Pride and Prejudice -- an FOF9 Lions dynasty, starting 1966

[Passacaglia]

Well, the Lions are again officially not going to the Super Bowl, so it's time to correct that in the FOF universe!

The date -- August 21, 1966

The sound -- We're going to put in a different song to get us in the mood for the era and the location. So that means whatever was popular that week, specializing in Motown and other music local to Detroit/Michigan. This week, we're looking at a band from Flint called https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Knight_and_the_Pack with "A Change On The Way"



The leagues -- Shortly before the 1966 season started, the AFL and NFL announced their plans to merge. They started playing an AFL-NFL Championship game, which would retroactively be called the Super Bowl, for 4 years before the merger took place. We're going to act as if that merger never happened, and keep the leagues as separate as FOF will let us. That means there will be a common draft and a common free agency market, but otherwise, the leagues are separate. FOF9 requires a name for "the" league, so I'm just going to put "American Pro Football Association" -- the original name of the NFL, plus it has the word American in it, so it seems like a good compromise.

The divisions

The NFL had 14 teams, and added Atlanta as an expansion team in 1966, sticking them in the East.
The NFL East had 8 teams -- Atlanta Falcons, Cleveland Browns, Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers, St. Louis Cardinals, Washington Redskins (apologies if anyone is offended by the Redskins name. I'm going for historical accuracy here, but if it bothers anyone reading this, let me know and I'll change it)
The NFL West had 7 teams -- Baltimore Colts, Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, Los Angeles Rams, Minnesota Vikings, San Francisco 49ers

The AFL had 8 teams, and add Miami as an expansion team in 1966, sticking them in the East.
The AFL East had 5 teams -- Boston Patriots, Buffalo Bills, Houston Oilers, Miami Dolphins, New York Jets
The AFL West had 4 teams -- Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs, Oakland Raiders, San Diego Chargers

The schedule -- We're going to use the 1966 schedule as our guide. This is in keeping with the non-merger theme, since in 1966, the merger had been announced, but not put into place. That means the AFL and NFL had separate schedules, which IMO will make the Super Bowl more fun. Also, the 1966 schedule was weird.

The NFL had a good run of 14 teams, where each team played 14 games -- a home-and-home against everyone in your division for 12 games, and 2 interdivision games. The 2 inter-division games were pretty helter-skelter, from what I've seen, they wanted teams to rotate so everyone plays everyone else eventually, but they kept a "Beltway Bowl" interdivisional game between Washington in the East and Baltimore in the West (!), but adding Atlanta as a 15th team really screwed things up. First, with an odd number of teams, everyone gets a bye week, also, if everyone in the NFL East played each other twice, that's 14 games, and they don't have any games left to play anyone in the West. Instead, they had Atlanta play everyone in the NFL and made that their 14th games, while the rest of the league got 12 games against everyone else in their division, one interdivisional game, plus one game against Atlanta.

Normally I'd like a cleaner schedule than this, but we're keeping the 1966 schedule and using it for the rest of the years, too. Atlanta's schedule is going to go to whoever ends up last place in the NFL East the year before -- kind of like they're riding bitch. Other weird stuff will get repeated based on rank from previous year -- so since Washington and Pittsburgh played each other two weeks in a row in 1966 for some reason, that will keep going every year, but it will be that the 4th place NFL East team will play the 7th place NFL East team twice in a row. And since the Steelers ended 1966 with four road games, that will happen to the 7th place NFL East team each year.

The AFL also had their schedule screwed up by expansion. With 8 teams, their 14 games were a nice round-robin, where everyone played each other twice. Division didn't mean anything for scheduling, but it was neat and orderly. Adding Miami threw that off. In the 1966 schedule, everyone in the AFL West plays each other twice, but it wasn't feasible for the AFL East to do that. Instead, Boston and Miami only played each other once, but played some AFL West teams twice. That will repeat too, but it will be the 3rd and 5th place teams in the AFL East that only play each other once.

In FOF9, you can't move the Super Bowl from being mid-February. In 1966, the last game of the regular season was December 18, the AFL and NFL Championships were 1/1/1967, and the Super Bowl was 1/15/1967. I wanted to keep the regular season games where they were supposed to be, so as a result, the last week of the regular season is still December 18, but the AFL and NFL Championships have to wait until 1/29/1967, and the Super Bowl will be 2/12/1967. If I didn't do it that way, the regular season would start October 2 and end 1/15/1967, which feels weird.

These schedules seem like they were meant to be transitional, since they knew they would be expanding more, and that a merger would upend the whole thing, but we're going to embrace the weirdness and keep it going permanently.

