Матч за третье место в НФЛ: История Playoff Bowl

Defunct NFL sports playoff game

The Playoff Bowl (officially known as the Bert Bell Benefit Bowl) was a post season game for third place in the National Football League (NFL), played ten times following the through seasons, all at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida. It was originally known as the Runner Up Bowl. The official title of Bert Bell Benefit Bowl came from the former NFL commissioner, Bert Bell. Bell, who co founded the Eagles and co owned the Steelers, was commissioner of the NFL from until his death during an NFL game in October The game raised money for the players' pension fund, and reportedly raised a million dollars over the decade of the 1960s.

All ten games in the Playoff Bowl series were contested at the Orange Bowl in Miami. The games were played in January, the week following the NFL championship game (and the collegiate Orange Bowl game on New Year's Day), except for the final year, when it was played the day before the NFL title game. The NFL's Pro Bowl (all star game) was played the week after the Playoff Bowl.

After the season, NFL owners faced competition from the newly formed American Football League and wanted a vehicle through which to showcase more of its supposedly superior NFL professional football product on television, then carried through the CBS Television Network. At the time, unlike the AFL, which had a contract with the ABC Television Network for their nationally televised games, often double headers, few NFL games were televised nationally during the season and there was only one scheduled post season game, the NFL Championship Game. The Playoff Bowl was devised to match the second place teams from the NFL's two conferences (Eastern and Western). This doubled from two to four the number of top NFL teams appearing in post season play on national television. The 1966 season required another game following the American Football League Championship Game and the NFL Championship Game, the first of four AFL–NFL World Championship Games between the champions of the two major Professional Football leagues for the undisputed championship. The establishment of the AFL–NFL World Championship Game (the Super Bowl name was not made official until Super Bowl III) was the first phase of the AFL–NFL merger of June 1966. This new mega game between the rival leagues was played in mid January at a warm weather location, two weeks after the championship games for each league. The NFL's Playoff Bowl was played during the idle week, and because of AFL's equally major league status, interest in the game was waning. In addition, the arrival of the Miami Dolphins in 1966 as an expansion franchise in the AFL reduced local interest in the game. In the season, the NFL expanded to 16 teams and four scheduled post season contests. The NFL sub divided its two conferences (now eight teams each) into two divisions of four teams each: The Capitol and Century divisions in the Eastern conference, and the Central and Coastal divisions in the Western conference. The four division winners advanced to the post season, competing for their conference titles in the first round of the NFL playoffs. The winners (conference champions) advanced to the NFL championship game, the losers (conference runners up) appeared in the Playoff Bowl to vie for third place. For the three seasons (–69) preceding the merger with the AFL, the loser of the NFL's third place game ended up with a peculiar record of 0 2 for that post season. In its final season in 1969, the AFL also expanded to a four team post season, adding two more playoff games. The highest attendance was over 65,500 in January 1966 for the Baltimore Colts' rout of the Dallas Cowboys; the season was the last one prior to the Dolphins starting play, the AFL–NFL merger agreement, and the creation of the Super Bowl. In January 1968 and 1969, the Super Bowl was played in the Orange Bowl the following week, which further contributed to the declining attendance for the NFL's consolation game.

When the merger was completed for the season, there was discussion about continuing the Playoff Bowl, with the losers of the AFC and NFC Championship Games playing each other during the idle week before the Super Bowl. There were now seven post season games in the NFL (three for each conference, plus the Super Bowl), and the Pro Bowl all star game. A "losers' game" was not necessarily attractive for the league, and the Playoff Bowl came to an end.

The ten Playoff Bowls were official third place playoff games at the time they were played; today, the NFL consider the games as exhibitions.

Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi detested the Playoff Bowl, coaching in the games following the 1963 and 1964 seasons, after winning NFL titles in 1961 and 1962. To his players, he called it "the 'Shit Bowl', a losers' bowl for losers." This lack of motivation may explain his Packers' rare postseason defeat in the 1964 game (January 1965) to the St. Louis Cardinals. After that loss, he fumed about "a hinky dink football game, held in a hinky dink town, played by hinky dink players. That's all second place is – hinky dink." and the fifth year game paid $800 (800.0 in 1965 is equivalent to about <calculated amount> in recent years) and $600 (600.0 in 1965 is equivalent to about <calculated amount> in recent years). In its final years, the winners received $1,200 each (1200.0 in 1970 is equivalent to about <calculated amount> in recent years), and the losers $500 (500.0 in 1970 is equivalent to about <calculated amount> in recent years).

The Playoff Bowl was typically held in the Orange Bowl stadium in Miami. It led to Super Bowl II being held in Miami, the first of 11 Super Bowls held in Miami area, and is credited by NFL Films for the creation of the expansion Miami Dolphins. The 1966 season Playoff Bowl game was used by NFL Films to put a microphone on Philadelphia Eagles' head coach Joe Kuharich, which is credited by the league as part of the signature of NFL Films' videos featuring microphones on coaches and players. That same Eagles Colts Playoff Bowl marked the debut of the "slingshot" or "tuning fork" goalpost, with one curved support, in American football. This style of goalpost was first used by the Canadian Football League for the 54th Grey Cup the previous November. The NFL adopted the single support post for the 1967 season, and it continues to be used by the NFL and CFL, as well as most colleges and many high schools in both countries. One vestige of the Playoff Bowl remained through the 2008 season in that the head coaches of the losing teams from the conference championship games were the head coaches of their conferences' Pro Bowl teams. From 1980 to 2009, this all star game was played at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu the Sunday following the Super Bowl. However, in 2010, the Pro Bowl moved to Miami Gardens, Florida, and was played the week before Super Bowl XLIV (as the Playoff Bowl was in the Super Bowl era). For the 2009 season, a new rule for determining the Pro Bowl coaches resulted in the disappearance of one Playoff Bowl legacy. The coaching staffs for the 2010 Pro Bowl did not come from the losers of the conference championship games, but instead from the teams with the best regular season records among those that lost in the divisional round of the playoffs in each conference.

All ten games were played at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida. Most were played the week following the NFL Championship game, with two exceptions: the first was played two weeks after and the last the day before. The first two games and the last one were played on Saturday, with the rest being played on Sunday. The Western Conference team won eight of the ten games. Season Date Winner Score Loser Attendance1960 January 7, 1961   Detroit Lions 17–16 Cleveland Browns 34,9811961January 6, 1962 Detroit Lions (2) 38–10Philadelphia Eagles 25,6121962January 6, 1963 Detroit Lions (3) 17–10 Pittsburgh Steelers 36,2841963January 5, 1964 Green Bay Packers 40–23 Cleveland Browns 54,9211964January 3, 1965 St. Louis Cardinals 24–17 Green Bay Packers 56,2181965January 9, 1966 Baltimore Colts 35–3Dallas Cowboys 65,5691966January 8, 1967 Baltimore Colts (2) 20–14 Philadelphia Eagles 58,0881967January 7, 1968 Los Angeles Rams 30–6 Cleveland Browns 37,1021968January 5, 1969 Dallas Cowboys 17–13 Minnesota Vikings 22,9611969January 3, 1970 Los Angeles Rams (2)   31–0Dallas Cowboys 31,151

GamesTeamWLPCTWon  (3rd)Lost  (4th)3Detroit Lions301.000 1960, 1961, 1962 3Dallas Cowboys12.333 1968 1965, 19693Cleveland Browns03.000 1960, 1963, 19672Baltimore Colts201.000 1965, 19662Los Angeles Rams201.000 1967, 1969 2Green Bay Packers11.500 1963 19642Philadelphia Eagles02.000 1961, 1966 1St. Louis Cardinals101.000 1964 1Minnesota Vikings01.000 19681Pittsburgh Steelers01.000 1962