Playoff Bowl

The Playoff Bowl (officially known as the Bert Bell Benefit Bowl) was a post-season game for third place in the National Football League (NFL), played ten times following the 1960 through 1969 seasons, all at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida.[1][2]

Playoff Bowl (defunct)
Bert Bell Benefit Bowl
StadiumOrange Bowl
LocationMiami, Florida
Operated1961–1970 (January);
NFL game for third place
 Miami
Location in the United States

Bert Bell was the commissioner of the NFL from 1946 until his death in October 1959. He was a co-founder of the Philadelphia Eagles as well as a co-owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers during much of the 1940s. His death occurred while attending an Eagles-Steelers game in Philadelphia. Over the decade of the 1960s, the game contributed more than a million dollars to the Bert Bell players' pension fund.[3]

Location

All ten games in the Playoff Bowl series were contested at the Orange Bowl in Miami. The games were played in January, the week following the NFL championship game (and the collegiate Orange Bowl game on New Year's Day), except for the final year, when it was played the day before the NFL title game. The NFL's Pro Bowl (all-star game) was played the week after the Playoff Bowl.

History

After the 1959 season, NFL owners faced competition from the newly formed American Football League and wanted a vehicle through which to showcase more of its supposedly superior NFL professional football product on television. At the time, unlike the AFL, which had a contract with ABC-TV for 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.

    The 1966 season required another game following the American Football League Championship Game and the NFL Championship Game, the first of four AFL–NFL World Championship Games between the champions of the two major Professional Football leagues for the undisputed championship. The establishment of the AFL–NFL World Championship Game (Super Bowl was not its official name until Super Bowl III) was the first phase of the AFL–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 the Miami Dolphins in 1966 as an expansion franchise in the AFL reduced local interest in the game.

    In the 1967 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 the 1970 merger with the AFL, 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 in 1969, 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 the Baltimore Colts' rout of the Dallas Cowboys;[4] the 1965 season was the last one prior to the Dolphins starting play, the AFL–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.

    The end of the Playoff Bowl

    When the merger was completed for the 1970 season, there was discussion about continuing the Playoff Bowl, with the losers of the AFC and NFC Championship Games playing each other during the idle week before the Super Bowl. There were now seven post-season games in the NFL (three for each conference, plus the Super Bowl), and the Pro Bowl all-star game. A "losers' game" was not necessarily attractive for the league, and the Playoff Bowl came to an end.

    Official status

    Although the ten Playoff Bowls were official third place playoff games at the time they were played, [5] the NFL currently classifies them as exhibition games, and does not include them in the official results (or statistics) for the post-season.

    Criticism

    Vince Lombardi detested the Playoff Bowl, coaching in the games following the 1963 and 1964 seasons, after winning NFL titles in 1961 and 1962. 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 the St. 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 in 1965, the Packers won the first of three consecutive NFL championships from 1965–67. As of the 2019 season, the Packers are the only NFL team ever to win three consecutive titles in the post-season era (which began in 1933). During this successful run, the Packers also won the first two Super Bowls in convincing fashion. In an ironic twist, Lombardi's final game (and victory) as head coach of the Packers was Super Bowl II, played in "hinky-dink" Miami's Orange Bowl in January 1968.

    All-Pro defensive tackle Roger Brown appeared in five Playoff Bowls, the most by any player, and was on the winning side each time (Detroit Lions, 1960–61–62; Los Angeles Rams, 1967, 1969). He said playing in those seemingly meaningless contests was like having "the worst inferiority 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 best winning percentage at 1.000.

    Players' shares

    In its second year, the players on the winning team received $600 each, the losers $400;[6] and the fifth year game paid $800 and $600.[7] In its final years, the winners received $1,200 each, the losers $500.[3][8]

    Legacy

    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, this all-star game was played at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu the Sunday following the Super Bowl. However, in 2010, the Pro Bowl moved to Miami Gardens, Florida, and was played the week before Super 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.[9]

    Playoff Bowl results

    All ten games were played at the Orange Bowl in Miami, 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.

