Division Races
The Eastern Conference was split into the Capitol and Century Divisions, and the Western Conference had the Coastal and Central Divisions. 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 in which head to head record, then net points in head-to-head competition, followed by which team that had less recently been 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 3 years it was in existence, when in 1967 the Rams and Colts tied for the Coastal Division title 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 4 division winners assumed 1st place by week 5 and never gave up their lead. The closest races were in the Central and Coastal where the Vikings and Rams won their divisions by 2½ games, but they had both clinched with 3 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 coach the Washington Redskins after a one-year hiatus from coaching; he led the Redskins to a 7-5-2- record, their first winning record in over a decade.
| Week | Capitol | Century | Coastal | Central | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WASHINGTON* | 1–0–0 | PITTSBURGH* | 1–0–0 | ATLANTA* | 1–0–0 | GREEN BAY | 1–0–0 |
| 2 | DALLAS | 2–0–0 | CLEVELAND | 2–0–0 | LOS ANGELES | 2–0–0 | GREEN BAY | 2–0–0 |
| 3 | DALLAS | 3–0–0 | ST. LOUIS* | 2–1–0 | LOS ANGELES | 3–0–0 | MINNESOTA* | 2–1–0 |
| 4 | DALLAS | 4–0–0 | N.Y. GIANTS* | 3–1–0 | LOS ANGELES | 4–0–0 | MINNESOTA* | 3–1–0 |
| 5 | DALLAS | 5–0–0 | CLEVELAND | 4–1–0 | LOS ANGELES | 5–0–0 | MINNESOTA* | 4–1–0 |
| 6 | DALLAS | 6–0–0 | CLEVELAND | 4–1–1 | LOS ANGELES | 6–0–0 | MINNESOTA | 5–1–0 |
| 7 | DALLAS | 6–1–0 | CLEVELAND | 5–1–1 | LOS ANGELES | 7–0–0 | MINNESOTA | 6–1–0 |
| 8 | DALLAS | 7–1–0 | CLEVELAND | 5–2–1 | LOS ANGELES | 8–0–0 | MINNESOTA | 7–1–0 |
| 9 | DALLAS | 8–1–0 | CLEVELAND | 6–2–1 | LOS ANGELES | 9–0–0 | MINNESOTA | 8–1–0 |
| 10 | DALLAS | 8–2–0 | CLEVELAND | 7–2–1 | LOS ANGELES | 10–0–0 | MINNESOTA | 9–1–0 |
| 11 | DALLAS | 8–2–1 | CLEVELAND | 8–2–1 | LOS ANGELES | 11–0–0 | MINNESOTA | 10–1–0 |
| 12 | DALLAS | 9–2–1 | CLEVELAND | 9–2–1 | LOS ANGELES | 11–1–0 | MINNESOTA | 11–1–0 |
| 13 | DALLAS | 10–2–1 | CLEVELAND | 10–2–1 | LOS ANGELES | 11–2–0 | MINNESOTA | 12–1–0 |
| 14 | DALLAS | 11–2–1 | CLEVELAND | 10–3–1 | LOS ANGELES | 11–3–0 | MINNESOTA | 12–2–0 |
*indicates more than one team with record
Read more about this topic: 1969 NFL Season
Famous quotes containing the words division and/or races:
“That crazed girl improvising her music,
Her poetry, dancing upon the shore,
Her soul in division from itself
Climbing, falling she knew not where,
Hiding amid the cargo of a steamship
Her knee-cap broken.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Behind every individual closes organization; before him opens liberty,—the Better, the Best. The first and worse races are dead. The second and imperfect races are dying out, or remain for the maturing of the higher. In the latest race, in man, every generosity, every new perception, the love and praise he extorts from his fellows, are certificates of advance out of fate into freedom.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)