry calls from parents. Cline stated in , "I wonder if this Heidi thing will ever die Interviewed by the magazine, Jennifer Edwards, title star of Heidi , commented: "My gravestone is gonna say, 'She was a great moment in sports.
Everything had to be perfect. It was just a series of events that fit together. The game ran late, there was a lot of scoring; there were some injuries that stopped play.
And if the Jets had won, there would not have been the to-do that was made. But the way they lost fanned the fires. The Jets were enraged by the outcome of the game, for reasons having nothing to do with the television problems, of which they were initially unaware. Feeling that Hudson's disqualification was unjustified his replacement, D'Amato, was beaten for the winning touchdown , assistant coach Walt Michaels chased after the officials, and he and team doctor James Nicholas banged on the door of their dressing room, complaining bitterly.
Ewbank mentioned the officiating in his postgame press conference. Ewbank learned of the television problems in the locker room when he received a telephone call from his wife congratulating him on a Jets victory—Lucy Ewbank assumed the fact that the end of the game was not shown meant New York had won. Her husband profanely informed her of the game result.
Michaels accused Al Davis of getting the officials to inspect Turner's kicking shoes before a field goal attempt to see if they contained illegal metal plates, and called the Oakland owner "a man who has never contributed anything to football", to which Davis responded, "It's utterly ridiculous, unbelievable. It seems the Jets always lose to us because of penalties. The uniforms were not seen again once the team removed them in the Oakland locker room, and Jets management hastily ordered the green home uniforms, as well as the white uniforms the team had worn in the preseason to be shipped from New York.
While in California, Michaels complained by phone to Mel Hein , AFL supervisor of officials, stating that an official had cursed at Hudson, provoking a response which led to Hudson's ejection. Zimmerman, who wrote for the New York Post , later stated, "I never saw such ferocity on a football field in my life" and remembered that the films showed Oakland defensive lineman Dan Birdwell punch Namath in the groin, causing him to remain on the ground for several minutes, though he did not have to leave the game.
Birdwell's action was not penalized by the game officials. But I will always believe we would have beaten the Colts, too. In , Namath and Madden, by then both television analysts, were interviewed for the 20th anniversary of the Heidi Game. According to Madden, the Oakland victory in the Heidi Game "was kind of the start of the Raiders being a great team. One of the things we were doing was getting these fantastic come-from-behind things We didn't even know about the Heidi thing until we read about it the next day.
We paid them back then," to which Madden chuckled, "He's full of crap. American Football Wiki Explore. Games by year. Explore Wikis Community Central. Register Don't have an account? Heidi Game. View source. History Talk 0. Oakland Raiders. Archived from the original on August 21, Retrieved on August 17, Retrieved on August 20, Fee for article.
Times-Democrat , January 1, , p.
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