Preseason was 6 weeks, and most teams played 4-5 games, which feels long considering the season itself is only 14 games (not to mention that since only division winners make the playoffs, the season can be effectively over for some teams way earlier than that). And I hate preseason. I replaced this with a 1-week preseason with some inter-league rivalries.

Giants vs. Jets (NY)
Raiders vs. 49ers (Bay Area)
Cowboys vs. Oilers (Texas)
Chargers vs. Rams (Southern California)
Cardinals vs. Chiefs (Missouri)
Dolphins vs. Falcons (new teams, Southeast)
Lions vs. Broncos (the first "game" between the two leagues was a preseason game between these two teams in 1967)
Bills vs. Eagles
Vikings vs. Patriots
Colts vs. Redskins (Beltway Bowl)
Browns vs. Packers
Bears vs. Steelers

More to come!

[Passacaglia]

Okay, I'm finally feeling like the file I've created here is ready for use in this dynasty!

FOF9 Historical Player Generator - Front Office Football Central

First, a little about the name -- I can't find a record of it anymore, but I was asking some AI for name ideas, based on what I'm trying to do. It came up with this one, Pride and Prejudice -- Pride for the Lions, and Prejudice for the stubbornness that leads to the AFL and NFL failing to fully merge. Then after all that, it said that its favorite was something like Hitsville Gridiron, which is pretty bad. Anyway, here we are.

So let's see what we've got! I'm creating the file now, and the only thing I want to make sure of is that Detroit, and their NFL West rivals in the north -- Chicago, Green Bay, and Minnesota -- all have outdoor stadiums.

We got it on the 2nd attempt!



I guess our stadium is retractable -- obviously a bit anachronistic for 1966, but I'm hoping it doesn't make a difference in terms of gameplay.

The other thing I want to do before we get rolling is to make sure in the global settings that "Allow Computer-Run Teams to Change Cities" is unchecked. I'm open to changing this, and it won't be the end of the world if it gets checked when I re-load this game, but I've found that the teams start naming themselves after suburbs when they move. I believe there are ways to change it, but I'm not feeling like doing that work now, and I think part of the fun is keeping this exact 1966 setup the whole way through.

I'm also going to go into the game settings.



I'll do the depth chart, the game will handle game plans and playbooks (I hate that stuff).

I've also changed the min and max salary increase to 0 and 1. I've got the salary cap set to $5.2M for 1966. That's chosen so that with a 7% increase each year, we'd end up with the projected salary cap of $303M in 2026. The next TV contract will start after the first season -- to get that 7% increase, we want an increase of 400-500K, and setting this to 0 and 1 means we'll get an increase anywhere from 0 to 1M. We'll adjust after that contract is signed, depending on what we get.

And now, finally, let's check out the team!



There's a lot of work needed. That's fine, because I don't expect to win with the random coaching staff I have, and it feels hollow to win before you've really done anything to build the team anyway.

Milt Plum comes in about what he usually does.



And here he is compared to the rest of the league. An average-to-below-average guy.

[Passacaglia]

I'm noticing that the way I upload and embed pictures makes them really big. If any readers are annoyed by that, let me know and I'll make them smaller somehow.

Anyway, let's get to staff!



Not horrible. I'm guessing I'll still find someone better in 1967, though.

I won't bore you with the rest. In real life, Harry Gilmer gets fired after 1966, his 2nd season, going 4-9-1, and having the fans throw snowballs at him during the last game of the season.



So that's fun.

Our DC, Joe Schmidt, plays a 43 Over, which fits with our roster decently -- I feel like Jerry Rush usually comes in better than this, but my hope is he can be basic starter quality by 1967, in case we don't find someone else to take his place.

We're also a little snakebit with Pat Studstill.



Studstill was a really good player for the Lions in 1966, playing WR as well as punting. My file placed him as a Punter, which makes him less effective -- I'd way rather have a 62/77 WR than a P.

[Passacaglia]

1966 is going to be a weird year to get through. I'm not particularly interested in it, since I don't expect us to do well, but I'd like to set the story and get some narratives going for the league in general. But to start, I need to fill my roster. I'm not looking to really improve the team here, and there's not much available to do that with anyway -- I just want to have a reasonable amount of players at each position. Nothing much of note -- I grabbed a 29/61 2nd year RT named Ray Hinze, but he's probably not likely to pan out.

Time for the preseason game!



