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1967 National Football League season
Regular season
Duration September 17, 1967 - December 17, 1967
Playoffs
East Champions Dallas Cowboys
West Champions Green Bay Packers
Championship Game
Champions Green Bay Packers
National Football League seasons
 < 1966 1968 > 

The 1967 NFL season was the 48th regular season of the National Football League. The league expanded to 16 teams with the addition of the New Orleans Saints. The league's teams were realigned into four divisions: the Capitol and Century Divisions in the Eastern Conference, and the Central and Coastal Divisions in the Western Conference. The Saints and the New York Giants agreed to switch divisions in 1968 and return to the 1967 alignment in 1969.

The NFL season concluded on December 31, when the Green Bay Packers defeated the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL Championship Game (in a game that would be known as the "Ice Bowl"). Two weeks later, the Packers handily defeated the AFL's Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl II in Miami's Orange Bowl, Vince Lombardi's final game as the Packers' head coach.

The Baltimore Colts had tied for the NFL's best record at 11–1–2, but were excluded from the four team playoff, because of the rules for breaking ties within a division. The L.A. Rams won their division title over Baltimore as a result of the Rams' 34–10 win over Baltimore on the last game of the regular season and a 20-20 tie against Baltimore earlier. In competition against Baltimore, L.A. had a 1-0-1 edge, giving them the tiebreaker. Each of the other three division winners had only nine victories.

Major rule changes[]

  • The "slingshot" goalpost, with one curved support from the ground and offset behind the crossbar, was made standard in the NFL. This replaced the previous year's offset goalpost, which had two non-curved supports from the ground. Before the introduction of the offset goalpost, the supports were directly on the goal line.
  • A 6-foot-wide (1.8 m) border around the field was also made standard in the league. Its outer edge designates the closest that non-players can be to the field, and thus enables the game officials to have a running lane to work in.

Division races[]

The Eastern Conference was split into the Capitol and Century Divisions, and the Western Conference had the Coastal and Central Divisions. (Each of the new division names began with the letter C and contained seven letters.) Under the new system, each team would play six division games (a home-and-away series against teams in its division); a game against each of the other four teams in its conference; and a nonconference game against each member of a four-team division, for a total of 14 games. In the past, if two teams were tied for the division lead at season's end, a one-game playoff was conducted to break the tie. Starting in 1967, a tiebreaking system was implemented that started with net points in head-to-head competition, followed by which team that had less recently been in a title game [1]. As such, only one team in a division would be the division winner, even if the won-loss record was the same.

Week Capitol Century Coastal Central
1 DALLAS 1-0-0 PITTSBURGH 1-0-0 SAN FRANCISCO 1-0-0 DETROIT 0-0-1
2 DALLAS 2-0-0 ST. LOUIS 1-1-0 SAN FRANCISCO 2-0-0 DETROIT 1-0-1
3 PHILADELPHIA 2-1-0 ST. LOUIS 2-1-0 LOS ANGELES 3-0-0 GREEN BAY 2-0-1
4 DALLAS 3-1-0 ST. LOUIS 3-1-0 BALTIMORE 4-0-0 GREEN BAY 3-0-1
5 DALLAS 4-1-0 NEW YORK 3-2-0 BALTIMORE 4-0-1 GREEN BAY 3-1-1
5 DALLAS 4-1-0 N.Y. GIANTS 3-2-0 BALTIMORE 4-0-1 GREEN BAY 3-1-1
6 DALLAS 5-1-0 CLEVELAND 3-2-0 BALTIMORE 4-0-2 GREEN BAY 4-1-1
7 DALLAS 5-2-0 N.Y. GIANTS 4-3-0 BALTIMORE 5-0-2 GREEN BAY 5-1-1
8 DALLAS 6-2-0 ST. LOUIS 5-3-0 BALTIMORE 6-0-2 GREEN BAY 5-2-1
9 DALLAS 7-2-0 ST. LOUIS 5-3-1 BALTIMORE 7-0-2 GREEN BAY 6-2-1
10 DALLAS 7-3-0 CLEVELAND 6-4-0 BALTIMORE 8-0-2 GREEN BAY 7-2-1
11 DALLAS 8-3-0 CLEVELAND 7-4-0 BALTIMORE 9-0-2 GREEN BAY 8-2-1
12 DALLAS 8-4-0 CLEVELAND 8-4-0 BALTIMORE 10-0-2 GREEN BAY 9-2-1
13 DALLAS 9-4-0 CLEVELAND 9-4-0 BALTIMORE 11-0-2 GREEN BAY 9-3-1
14 DALLAS 9-5-0 CLEVELAND 9-5-0 LOS ANGELES 11-1-2 GREEN BAY 9-4-1

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

Eastern Conference
Capitol Division
Team W L T PCT PF PA
Dallas Cowboys 9 5 0 .643 342 268
Philadelphia Eagles 6 7 1 .462 351 409
Washington Redskins 5 6 3 .455 347 353
New Orleans Saints 3 11 0 .214 233 379
Century Division
Team W L T PCT PF PA
Cleveland Browns 9 5 0 .643 334 297
New York Giants 7 7 0 .500 369 379
St. Louis Cardinals 6 7 1 .462 333 356
Pittsburgh Steelers 4 9 1 .308 281 320
Western Conference
Coastal Division
Team W L T PCT PF PA
Los Angeles Rams 11 1 2 .917 398 196
Baltimore Colts 11 1 2 .917 394 198
San Francisco 49ers 7 7 0 .500 273 337
Atlanta Falcons 1 12 1 .077 175 422
Central Division
Team W L T PCT PF PA
Green Bay Packers 9 4 1 .692 332 209
Chicago Bears 7 6 1 .538 239 218
Detroit Lions 5 7 2 .417 260 259
Minnesota Vikings 3 8 3 .273 233 294


Tiebreakers[]

Los Angeles won the Coastal Division based on better point differential in head-to-head games (net 24 points) vs. Baltimore. The Rams and Colts played to a 24-24 tie in Baltimore in October before the Rams won 34-10 on the season's final Sunday at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. NOTE: The result would be the same under the modern tiebreaker, which relies first on head-to-head record (Los Angeles won the head-to-head series, 1-0-1).

Playoffs[]

  Conference Championship Games NFL Championship Game
December 24, 1967 - Cotton Bowl
 Cleveland Browns 14  
 Dallas Cowboys 52  
 
December 31, 1967 - Lambeau Field
     Dallas Cowboys 17
   Green Bay Packers 21
December 23, 1967 - Milwaukee County Stadium
 Los Angeles Rams 7
 Green Bay Packers 28  

Awards[]

Most Valuable Player Johnny Unitas, Quarterback, Baltimore Colts
Coach of the Year George Allen, L.A. Rams; Don Shula, Baltimore Colts (tie)
Offensive Rookie of the Year Mel Farr, Running Back, Detroit
Defensive Rookie of the Year Lem Barney, Cornerback, Detroit

See also[]

References[]

1967 NFL Seasonv · d · e
Eastern Conference Western Conference
Capitol Century Coastal Central
Dallas Cleveland Atlanta Chicago
New Orleans NY Giants Baltimore Detroit
Philadelphia Pittsburgh Los Angeles Green Bay
Washington St. Louis San Francisco Minnesota
1967 NFL DraftNFL PlayoffsNFL ChampionshipPro BowlSuper Bowl II
Related: 1967 AFL Season
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