1970 NFL season
The realignment discussions for the NFC were so contentious that one final plan, out of five of them, was selected from an envelope in a vase by Commissioner Pete Rozelle's secretary, Thelma Elkjer[1] on January 16, 1970.
Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Baltimore were placed in the AFC in order to balance the conferences, while the NFC equalized the competitive strength of its East and West divisions rather than sorting out teams purely geographically.
Plans were also made to add two expansion teams, but this would not take place until 1976, seven years after the merger, when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Seattle Seahawks joined the league.
The tiebreaker rules were changed to start with head-to-head competition, followed by intra-conference records and finally a coin flip.
This became problematic during the final week of the regular season when potential victories by the Cowboys, Lions and Giants (all of whom were playing at home and favored to win) would have resulted in all three teams having similar records, New York winning the NFC East championship and a coin toss between Dallas and Detroit to decide the wild card.
On November 8, New Orleans Saints placekicker Tom Dempsey kicked a record 63-yard field goal as time expired to win 19–17 over the visiting Detroit Lions.
Dyche Stadium (since renamed Ryan Field), did not have lights (nor does it have permanent standards today), was planned as the Bears' new home, but a deal fell through due to strong opposition from several athletic directors in the Big Ten Conference and residents of Evanston.
Renamed from "Boston" to "New England" when they moved, the Patriots continue to play in Foxborough in Gillette Stadium, which opened in 2002.
To televise their games, the combined league retained the services of CBS and NBC, who were previously the primary broadcasters of the NFL and the AFL, respectively.
Both teams that advanced to the Super Bowl, the Baltimore Colts (44-24 to the Chiefs) and the Dallas Cowboys (38-0 to the Cardinals), had suffered humiliating defeats at home on Monday Night Football during the season.
The first MNF team consisted of veteran play-by-play announcer Keith Jackson, sportscaster Howard Cosell, and former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Don Meredith.
