1965-NFL Bye-Weeks

[Johnny U.]

Hello everyone, I am glad to have found this site. I have been a lifelong football fan,and this is my first post. I'm excited to see that the site resembles,The Baseball Fever site,in set-up,and use.(At my age just making sense of the computer,is an accomplishment.)..Anyway,I thought,I would pose a question,that i have no answer to. I was looking at NFL standings thru the years,and in 1965,i noticed that the Colts-Vikings,only played 13 games,had a scheduled "bye",did this happen a lot during the 1960"s?

[Old Hoss]

All teams were scheduled to play 14 games in 1965 and all teams played 14 games.

The Baltimore Colts were 10-3-1 in '65 and the Vikings were 7-7-0.

Where did you get your information?

[Johnny U.]

I had pro football reference.com,and it listed the colts as 9-3-1,and the Vikings at 7-6 for that yr.

[Old Hoss]

The Colts were 10-3-1 and tied with Green Bay for first in the Western Conference. Green Bay beat them in a playoff game, 13-10 in OT and then beat the Cleveland Browns in the NFL Championship game, 23-12.

Minnesota finished fifth in the Western Conference at 7-7-0, a half game behind the 49ers (7-6-1) and a half game ahead of the Lions (6-7-1).

Pro Football Reference.com is an off-shoot of Baseball Reference.com and I think the folks over there put most of their efforts into baseball while football and basketball are definitely the poor sister and brother. I've found many mistakes over there regarding the NFL and the NBA.

Hope this helps.

[Johnny U.]

Thanks Hoss,for the info.maybe football site,wasnt updated or so,tyvm.anyway my next question is about NFL division alignments,was there such a thing as the Capitol,Central,Federal,Coastal divisions? I dont remember that.

[Old Hoss]

In 1965 there were only 14 teams in the NFL. They were set up in two divisions, the NFL East and the NFL West.

NFL East
Cleveland Browns
Dallas Cowboys
New York Giants
Washington Redskins
Philadelphia Eagles
St. Louis Cardinals
Pittsburgh Steelers

NFL West
Green Bay Packers
Baltimore Colts
Chicago Bears
San Francisco 49ers
Minnesota Vikings
Detroit Lions
Los Angeles Rams

The following year, the Atlanta Falcons came into the league and were placed in the NFL East.

Then in 1967 their was a realignment. There were four divisions consisting of Capital, Century, Coastal and Central. The New Orleans Saints were added to the NFL in '67.

[Johnny U.]

Thanks again Hoss,for the information regarding that strange NFL alignment in the mid 1960's. Going to see what it looked like.:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[Johnny U.]

I have been enjoying looking at the Stats/Standings,etc from the 1960's era..I didnt remember the Baltimore Colts circa 1968,Wow 13-1,%,Only regular season loss,was to Cleveland Browns,30-20...Is that why the Browns hosted the championship game? (Colts won 34-0).Seems Nowadays there is a math formula,with regard to standings,schedule...Was this always in place? or was it more an East/West host for finals yr-by-yr?:shrug: