Minnesota Vikings vs Dallas Cowboys • 1969 Playoff Bowl 

Dan, You are so correct. Well said. It's a different world today and, like our parents thought what was expressed in the 60's and 70's was absurd by our generation the cycle continues, the current generation, like your previous commenter will know what we are talking about when they reach senior citizen status and they see and hear things that will make them wonder why as well. They will appreciate what is happening for them now better than what they will be seeing and hearing some 20 or 30 years from now. It gets worse, that is obvious. The world's a changing.

Jim Stark why don’t u shut the fuck up and go back to school and learn a few things Stark. Of course that might be a tall order for you!

I agree . Now it's a bunch of gangstas

Nowadays players let the Money Do their talking So it doesn't matter if they can't talk or not !!

And we didn't even hear from the probably the smartest and well-spoken player on the field - Alan Page. Page got his law degree during his playing career and served as Minnesota Supreme Court Justice for many years.

Wrong way Jim marshall ❤️ Jim Marshall shot put guy from ohio.state

Jim Marshall used to jump out of airplanes too (with a parachute of course), a true man of adventure and a great defensive end. Here's to the Purple people eaters, one of the greatest front fours in NFL history!

Now you have fake grass and Boring looking stadiums named after banks.

so true.

great comment!

word!

It's been corporatized.

Purple Sword 3 Of course they weren't racist assholes looking for a reason they were proud of America for what it is not what some newspaper man said it was. I admired them. Those men black and white don't exist today and boy it hurts.

Credit goes to Mary Garber, the Winston Salem writer. She found great quality men who sent high school players from that area. One of them was Carl Eller.

Marshal had one flaw, and that was being a little too daring. Remember that little report they did on him when the camera followed him along as he did some skydiving. The Vikings front office probably fined him Big Time when they saw that film. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ID8SMAGqSOU.html

@@FrankiesMarket So True!

@N I think that was Hilgenberg.

🏉👍🇺🇸

Don Meredith, my very first sports hero. #17🇨🇱🏈🇨🇱

Love the sound the hiting this was football fun lovin the game

Those were the golden years of mnf.i can still hear merideth towards the end of the games singing,the party's over.cosell chompin on a big cigar.

Definitely better than what people give him credit for. The defense had not quite matured when Meredith was quarterback. .

They were pissed up man that be fun sitting in the booth with them couple of Bourbons 🍺

Why Marshall is not in Canton remains an unexplained mystery.

If he gets elected it should be with Matt Blair #59.

brianbachmeier34 No arguments here!

I always wondered which game was in Big Game America. I didn't see it on the schedule. It was a completely meaningless game that Lombardi described as the "shit bowl!" And yet Marshall is going all out. Yeah, put him in.

and otis taylor. no. 89

Tom Landry explains how to beat them 0:20

That number 58 -- linebacker Wally Hilgenberg -- died at age 66 of CTE.

Pete Gent was the receiver. It was his last game as well. He put a metal brace which probably was illegal.

@@brent4723 Reading that really hurt.

And remember this was a game between 2 teams that were knocked out of the playoffs the week before. In today’s parlance, they had nothing to play for. But this film shows the coaches and players took it seriously (maybe too seriously), playing hard, hitting hard.

​@@martinrain312the only way to play football is hard and all out or you are going to get hurt

@@FrankiesMarket that's coz they played for the game back then. You imagine the intensity of a third place playoff these days? It'd be as soft as the pro bowl.

Tom Strauss...thank you VERY MUCH for the information! I was pulling my hair out because I couldn’t find any boxscore on the Pro Football Reference website for this game. I was especially puzzled when I went to Bobby Bryant’s career statistics and found ZERO touchdowns in his career kickoff return stats!

@@carspiv I think that they should be reinstated as actual games. Ain’t gonna happen though. The feature was part of “Big Game America, a 1969 NFL Films feature produced and directed by Steve Sabol (narrated by Burt Lancaster)

Not certain, but I think this was the last season they played the "Playoff Bowl". Vince Lombardi coached in this game one year, and hated it.