I'm sure I've mentioned at least some of this earlier in the thread, but we've got AFL vs. NFL rivalries as much as we can here. New York vs. New York, LA vs SD (who started out in LA), Bay Area, Texas, Missouri, etc. Our "rival" here is Denver, since they played a preseason game in 1967, which was the first game between an AFL and NFL team after Super Bowl I. Alex Karras said they'd beat Denver, or he'd walk back to Detroit, and was probably pretty humiliated when Denver won 13-7. Whatever -- it's preseason and they probably didn't really care, and neither do I.



Backup QB Karl Sweetan is the culprit, anyway.

[Passacaglia]

Monday, August 29, 1966

New jam this week.



A little bit on house rules, or maybe guidelines, since it's possible I could change my mind.

No trading away players -- if I don't want a guy anymore, I cut him.
No trading for picks -- I'm going to just take whoever is available with whatever pick I have. Too much temptation to manipulate things to get players I know. The exception is that I'm going to do whatever it takes to get Barry Sanders.
No increasing offers beyond what a player is asking for -- not worth the time spent.
Deactivate anyone who is injured, even if they are probable, unless doing so would mean I need to sign another player.

Favorites to win has to be the Green Bay Packers. They won the 1965 NFL Championship, beating the Browns, 23-12. Since then, Jim Brown, arguably the best player in the history of the league, has retired, so they're certainly not going to be as good now. On the other hand, the Packers tied the Baltimore Colts for the NFL West with a 10-3-1 record, and had to play a tiebreaker game to see who would play the Browns. So maybe Green Bay is not as dominant as all that.

And does the AFL have a chance? Seems like it's pretty well debated whether the AFL was as good as the NFL around this time. The NFL was the more prestigious league, but the AFL spent more money, so who knows? I'm using AV to get a handle on how to rate everyone, and that probably equalizes things, too. We saw the QBs earlier -- John Hadl is the best QB in the league, and the San Diego Chargers were good last year, but were beat in the AFL Championship Game by the Buffalo Bills, 23-0.

And we all know how the real 1966 season actually went, with the Packers beating the Chiefs in Super Bowl I.

Here's how FOF sees it:



Pretty similar to what I said. Packers and Colts on top. Chiefs best in the AFL. Cowboys probably better than we expect since Roger Staubach is on the team -- although Craig Morton looks good enough that they don't need him long-term. Los Angeles up there too -- the 3 best teams are in the NFL West, and we aren't any of them. We sit pretty far down, and at the very bottom are expansion teams Miami and Atlanta.

And just to check out the roster we aspire to:



Don't get too excited, Bart Starr is just questionable, and will be at 100% in two weeks, plenty of time for their first game.

Which reminds me, the schedule! In Week 1, the AFL plays, and the NFL starts in Week 2. Both leagues finish Week 16. In each of the 15 weeks the NFL plays, one of the 15 teams gets a bye. Our bye comes the last week, so we effectively don't really get one.

[Passacaglia]

After signing the players to fill my roster, and making a few position changes, here's what we've got:



Marsh is doubtful, but should be ready in two weeks for the opener. And a little scouting of our first opponent, the Bears:

[Passacaglia]

Friday, September 2 -- First game of the season!

Real-life: The Miami Dolphins start things off by playing their first game ever, losing 23-14 to the Raiders.

For us:



You'll have to forgive the dates not matching. In FOF, all games happen on Sunday, but I'm going to try to stick to the 1966 schedule, and do each game on the day of the week it actually happens. In future years, I'm just going to keep things in the order they show up, so for example in this week, the 5th place East team will play the 2nd place West team on Friday, 4th place in the East plays 4th place in the West on Saturday, and 1st place East plays 1st place West on Sunday (AFL Championship rematch).

Miami kicks that FG on 4th and 10 with 4:33 left to make it 31-27. They never get it back -- Oakland eventually takes a knee at the Miami 8. Player of the game goes to Oakland C Jim Otto, with 9 key run blocks on 13 opportunities.



Looks like it's going to the right guy.

[Passacaglia]

Saturday, September 3

Real-life: Oilers kill the Broncos at home, 45-7.

For us:



Oilers still kill the Broncos. They do this without George Blanda at QB, since the game made him a Kicker. Kind of appropriate in this case -- Blanda was the starter at the beginning of 1966, but the Oilers moved on to Don Trull after 8 games. Looks like in our FOF-land, Jacky Lee (43/43) is better than Trull (36/36).

Player of the game goes to Houston RB John Henry Johnson, for 20 rushes, 112 yards, and a TD.

[Passacaglia]

Sunday, September 4

Real-life: The Chargers get a little vengeance for the AFL Championship, beating Buffalo 27-7.

For us:



The Chargers still get vengeance, though Buffalo tries to make a game of it at the end.

Player of the game goes to John Hadl, throwing 26/36, 252 yards, 3 TDs.