    SeasonDateWinnerScoreLoserAttendance
    1960January 7, 1961  Detroit Lions17–16Cleveland Browns34,981
    1961January 6, 1962Detroit Lions (2)38–10Philadelphia Eagles25,612
    1962January 6, 1963Detroit Lions (3)17–10Pittsburgh Steelers36,284
    1963January 5, 1964Green Bay Packers40–23Cleveland Browns54,921
    1964January 3, 1965St. Louis Cardinals24–17Green Bay Packers56,218
    1965January 9, 1966Baltimore Colts35–3Dallas Cowboys65,569
    1966January 8, 1967Baltimore Colts (2)20–14Philadelphia Eagles58,088
    1967January 7, 1968Los Angeles Rams30–6Cleveland Browns37,102
    1968January 5, 1969Dallas Cowboys17–13Minnesota Vikings22,961
    1969January 3, 1970Los Angeles Rams (2)  31–0Dallas Cowboys31,151

    Records

    GamesTeamWLPCTWon  (3rd)Lost  (4th)
    3Detroit Lions301.0001960, 1961, 1962
    3Dallas Cowboys12.33319681965, 1969
    3Cleveland Browns03.0001960, 1963, 1967
    2Baltimore Colts201.0001965, 1966
    2Los Angeles Rams201.0001967, 1969
    2Green Bay Packers11.50019631964
    2Philadelphia Eagles02.0001961, 1966
    1St. Louis Cardinals101.0001964
    1Minnesota Vikings01.0001968
    1Pittsburgh Steelers01.0001962

    Broadcasters
    SeasonNetworkPlay-by-playColor commentator(s)Sideline reporter(s)
    1969[10] CBS Jack Whitaker Frank Gifford and Don Perkins
    1968[11] CBS Ray Scott Paul Christman Frank Glieber
    1967[12] CBS Frank Glieber Frank Gifford
    1966[13] CBS Chuck Thompson Tom Brookshier
    1965[14] CBS Frank Glieber (first half) and Chuck Thompson (second half) Pat Summerall
    1964[15] CBS Jack Drees (first half) and Earl Gillespie (second half) Frank Gifford
    1963[16] CBS Ray Scott (first half) and Ken Coleman (second half) Frank Gifford
    1962[17] CBS Chris Schenkel (first half) and Ray Scott (second half) Warren Lahr
    1961[18] CBS Chris Schenkel (first half) and Van Patrick (second half) Johnny Lujack
    1960 CBS Ken Coleman (first half) and Van Patrick (second half) Johnny Lujack

    References
    1. Sandomir, Richard (February 6, 2011). "Little Consolation in Third-Place Game". The New York Times. Retrieved August 7, 2013.
    2. "The NFL Used to Play a Third-Place Game, a "Losers' Bowl for Losers"". Mental Floss. 30 Jan 2014. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
    3. "'Fun Week' may be over". St. Petersburg Independent. Florida. Associated Press. January 6, 1969. p. 2C.
    4. Chicago Tribune (January 10, 1966). "Matte leads Colts' rout of Cowboys". Associated Press. p. 1, section 3.
    5. NFL: What was the Playoff Bowl and when was it played? https://us.bolavip.com
    6. "Eagles favored in Playoff Bowl at Miami". Spartanburg Herald. South Carolina. Associated Press. January 6, 1962. p. 9.
    7. "Packers, Cards rated even for Playoff Bowl". Reading Eagle. Pennsylvania. UPI. January 2, 1965. p. 11.
    8. "Pride richest plum in Playoff Bowl game". Miami News. January 3, 1970. p. 1-B.
    9. Wyche, Steve (2009-12-28). "Pro Bowl selections, like game itself, will have new wrinkles". NFL.com. Archived from the original on 2010-01-05. Retrieved 2010-01-11.
    10. 1969 NFL-AFL Commentator Crews Archived 2008-12-11 at the Wayback Machine
    11. 1968 NFL-AFL Commentator Crews Archived 2008-12-11 at the Wayback Machine
    12. 1967 NFL-AFL Commentator Crews Archived 2008-12-11 at the Wayback Machine
    13. 1966 NFL-AFL Commentator Crews Archived 2008-12-11 at the Wayback Machine
    14. 1965 NFL-AFL Commentator Crews Archived 2008-12-11 at the Wayback Machine
    15. 1964 NFL-AFL Commentator Crews Archived 2008-12-11 at the Wayback Machine
    16. 1963 NFL-AFL Commentator Crews Archived 2008-12-11 at the Wayback Machine
    17. 1962 NFL-AFL Commentator Crews
    18. 1961 NFL-AFL Commentator Crews
    • NFL Record and Fact Book (ISBN 1-932994-36-X)
    • When Pride Still Mattered, A Life of Vince Lombardi, by David Maraniss, 1999, p. 362 (ISBN 0-684-84418-4)
    • http://www.pro-football-reference.com - Large online database of NFL data and statistics
    • ProLog/The National Football League Annual 1970-71, by Bob Oates, Jr., NFL Properties, 1971, (ISBN 0-695-80261-5)

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