@ Be More - yes you are correct. Unfortunately this WAS the last year of the “Playoff Bowl”. Too bad - they were a lot of fun and as you can see - very competitive.

There was one more playoff bowl game. The last one wasn't too pleasant for Dallas. They lost to Rams 31-0 in January of 1970.

Jim Stark u mean YOUR household!

The average salary for a teacher in 1968- 70 was between 8 and 9000 dollars, an NFL rookie made the minimum $9000, veterans made $10000, for a 3 to 4 month season. So how was that being underpaid? Greed!

Very true, Dick! However, compared to what they make nowadays, it's a completely different world! The players nowadays do not have to work in the off season. Thank you for your comment! Hope all is well. xoxo The Clarences

As far back as the 1970s some players even had to work part time during the regular season to make ends meet.

@@BigRich1968 That wasn't greed. And teachers also have the summer off. The average salary for a teacher, this year, is a little over $60k. I'm guessing you know how much professional athletes are paid today. THAT'S greed.

@@Seemsayin Wow! And you think 60k is a lot of money? Please!

On point

Cookie cut rinse n repeat

Where was that ? Do you mean Bobby Maduro stadium ?

Baltimore Orioles' spring training home from 1959 to 1990.

Gary cuozzo another Minnesota viking 1960s quarterback

They still played hard for a game that meant NOTHING!Just for a few dollars.

They should bring back the Playoff Bowl

@@targettoad691 Absolutely would be perfect

Man, I just LOVE seeing players with spinal cord injuries being dragged off the field. The GOOD OLD DAYS!!!!

Sludge That player with the “spinal cord injury” had his career cut short...by RETIREMENT after playing only 144 more regular season games and 11 more seasons.

And if/when it legislates itself out of existence, someone will have to let me know. My Sundays haven't been wasted on the NFL for a long time.

Jan 5 1969, one week later on the same field was Super Bowl III.

Great broadcaster Monday night football

I'll bet they play if they get a paycheck.

I think the player dragged off may have been Vikings outside LB Wally Hilgenberg, number 58, due to an impact against his head. With all the lawsuits against head injuries/concussions back in the day, leading to modern-day problems, it still seems like, to me, the majority of 60s players may not have been much affected (for example, modern day videos of Tarkenton, Eller, Marshall, Kapp, Krause, and many other Vikings don't seem to show them messed up from head impacts). Unfortunately, Hilgenberg is possibly the most obvious and non-disputable Vikings, and even overall-NFL player, not only with a compromised quality of life, after football due to head impacts, but even a premature death, as I understand it, likely entirely caused by head impacts received during his long playing career: 1964-1979 (started in 1968 with the Vikings, was earlier with the Lions). Hilgenberg is actually a great linebacker, whose career with the Vikings it is great to carefully analyze, and appreciate, today. Tough, effective, no-nonsense linebacker play, including in some great defensive stands, characterized his career. Careful attention, though, indicates, at least until his widely-shared conversion to Christianity after the 1976 final of the Vikings Super Bowls season, that he was, I suppose, the enforcer on the defense, and may have played somewhat dirty, quite frankly, and drawn the most penalties for rough play among all the Vikings defenders.

Exactly, been saying this for a long time ! I remember reading in a Pro magazine back in the early 70's , Hilgenberg to being one of the meanest ( dirty ) players in the league. There are egregious examples of him doing just that. He was however , one tough player . Never getting much publicity he made countless huge plays in big games. By 1979 he had lost his starting position to Fredd McNeil, coming back form a broken jaw 37 year old Hilgenberg blocked a PAT versus the Bucs to preserve a Vikings victory.

Paul Bloede Wally did die from ALS, Lou Gerhrig disease. His wife donated his brain to research. He was in a special on HBO about 10 years ago. He was a great one.

Hilgenberg died from CTE related problems. He was original diagnosed with ALS, but research of his brain indicated it was CTE instead.

Who was the Cowboy that Hilgenberg hit? He completely seized up and then got nailed. This is the Cowboys team that North Dallas Forty is based on?