[Passacaglia]

Monday, September 5, 1966





So the AFL has started, and we still need to get ready for our first game against the Bears this Sunday. I've already posted our revised Week 1 starting lineup, and here are the full depth charts now. I tried to make it so no one got tired, but there are some occasions where I didn't have enough players I like to put in there -- we'll see how that pans out.

[Passacaglia]

Friday, September 9, 1966

Real-life: Another game in Miami, and another loss for the Dolphins, as the Jets beat them 24-19.

For us:



Miami wins! Seeing the TD pass by Mike Taliaferro, I wondered if Joe Namath was hurt, but it looks like he's just not that good in this universe.



Anyway, as you may have guessed from this FG-fest, player of the game goes to Miami K Gene Mingo, kicking 4/5 FG and 2/2 PATs. I feel like Jets K Jim Turner may have been more efficient, kicking 4/4 FGs, but Mingo went 2/3 from 50+, and Turner didn't even attempt any.

[Passacaglia]

Saturday, September 10, 1966

Three games today!
Real-life:
Oilers destroy the Raiders in Houston, 31-0.
The NFL gets started with Colts at Packers, and the Packers win 24-3.
Chargers beat the Patriots at home, 24-0.

For us:



Pretty similar. The Oilers move to 2-0, and Houston QB Jacky Lee is player of the game -- 24/32, 326 yards, 4 TDs.



Baltimore may have the inside track to the NFL West now with a win in Green Bay! Johnny Unitas throws 21/30, 284 yards, 4 TDs to win player of the game. Raymond Berry had 3 catches for 3 TDs.



John Hadl gets his 2nd player of the game, going 18/27, 164 yards, 2 TDs.

[Passacaglia]

Sunday, September 11, 1966

Gameday for us! While I preserved the different game days from the 1966 season, and for the three games on Saturday the 10th, I did try to find out what time each game was and display them in order (at least, I asked AI what times they were, and blindly trusted it), for the Sundays with a lot of games, I'm just going to display them all, and call out our Lions game, and maybe another game of interest if there is one.

So, we play the Bears.

Real-life: Lions win, 14-3, and start the season with some false hope.

For us:



No false hope. We appropriately blow chunks and get spanked by a mediocre team. Bears QB Rudy Bukich doesn't bother coming back for the 2nd half, winning player of the game throwing 15/23, 172 yards, 2 TDs. We give up midway through the 3rd quarter also, benching Milt Plum, apparently in the middle of a drive.

And here's the whole week:



AFL favorite Buffalo off to an 0-2 start.

[Passacaglia]

Monday, September 12, 1966



LICKING OUR WOUNDS



I didn't mention this, but backup OLB Wayne Walker was doubtful last week, so I sat him out. Now we have Wally Hilgenberg doubtful too. Plus Alex Karras and Larry Hand hurt -- that's going to suck.

[Passacaglia]

Friday, September 16, 1966

Real-life: The Bears bounce back and beat the Rams in LA, 31-17.

For us:



Bears get the ball with 2:11 left, and throw an interception. The Rams fumble two plays later, and the Bears score a TD with 37 second left. With 1 second left, the Rams are at their 29 and complete a long pass, but it's only for 47 yards. Rams QB Roman Gabriel is player of the game, throwing 25/30, 328 yards, 4 TDs, and a pick. How do you lose with your QB throwing 25/30? Crazy.

[Passacaglia]

Sunday, September 18, 1966

Real-life: We go into Pittsburgh and lose 17-3.

For us:



That stung. We seemed really in control here, up 19-7 as the 4th quarter started. The Steelers had the ball at their own 2 yard line with 3:52 left. They complete a 4th and 4 at the 8, and work their way into Lions territory, when the Steelers commit a personal foul, but we help get them back in with pass interference, then add on defensive holding as a little extra bonus. We get the ball down 3 with 22 seconds left, and Plum immediately throws an interception.

And the rest of the day:



We've got enough games in now where we can peek at the league overview:

[Passacaglia]

Monday, September 19, 1966

Two jams this week.





LICKING OUR WOUNDS



Amos Marsh out for the season. That's probably pretty bad for this season, but there's so many good RBs in this league, that I figured I'd get at least one RB as good for next year.

Larry Hand should be ready for our next game, which will help.

[Passacaglia]

Sunday, September 25, 1966

All games on Sunday this week.

Here's ours:



Another game where we had a nice lead, only to lose it. This one we managed to come back and win, though. Milt Plum threw 18/30, 289 yards, 3 TDs for player of the game.

[Passacaglia]

Monday, September 26, 1966



LICKING OUR WOUNDS



Two DEs hurt now. Ugh.

