The Heidi Bowl

When the Oakland Raiders defeated the New York Jets on November 17, 1968, they did it with two touchdowns in nine seconds, but nobody saw it because they were too busy watching the movie Heidi. With just 65 seconds remaining, NBC decided to end the game and air a made-for-TV adaptation of the children’s tale about a young girl and her grandfather in the Alps. Network executives learned a valuable lesson from the anger and loud complaints of the viewers: “You better not leave an NFL football game, whatever you do.”

Back in those days, it was a programming conflict. They interrupted the game with a children’s movie on a Sunday night. And leave the football game as a cliffhanger. Who will win?

With ten players who would go on to become Hall of Famers and two of the league’s top teams, the Jets vs. Raiders game was already promising to be a classic. Eight lead changes had occurred between the two teams by the last minute of play. The game’s intensity resulted in an odd amount of penalties and timeouts, making it run beyond its scheduled duration.

The cliffhanger was the Jets took a 32–29 lead with a 26-yard field goal with over a minute remaining in the game. The Raiders returned the ball to their 23-yard line following the New York kickoff. The following events will be recorded in football history: After a facemask penalty moved the ball to the Jets’ 43, Raiders…