Great NFL broadcasting, he was funny

Same with Don Perkins

Pete Gent also

❤️ Meredith tv 📺 work

this looked like a brutal game. brutal.

And thanks to the NFL's ridiculous rules calling for rotational home-field advantage in the post-season, the 12-2 Cowboys had to play at the 10-4 Browns. This approach wasn't fully replaced until the 1975 season when the NFL finally went with seeding based on W/L percentage.

Dallas played in 3 of the last 5 of these games; this one against Minnesota was the only one that they won. In the other 2, they were thrashed by Baltimore, 35-3 following '65, and Baltimore even had to use a RB (Tom Matte) as their QB. Following'69, the LA Rams romped over them, 31-0. The one against the Colts was the very first post-season games Dallas ever played. But the last one (also the last Playoff Bowl), was when they were into their "psychological problem" according to Tom Landry. When Dallas emerged as a top NFL team in 1966, they were the best except for one-- the established champion GB Packers. They lost the Championship Game to them, though it came down to a goal line stand by GB. Then the next year was the Ice Bowl, where GB pulled it out at the end. Landry said this created doubts in their minds about themselves, and Cleveland was the team where this showed up. After losing to them in '68, they also lost in the '69 season, 42-10, then 38-14 in the Eastern Conference playoff. Interestingly, the next game after each of these times Cleveland thumped Dallas, the Browns were thumped themselves-- by Baltimore 34-0 in the NFL CG, and then twice b Minnesota, 51-3, then 27-7. All this is a good example of how emotional factors, and their resulting preparation and intensity, can be underrated.

@@dantheman5745 And now should be adjusted so seeding is just like the NBA: Winning your division ONLY guarantees you a playoff spot, the rest you have to earn by your record (as of this writing, Houston, leading the Southwest division in the Western conference would be a SEVENTH seed while Charlotte and Miami, co-leaders of the Southeast division in the Eastern Conference would be seeded SIXTH and SEVENTH respectively). In this format for 2018, the AFC West loser would be seeded third and HOST a first-round game, then if they win that would be re-seeded to second for the divisional round and host that round as well.

@@cynic2all When was this game? I don't find any record of it anywhere. The records have Meredith listed as the starter for the 1968-69 season, but not 1969-70, meaning 1968 was his last year and they list Minnesota beating Dallas in week 6 of of 1968 season 20-7 , whereas this game Dallas is shown winning. Was this a preseason game or postseason consolation game? Both Minnesota and Dallas lost in the divisional round in 1968-69 season.

They also wanted to get as much airtime away from the AFL as they could. The diehard NFL fans wouldn't watch the AFL.

Minnesota Vikings beat KC in the first game of the regular season in 1970 27 to 10.

Bobby Bryant starts the next season

It was; from a show produced by NFL Films called “Big Game America” celebrating the 50th anniversary of the NFL

❤️ Monday night tv 📺 work

You're not the only one who thinks that but if I read correctly Don & Tom had the quintessential "love hate relationship". I do wish Don would have stayed a couple of more years. They would have killed the Colts in V.

Back then, it was a real playoff game (before the NFL downgraded it to an exhibition game).

M Betan I'm with you. AND in '82 changed their beautiful blue uniform (with those silvery blue pants) to a pathetically blue on white uni. Totally different blue from the home white uni.

might be your tv

Man, I'm almost 65 and have been watching the Cowboys since '65 and remember those uniforms so vividly - The pants were metallic blue, satiny-looking on the fronts and the blue in their uniforms waxx a royal blue. They had the coolest looking uniforms in the NFL then. With all the uniforms changes in the past 70 some years, Dallas is one team that has changed the least, but I would love to see them go back to those vintage uniforms!

@@tonyginnetti5828 i totally agree with the Cowboys reverting to the royal blue jerseys with the serif numerals and slightly wide-block nameplates. The Raiders' uniforms are basically the same dating back to 1963.