[Passacaglia]

Friday, September 30

Real-life: Rams beat the 49ers, 34-3.

For us:



Roman Gabriel is player of the game, 19/30, 324 yards, 3 TDs.

[Passacaglia]

Sunday, October 2, 1966

Real-life: The Packers beat us 23-14.

For us: Even worse.



We were able to hang with them for a half, which is good, I guess. RB Donny Anderson runs all over us, 22 carries for 223 yards, 2 TDs.



Time for another look at the overview:



Shout out to our MLB Mike Lucci for leading the league in tackles!

[Passacaglia]

Monday, October 3, 1966

Two jams this week.





LICKING OUR WOUNDS



We get Wally Hilgenberg back! Although this will probably cut into Lucci's tackle count. And Gail Cogdill will be at full health.

[Passacaglia]

October 8-9, 1966

Four games were played on Saturday this weekend, but I'm going to just put them all here so we can get through this season.

First, us. Real-life, the Rams beat us 14-7. For us:



Hung with the opponent for a half again, this time even led at halftime. Roman Gabriel gets player of the game. Key play was late in the first, we're up 7-3 with the ball at our own 32, when Milt Plum hits Willie Walker, and he's all the way to the Rams 11, when he fumbles, it, returned for a TD. We were still winning at half time, but that sucked.

[Passacaglia]

Monday, October 10 1966



LICKING OUR WOUNDS -- No injury changes. Let's roll.

[Passacaglia]

Sunday, October 16

Real-Life -- we go to Baltimore and get beat bad, 45-14.

For us:



Pretty similar. Jonny Unitas throws 18/26, 252 yards, and 5 TDs.

[Passacaglia]

Monday, October 17, 1966

We've got a cover for this week's jam -- though probably not exactly what you're thinking. It's "Respect" -- Otis Redding performed the original in 1965, and The Rationals, a band from Ann Arbor, did this version in 1966, before Aretha does hers in 1967. This was their only "hit", getting to #92 on the Hot 100, and the rest of their success was just in Michigan.



LICKING OUR WOUNDS



Alex Karras is coming back!

[Passacaglia]

Sunday, October 23, 1966

Real-life: The 49ers comeback in the 4th quarter to beat us, 27-24. This is the first game Karl Sweetan played the whole game -- I think Plum got hurt.

For us:



John Brodie gets player of the game, throwing 15/29, 166 yards, 1 TD.





So that loss to San Francisco puts us on the inside track for a draft pick. From times I've tested this before, I can say that it's not a good QB class, though. Bob Griese is in it, and Steve Spurrier, but neither usually ends up very good. Meanwhile, Milt Plum's salary expectations for a new contract are high as always:



Maybe I'm not thinking about it right, but over 10% of the cap for a below-average QB seems insane to me.

Anyway, moving away from the bottom of the league and on to the top, the AFL has some strong front runners in Houston and Kansas City. The NFL West is seeing Baltimore maybe pulling away, and the NFL East is a 3-way battle between Philly, Pittsburgh, and Dallas. I'm really surprised about Pittsburgh -- in all the stuff I've read about the NFL in the 60s, they were laughing-stock bad, but they're really in the mix here. Their best win is over 3-3 Cleveland, though, so I wonder as they get more games, if they'll fall off.

Midseason power ratings:



Looks like this is predicting Dallas in the NFL East, and a Dallas-Kansas City Super Bowl I. It's also got 3-4 Buffalo with a much higher rating than 6-0 Baltimore, so I'm not sure this thing is making much sense.

[Passacaglia]

Monday, October 24, 1966



LICKING OUR WOUNDS



Two RBs out now -- Luckily we have like 5-6 on roster for some reason. And we get McCord back.

[Passacaglia]

Sunday, October 30, 1966

Real-Life -- You can probably guess that we lost to the Packers. The score was 31-7.

For us:



We actually had a chance here. We were down 17-13 with 2:57 to go, 1st and 10 at the Green Bay 29, when we get a holding penalty, a sack, a couple incompletions, and suddenly it was 4th and 30 at the 49. We go for it, throw a 2-yard pass, and turn it over on downs. We still had a chance, getting the ball back at our 10 with 1:42 left, but throw three incompletions, then a scramble for -2 yards (the game must know it's 1966 and isn't counting sacks yet). Bart Starr gets player of the game -- 18/29, 200 yards, 2 TDs.



Houston gets beat up by the Chiefs, but still look in control of the AFL East.
Kansas City doesn't pull away from the Chargers or Raiders, since they both win.
Cowboys beat the Steelers, and the Eagles lose! So we've still got chaos in the NFL East.
Colts lose in OT to the Rams, so Green Bay is only half a game behind them.

