1966 NFL And Now

Fifty years ago, on Thanksgiving night in 1966, the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Cleveland Browns, a if not the key victory in the Dallas team’s march to the first of what would be an incredible 17 post-season appearances in the 18 seasons from (1966-1983).

Yesterday’s win in Cleveland vs a team called the Browns, an expansion team formed after the original Browns moved to Baltimore, made it very likely the now (7-1) Cowboys will be in the playoffs, at the very least.

In 1966, the first year of a Super Bowl, the NFL had two conference winners and they played, with the winner representing the NFL vs the old AFL in the Super Bowl.

That year Green Bay defeated the Eastern Conference champion Cowboys (34-27) in an often forgotten, great NFL title game. The next year, the Packers won at home vs Dallas in the title tilt, known as “The Ice Bowl.” Both years G.B. went on to win the subsequent Supe rather handily.

This year and I will cite the opponents in a game yesterday that also played a key game in 1966 in a post later today or tomorrow, Dallas will need two playoff wins at least to make the Supe, so there is a long way to go.

They will end this week, way more than less, the halfway point of the 16 game schedule (some teams have played 9 games) with at least a game and a half lead for the best record in the NFC and its inherent home advantage game(s).