This was the '3rd Place game' at the end of the 1968 season, Dallas had lost to Cleveland and Minnesota lost to Baltimore in the 1st round

This was Meredith's last game in the NFL. The game was treated like a pro-bowl game

Nowadays, you "retire" so you can "unretire". Why? So you can draw attention to yourself from a clueless fan base & media.

JIM STARK, I am so glad you did not turn it in to a leftwing political rant. But, I also noted that you really responded strongly: "STFU"- in shorthand on my part- you told the guy. That reaction is because that guy struck a nerve with you. Let me explain it this way..I'll even pur true words in your mouth: "MAN, THAT CELEBRATIN IS AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURE and you white uptight, conservative Trump voter-and what a piece of crap he is, not like Bill Clinton who was always a faithful husband, and was never, no matter what Juanita's witnesses say about her swollen lip, a rapist, and Trump was never like Obama who did not snort cocaine despite what his roomate said in the 1980's. No, so you tightass, you don't be slammin harmless a celebration that did not draw attention away from the team who blocked the play, the QB who ran it, and the other players who acted as decoys. And, a little celebratin is good and no, it does not taunt, nor wake up the angry opposition, nor has it ever caused fights in the past. Hey, what is more rewarding than celebrating the team accomplishment by running 15 yards away to the down marker and getting a sharpie pen to pantomine and write with. Remember, when your wife got that raise and you ran completely away from her and did a dance in the front yard and pretended to take a dump in that yard? Man, that is celebrating! And, your wife felt a part of the celebration, too, right after your three minute routine in the front yard, and once you returned...because y'all are a team. Now, man only white uptight conservaturds don't get that kind of team celebratin. And, no, on the field, celebratin by really rubbin it in never fired up the other team because they were just waiting to get their shot to do the same thing, nah, they were not fired up even more, at all!..you racist white tightass, Trump supporter instead of votebuying excuse making no bull democrats like I vote for. The ones that have never done anything substantive for me, uhhh, against me." There, bigot, you can douse yourself with your own racist idiocy. FEELINGS OVER FACTS AFTER ALL..twit. SCORING AND CELEBRATING BY ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING TO SHOW JOY OR TO INCLUDE YOUR TEAMMATES AND SHOWING JUST ENOUGH RESTRAINT TO NOT PISS OFF THE OTHER TEAM=PROFESSIONALISM. PRETENDING YOU ARE TAKING A SHIT ON THE TOILET IN THE ENDZONE after you scored a TD to leave your team trailing 54-12, is amateurish, and race does not have diddly shit to do with it, you gullible Democrat bigot. Got it, Genius?

Jim Stark Well, I'm with Dan The Man and Robert Spouse on this one. What you could use is to have your mouth washed out with a bar of soap, and I would be proud to do it.

Robert Sprouse don’t pay any attention to Stark, he fell on his head recently during one of his drinking binges and suffered severe brain damage. I actually feel sorry for the guy

Meredith returned to Dallas and flew with the team to Miami, resuming his role as a leader. “We need to win to get in the right frame of mind for next season,” he said. The Cowboys beat the Vikings, 17-13. Meredith played solidly. No one, not even Meredith himself, knew it was the last game of his life. Eisenberg, John. Chronicles of a Dallas Cowboys Fan: Growing Up With America's Team in the 1960s . Diversion Books. Kindle Edition.

The 1969 Playoff Bowl was for the 1968 season. So Don played his last game in 1969

More about Rick Volk's injury in Super Bowl III. www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2013/09/10/don-shula-football-life-concussions-rick-volk-dolphins-colts/2791669/

@Jim Stark Yet people, who probably eat raw meat, call these the good old days.

@Jim Stark Then dont play professional football. Its a violent violent sport of collisions that's what it's all about. Just keep your head up when you tackle. Dont be such a pussy. This country is turning into a land of big pussies.

@@sludge4125 No "days" were all "good". People who call it that are doing it as a point of comparison. Was football, all things considered, a better game in the 60s? I say yes. Whether or not it's safer today, the changes in the game make it unwatchable for many. If it is safer today that's advantageous to those who play the game. It doesn't mean the game is "better" though.