Heidi Game is a 1968 American Football League game between the Oakland Raiders and the visiting New York Jets. The Raiders scored two touchdowns in the final minute to win the game 43–32. The game was notable for NBC’s pre-emption of the game to broadcast the television film Heidi. NBC’s president Julian Goodman formally apologized for the incident.
About Heidi Game in brief
Heidi Game is a 1968 American Football League game between the Oakland Raiders and the visiting New York Jets. The Raiders scored two touchdowns in the final minute to win the game 43–32. The game was notable for NBC’s pre-emption of the game to broadcast the television film Heidi. NBC’s president Julian Goodman formally apologized for the incident. The Jets and Raiders met again on December 29 in New York in the AFL Championship Game, with the Jets winning 27–23. In 1997, the Heidi Game was voted the most memorable regular season game in pro football history. The future National Football League would contractually stipulate that all game telecasts be shown to their conclusion in the markets of the visiting team, while other major leagues and events adopted similar mandates. In 1966, with less than a minute to go and the Raiders leading at the new Oakland Coliseum, 28–20, Jets left tackle Winston Hill predicted to Namath in the huddle that the man he was blocking, Ben Davidson, would rush on the next play. Namath called the draw, and the game ended in a tie, and an embittered Jets running back Emerson Boozer for 47 yards and a touchdown. In Week 4, the Jets defeated the Raiders at Shea Stadium, 27–14; this was the Raiders’ only regular season loss. The two teams had little success in their early years, playing so poorly that both the Titans and Raiders were allowed to draft players from other AFL teams following the 1962 season.
In 1963, Oakland general manager Al Davis traded guard Dan Ficca to New York during training camp, without mentioning to Ewbank that he would not be released from his military service for another six weeks. In the second game of the 1967 season, Namath was slugged twice by the Raiders; the game was one of the most vicious in Jet history; Namath slugged the Raiders twice in a row. The teams met again in Oakland in December 1967; the Jets won the game 28–28, and two weeks later, they defeated the Baltimore Colts of the National NFL League in Super Bowl III. Oakland, on the other hand, won the Western Division in 1967 with a 13–1 mark under coach John Rauch and then the AFL Championships Game over the Houston Oilers, 40–7, but fell to the Green Bay Packers in Super Super Bowl II. In November 1968, the Raiders and Jets met again; the Raiders beat the Jets 27-23 in Oakland, and then again in the Jets’ Shea Stadium home game, 27-14. The games were played in the same three-hour time slot, which was thought to be adequate. A high-scoring contest, together with a number of injuries and penalties for the two bitter AFL rivals, caused the match to run long. NBC executives had originally ordered that Heidi begin at 7: 00 p. m. EST, but then decided to allow thegame to air to its conclusion. As 7:00 p.m. approached, NBC’s switchboards were jammed by viewers phoning to inquire about the night’s schedule, preventing the planned change.
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This page is based on the article Heidi Game published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 12, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