[Passacaglia]

Monday, October 31, 1966



LICKING OUR WOUNDS



John Henderson comes back. Milt Plum hurt, but he should be fine for our next game.

[Passacaglia]

Sunday, November 6, 1966

Real-Life -- 10-10 tie with the Bears!

For us:



Not even close to a tie. Bears QB Rudy Bukich gets player of the game, throwing 22/34, 240 yards, 2 TDs.



The Bills maybe gaining on the Oilers?
Chiefs still 2 games up, but only on the Raiders now.
Eagles beat the Cowboys! And Steelers win. All three still with a good shot.
Colts and Packers both win.

Oh, and in case you're curious, we're officially eliminated. We may have technically been last week, but since the best we can do is 6-8, and both the Colts and Packers have 7 wins, it's definitely over. In terms of draft picks, we're tied with Denver at 1-8, but the Giants, Falcons, and 49ers are right there at 1-7. I'm not sweating this, a top 5 pick is all I want.

[Passacaglia]

Monday, November 7, 1966

Two jams this week.





This was pretty cool, Bob Seger before he hit it big (though I guess this song was locally big, hitting #3 on Detroit charts). Definitely more of a 60s garage band feel than the stuff he was famous for.

LICKING OUR WOUNDS



Can't even blame our crap season on injuries. McLenna still inactive since while he's good enough to go in as my 3rd RB, but not by much, and I guess there's a chance he doesn't recover by Sunday, so eh.

[Passacaglia]

Sunday, November 13, 1966

Real-life:



A 32-31 win for the Lions over the Vikings. No TD passes thrown, but two interceptions returned for a TD. Fran Tarkenton throws 11/24, 106 yards, and 5 INTs. Karl Sweetan only throws one INT on 41 attempts. Lions with 7 field goals, Mike Lucci with 3 INTs. Vikings were favored by 13.5, huge upset. They don't say when in the 4th quarter that last TD happened, but with current rules, they could have tried a 2 pt conversion to tie it (as long as they didn't let Tarkenton throw it).

For us:

[Passacaglia]

I pasted the screen shot of the game summary for our game against the Vikings into Google Gemini, and asked it to make a video of highlights. The result:

‎Gemini - direct access to Google AI

[Young Drachma]

Video highlight is wild, assumed it would be text not video!

[Passacaglia]

Well my prompt asked it to make a video. It did a pretty bad job, but it looks like it may be limited to 8 seconds. I was thinking I'd give up, but maybe it could still do a decent job if I did one highlight at a time.

One thing I wish I could do in FOF is copy-and-paste the info from the play-by-play. If I ever want to get more detailed in showing that, I'll have to do screenshots of it, which seems like a lot of time and space.

[Passacaglia]

After a few more attempts with Google Gemini and sources it recommended, I'm done with this AI video nonsense. Maybe a paid version would do a better job, but I'm not getting anything good enough to use with what I'm doing.

[Passacaglia]

Monday, November 14, 1966

Two jams this week





LICKING OUR WOUNDS



Nothing major here. McCord is going to have to play hurt, but whatever.

A little housekeeping: I lost a save apparently, but it was just one week's worth of games that were lost. I'm about to update the screen shot with the new games now.

[Passacaglia]

Sunday, November 20, 1966

Real-life: A win for the Lions! 20-14 over Unitas and the Colts.

For us:



Colts RB Lenny Moore runs 23 time for 153 yards and a TD for player of the game. Plum gets benched so early that the backup, Sweetan, gets more attempts.



Since we had that re-done week and everything, and we're getting near the end of the season, probably a good time to look at the overview:



With three games left in the season, Houston and Kansas City are three games ahead. For the East, Buffalo, Boston, and New York are still technically in it, since they could all tie the Oilers at 8-6. The Jets may be eliminated -- the playoff projection simulator gives them no chance, while giving Buffalo a 1% chance and Boston a <1% chance. In the West, the simulator gives Kansas City a 100% chance, and 0 for everyone else. The Chiefs beat Oakland twice, and San Diego once, but the Chargers and Chiefs could both end up 10-4 and split their games. I think the Chargers still lose then, because if Oakland ends up 10-4, the Chiefs would win head-to-head between all three teams (since the Raiders and Chargers split), and if Oakland is not involved, the Chiefs would have a 5-1 division record, and the Chargers would be 4-2. So it looks like the Chiefs have clinched!

