Market1969 NFL season
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1969 NFL season

The 1969 NFL season was the 50th regular season of the National Football League, and its last before the AFL–NFL merger. To honor the NFL's fiftieth season, a special anniversary logo was designed and each player wore a patch on their jerseys with this logo throughout the season.

Draft
The 1969 NFL/AFL draft was held January 28–29 at New York City's Belmont Plaza Hotel. With the first pick, the Buffalo Bills selected running back O. J. Simpson from the University of Southern California, the winner of the Heisman Trophy. ==Deaths==
Deaths
• January 19 - Warren Lahr, age 45. Drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1947 NFL draft. Spurned the NFL to play Defensive Back for the Cleveland Browns of the AAFC. • October 14 - Arnie Herber, age 59. Quarterback for the Green Bay Packers. Led the Packers to four NFL Championships, member of the NFL's all-decade team for the 1930's. Elected to the Pro Football Hall Of Fame in 1966. ==Division races==
Division races
Like the previous two seasons, the Eastern Conference was split into the Capitol and Century Divisions, and the Western Conference had the Coastal and Central Divisions. From 1933 through , if two teams were tied for the division lead at season's end, an unscheduled tiebreaker playoff was conducted. Starting in , a tiebreaking system was implemented in which head-to-head record, then net points in head-to-head competition, followed by the team that had less recently played in a title game were the tiebreakers. As such, only one team in a division would be the division winner, even if the won-lost record was the same (This tiebreaker was only needed once in the three years it was in existence, when in 1967 the Rams and Colts tied for the Coastal Division title (and best record in the league) but the Rams advanced to the playoffs based on their 1–0–1 record vs. the Colts.). The 1969 division races were largely uneventful. All four division winners assumed first place by week five and never relinquished it. The closest races were in the Central and Coastal, where the Vikings and Rams won their divisions by 2½ games, but the Rams had clinched with four games to play and the Vikings with three games to play. As home field in playoffs was rotated and not determined by a teams' record at that time, the division winners had nothing to play for and the last month of the season was uneventful, save for the Rams' quest for a perfect record, which ended in L.A. in a week 12 loss to the Vikings, 20–13. The other story of note was Vince Lombardi's return to coaching, taking over the Washington Redskins after a one-year hiatus in Green Bay; he led the Redskins to a 7–5–2 finish, their first winning record in fifteen years. It was his only season in Washington, as he died of cancer the following September. • indicates more than one team with record ==Final standings==
Postseason
NFL playoffs {{Round4 In the Eastern Conference championship game, the Cleveland Browns and Dallas Cowboys met for the third straight year. The Cowboys had won in 1967 in Dallas and the Browns in 1968 in Cleveland; this was the rubber match before the Browns would move to the American Conference in the merger/realignment. The Cowboys were favored, as they featured the best offense in the NFL, a better record than Cleveland, and were at home. However, the Browns jumped on the Cowboys early and often in cruising to a surprising 38–14 win at the Cotton Bowl. After starting the season with eleven consecutive victories, the Rams lost all four games in December; they won the last edition of the third place Playoff Bowl, shutting out Dallas 31–0 on January 3 in Miami. In the NFL final in Minnesota on January 4, the Browns were thoroughly dominated for the second year in a row. In 1968, the Colts beat them 34–0 in Cleveland; in this game the Vikings won 27–7, completely shutting down the Browns offense while Minnesota gained nearly 200 rushing yards. Playoff Bowl The Playoff Bowl was between the conference runners-up for third place in the league. The game, in its tenth and final year, was played one day before the title game. • Los Angeles 31, Dallas 0 at Orange Bowl, Miami, Florida, January 7, 1968 Super Bowl The Kansas City Chiefs, league champion of the 1969 American Football League season, defeated the Minnesota Vikings, 23–7, at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, on January 11, 1970. ==Awards==
Coaching changes
Pittsburgh Steelers: Bill Austin was replaced by Chuck Noll. • New York Giants: Allie Sherman was replaced by Alex Webster. • Philadelphia Eagles: Joe Kuharich was replaced by Jerry Williams. • Washington Redskins: Otto Graham was replaced by Vince Lombardi. ==Stadium changes==
Stadium changes
• The Philadelphia Eagles became the first NFL team to play its home games on artificial turf, installed at Franklin Field. • The home of the Washington Redskins, D.C. Stadium, was renamed Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Memorial Stadium in memory of former U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy. ==See also==
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