1963 NFL season

The 1963 NFL season was the 44th regular season of the National Football League. On April 17, NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle indefinitely suspended Green Bay Packers running back Paul Hornung and Detroit Lions defensive tackle Alex Karras for gambling on their own teams, as well as other NFL games; Hornung and Karras would miss the entire season. In addition, five other Detroit players were fined $2,000 each for placing bets on one game in which they did not participate.

The season ended when the Chicago Bears defeated the New York Giants in the NFL Championship Game.

JFK Assassination

On November 24, just two days after the assassination of President Kennedy, the NFL played its normal schedule of games. NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle said about playing the games: "It has been traditional in sports for athletes to perform in times of great personal tragedy. Football was Mr. Kennedy's game. He thrived on competition."^[1] Attendance at games went unaffected despite the assassination.^[2][3]

However, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Washington Redskins had sought postponement of the games.^[4][5] Eventually, the game between the two teams in Philadelphia saw acts of kindness from both sides. Before the game, each of the Eagles players contributed $50 to the family of Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit, who was killed by the assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald.^[6] After the game ended, the Redskins sent the game ball to the White House, thanking Rozelle for allowing the games to be played that weekend.^[6] Coach Bill McPeak said that the players on the Redskins, who won the game, asked him to send the ball to the White House because they said that they were "playing...for President Kennedy and in his memory."^[7][6]

Conference races

The Eastern and Western Conference races were undecided until the final day of the regular season. In the Eastern, the Browns were 7-1-0 after eight games, but on November 10, the Browns lost 9–7 at Pittsburgh, while the Giants beat the Eagles 42-14, to tie New York and Cleveland at 7–2–0. When the Giants won again and the Browns lost, the former had the lead.

The Western Division race was close as well. The Bears were 5–0 and the Packers 4–1 as of October 13. In Week Six, Green Bay won at St. Louis, 30–7, while Chicago lost at San Francisco, 20–14, tying the Bears and Packers for the lead at 6–1. Both teams continued to win, and then met in Chicago on November 17, where Green Bay lost, 26–7.

The games scheduled for Week Eleven took place on the weekend after the Kennedy assassination. Unlike the American Football League, which cancelled its schedule, the NFL chose to play the games, although they were not televised due to round-the-clock network TV coverage of the assassination aftermath. The Giants lost at home to St. Louis, 24-17, while Cleveland beat visiting Dallas 27-17, to give the three teams identical 8-3-0 records. The Bears were losing at Pittsburgh until Roger Leclerc kicked a field goal to get a 17-17 tie, and to stay half a game ahead of Green Bay.

In Week Twelve, Green Bay's chance to win was cancelled when Detroit tied the game 10-10, while Chicago averted another loss by tying Minnesota 17-17. The three way tie in the Eastern was pared down when Cleveland beat St. Louis 24-10, and New York won (34-27 over Dallas).

Week Thirteen saw both the Bears and Packers winning, while Cleveland lost to Detroit, 38-10. New York won 44-14 over Washington, but at 10-3-0, New York was trailed by Pittsburgh, which had an unusual 7-3-3 record, and the final game of the season would match the Steelers and Giants at Yankee Stadium.

Under the rules of the day, a Steelers win over the Giants would have given New York a 10-4-0 (.714) finish, while the Steelers' 8-3-3 finish would have been a .727 record and the trip to the championship game. It didn't happen that way. In a game that decided the conference title, New York beat Pittsburgh 33-17. In the Western race, Green Bay needed to win and for Chicago to lose. The Bears' 24-14 win over Detroit was announced while the Packers were in San Francisco, making the 21-17 win on the coast a moot point.

Final standings

W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, PCT= Winning Percentage, PF= Points For, PA = Points Against

Note: Prior to 1972, the NFL did not include tie games when calculating a team's winning percentage in the official standings

NFL Championship Game

Chicago 14, New York 10 at Wrigley Field, Chicago, Illinois, December 29, 1963

Awards

See also

• 1963 American Football League season

References

• NFL Record and Fact Book (ISBN 1-932994-36-X)
• NFL History 1961-1970 (Last accessed December 4, 2005)
• Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League (ISBN 0-06-270174-6)