NFL has some more interesting races. In the East, Eagles are 8-3 and Cowboys are 7-3, and they've split. Cardinals and Steelers still in the mix at 6-4. December 4 will be big here -- Philadelphia hosts Pittsburgh and Dallas hosts St. Louis. In the West, Baltimore and Green Bay are ahead of everyone. Baltimore is ahead half a game, and won in Green Bay earlier in the season. They play again in Baltimore December 11.

And at 1-10, we've got the inside track for the #1 spot. A few other 1-9 teams right there with us though.

[Passacaglia]

Monday, November 21, 1966

Two jams this week.





LICKING OUR WOUNDS

[Passacaglia]

Thursday, November 24, 1966

THANKSGIVING! I've skipped some non-Sunday games as 1966 drags on, but I can't do a Lions dynasty and not stop every Thanksgiving.

Real-Life:

Lions with a big loss to the 49ers, 41-14.
The 7-2-1 Cowboys beat the 7-3 Browns, 26-14. The Cardinals were also 7-2-1, and the Browns dropping to 7-4 gives them a really difficult chance to win the East.
The AFL gets in on the Turkey Day football with the Bills beating the Raiders 34-10. The Bills move up to 8-3-1, well ahead of 5-3-2 Boston and 5-4-1 New York. The Raiders drop to 7-5, meaning the 8-2-1 Chiefs clinch the West.

For us:



Key game for the #1 draft pick here. We came in 1-10, with the only win being over expansion Atlanta. The 49ers come in 1-9, with their only win being over us in San Francisco (they even managed to lose to Atlanta).

Good result for us, I guess? Player of the game is San Francisco CB Jimmy Johnson (not that Jimmy Johnson, this one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Johnson_(cornerback) ), for his 2 INTs.



Kind of a setback for the Cowboys in the East -- the Eagles had a bye this week, and it would have been nice to tie them at 8-3 instead of being a game behind at 7-4. They fall a game behind the Eagles in divisional record, too. Browns QB Frank Ryan gets player of the game, throwing 17/27, 238 yards.



We can put a cap on the Bills season here with this loss, just in case anyone was holding out hope for someone other than Houston. Boston is probably still in it, maybe.

[Passacaglia]

Sunday, November 27, 1966



Houston clinches the East on their bye week, with losses to both the Bills and Patriots.
Steelers beat the Cardinals in a battle for third place in the East.
Johnny Unitas throws a last-minute TD pass to give the Colts another win, eliminating the Rams, and making it a two-team race between the Colts and Packers.

[Passacaglia]

Monday, November 28, 1966



LICKING OUR WOUNDS



Not much movement here, which is good. DEs McCord and Mazzanti are both hurt still, but Mazzanti, who had been the inactive one, will be back to full strength, while McCord is still hurt, so Mazzanti will take McCord's place on the active roster.

[Passacaglia]

Sunday, December 4, 1966

Real-Life: Beat by the Rams, 23-3.

For us:



Anyone worried about a win that would make us miss out on the #1 pick, no worries. Plum again benched, this time after throwing only 9 passes. Karl Sweetan came in at halftime, once we were down 23-0. He legit led us to making it 23-14, until the Rams woke back up. Rams QB Roman Gabriel gets player of the game -- 31/41, 327 yards, 2 TDs.



The AFL is nothing to worry about -- we're primed for Houston and Kansas City.

NFL East is still a mess. Steelers beating the Eagles put both at 8-4, and Cardinals beating the Cowboys put both at 7-5.

Colts upset by the Bears in the NFL West! Packers win, so both are 10-2. They play next week, and I'm pretty sure it will come down to who wins that game.

[Passacaglia]

Monday, December 5, 1966

Two jams this week.





LICKING OUR WOUNDS



A little bit of a scare with Dick LeBeau as we're just trying to get through the season, but he's only out for 4 weeks, he should be find for next year. I'm activating McCord and Walker, but I'm not going to bother putting them in the starting lineup.

[Passacaglia]

Saturday, December 10 1966

My bad -- I kept saying the Packers and Colts would play December 11, but I was looking at the FOF schedule -- in actual 1966, they played on the 10th. I'd been skipping the non-Sunday games, but this one probably should be pulled out.

Real-life: Probably no surprise that the Packers beat the Colts in Baltimore. Score was 14-10, in 21 degree weather. From wikipedia:

Quarterback Zeke Bratkowski, in relief of Bart Starr, who suffered a muscle spasm in the first half, directed an 80-yard drive in the fourth quarter that resulted in a go-ahead touchdown run by Elijah Pitts for the Packers. John Unitas then led the Colts to the Green Bay 15, but there lost a fumble which came to be known as the 'Million Dollar Fumble', to secure the Packers' win that clinched the Western Conference title for Green Bay.

