GAME DAY MEMORIES
FIRST REGULAR SEASON OVERTIME GAME
The NFL initiated “sudden
death” overtime for regular season games beginning with the 1974 season. The new rule allowed for an extra fifteen
minutes of play. The first team to score
won the game, regardless of whether the other team had a possession. If the game remained tied after fifteen
minutes it counted as a tie.
TRIVIA: Who won the first regular season overtime
game?
On September 22, 1974 the
Pittsburgh Steelers played the Denver Broncos at Mile High Stadium. Joe Gilliam from Tennessee State led the
Steelers. Gilliam had outperformed Terry
Bradshaw during preseason to win the starting job. Charley Johnson, a 36 year-old veteran,
quarterbacked the Broncos.
Both teams moved the ball up
and down the field for four quarters.
The Broncos jumped out to a 21-7 lead.
The Steelers caught them at 21 and the teams traded touchdowns before
ending four quarters tied at 35. Two
weeks into the 1974 season, the NFL had its first overtime game.
ANSWER: The Broncos Jim Turner missed a 41-yard field
goal in the overtime period. The
Steelers never really threatened. The
first NFL overtime game ended as it started, tied.
Bradshaw would recapture the
starting job after week six and lead the Steelers to their first SB victory in
SB IX.
The NFL changed the overtime
rules for the 2012 playoffs (and for regular season games beginning in
2012). The modified overtime rules are
not pure sudden death. http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/story/14517430/no-more-sudden-death-new-ot-rules-in-effect
Ironically, the Steelers and
the Broncos played the first game under the new overtime rules. This time there was a winner.
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