The Packers were 10-2 before the game, but the Colts were 8-4, so the win clinched the division for the Packers.

For us:



A win for the Packers, just like in real-life -- although our game was indoors instead of in the cold -- though with two defensive TDs and only one offensive, it felt like a cold-weather game. Bart Starr is player of the game, throwing 17/31, 231 yards, and a TD. Unitas gets hurt on the Colts 3rd play, instead of playing and fumbling late.

With the win, Green Bay seems to have clinched. They are 11-2, Colts are 10-3. If the Colts win next week and the Packers lose, both teams are 11-3, with a split series, and a 9-3 division record. FOF doesn't label them as clinched, but the simulator never shows the Colts winning. I suspect it goes to point differential. The Packers are 344 to 218 for +116, and the Colts are 377 to 302 for +75. That's likely insurmountable, since the Colts aren't playing us. They are playing San Francisco, who's pretty bad, and the Packers are playing the Rams, who are pretty good, so maybe? But still, over 6000 simulations, and the Packers won the title every time. Could we be looking at a Green Bay vs. Kansas City Super Bowl I, like in real life?

[Passacaglia]

Sunday, December 11, 1966

Real-Life: I mentioned the snowball game earlier. The Vikings beat us 28-16 and Coach Gilmer gets pelted.

For us:



I guess the only different is that the weather was sunny and 40 degrees, so probably no snowballs. I'm sure they did something bad to him though.



So our season is actually done, and it's done for the Raiders, too -- they get screwed with a 10-4 record but no playoffs. But the rest of the leagues still have to play a game. We already know we've got Houston and Kansas City, and almost assuredly Green Bay in the playoffs. But the NFL East is still a mess:



Pittsburgh sits a game ahead of Philadelphia, with Dallas dropping out, but Cleveland and St. Louis still in it. The Steelers also have their last game against Atlanta -- win that easy one, and they are in. If not, all hell breaks loose. Pittsburgh split with Philadelphia and St. Louis, but won both against Cleveland. But Cleveland is not out -- maybe because they beat Philadelphia twice, so a three-way tie gets them in? The simulator is saying Pittsburgh at 80%, St. Louis at 15%, Cleveland at 5%, Philadelphia 0. St. Louis plays Cleveland, so there's no chance of a 4-way tie. If Pittsburgh loses, it's just a 2-way tie with Cleveland/St. Louis, or a 3-way tie that includes Philadelphia.

[Passacaglia]

Monday, December 12, 1966

Two jams this week.





Wilson Pickett is difficult to determine if he fits here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilson_Pickett

Born in Alabama, but his "origin" is Detroit. He recorded a song in 1959 with the Primettes (who would become the Supremes) as backup singers. But that was before he was big. He does sign with Motown, but not until 1987, well after his career was a thing of the past (and of course, well after 1966). As far as I can tell, by 1963, he's signed with Double L records in NYC, and in 1965, he's with Atlantic, and recording back in Alabama. My hunch is in 1966, radio people in Detroit would have known him enough to claim him as their own somewhat and give him a bump in airplay.

LICKING OUR WOUNDS



Nothing major here. Bring on next season.

[Passacaglia]

Saturday, December 17, 1966

Real-Life:
Jets beat the Patriots, 38-28. No one cares.
Cleveland beats St. Louis 38-10. Also no one cares -- the Cowboys were 9-3-1, the Cardinals were 8-4-1, the Browns were 8-5, and the Eagles were 8-5. The Cowboys had beat the Cardinals once and tied them once, and I assume that meant they would win the East even if both teams ended up 9-4-1. Browns and Eagles were already eliminated.

For us:



4th quarter comeback for the Browns! Frank Ryan gets player of the game, throwing 21/35, 247 yards, 2 TDs. I assume they need the Eagles to win and the Steelers to lose to win the East, though.

[Passacaglia]

Sunday, December 18, 1966



Steelers roll. The Falcons scored to be down by 8 with 4:33 left, but never got the ball back.



So 1966 regular season is in the books! Our only guy who charts in the overview page here is a bad one, Milt Plum being #3 in interceptions. Green Bay and Kansas City seem like the favorites to meet in Super Bowl I, both with tough run defenses, allowing less than 20 points per game. Hard not to wonder if the Colts win their last two games with a healthy Unitas, though.

At the bottom, we tied with Denver and Atlanta at 1-13. Denver played 4-10 Boston and 4-10 Miami twice, which makes me think they'll get #1. And our game against the East was Pittsburgh, so our schedule might have been the hardest, putting us in the #3 spot.