Football Rules: Even in the days before "high tech"

After yesterday's Greek tragedy (will it be Favre's Last Pass?), it is worth it to remember why we love sports so much. It's the story. Corporations spend huge amounts of money to create their own stories --- but sports are about human drama, and they are compelling.

More than 40 years ago, the networks did not realize how much we loved football. Who remembers the Heidi Bowl? Because NBC was contractually obligated to the movie's sponsor, to broadcast Heidi from 7 pm to 9 pm that evening, the network had instructed Dick Cline, NBC's Broadcast Operations Supervisor, to cut to Heidi at exactly 7:00 pm, whether the football game between the Jets and the Raiders was over or not

As the game approached its exciting ending, however, NBC's executives changed their minds and decided to air the game to its conclusion and delay Heidi by several minutes if necessary. However, because so many football viewers were calling the network requesting the network not cut away from the game the NBC executives could not get through. NBC tried to contact the mobile unit in Oakland to call Broadcasting Operations, but Broadcasting Operations countered that they needed direct orders in order to rearrange scheduled programming.

With the game fed on telephone lines instead of satellites, Cline could not see what happened in the final minute. In an NBC Burbank studio where the TV feed was being controlled, Cline received no late instructions otherwise, and when the network came back from commercials, Heidi started on schedule at 7:00 pm. Cline later said that he was called directly by the president of NBC after the network ended its coverage, demanding that the game be put back on the air. However, the video link to the stadium had already been disconnected; reestablishing it would have required action by a multitude of telephone switching stations across the country.

While millions of stunned football fans east of Denver suddenly found themselves watching Heidi, the Raiders scored two touchdowns on three plays and won the game 43-32 in what has been voted by fans as one of the 10 most memorable games in American football history

At 8:40 pm, a crawl across the bottom of the screen announced the ending to the game (during a dramatic point in the movie when Heidi's paralyzed cousin Clara fell from her wheelchair and had to summon enough courage to try to walk).

The following evening, ABC News anchor Frank Reynolds was seen reading excerpts from Heidi (with the title of the book clearly visible), with cut-ins showing the two Raider touchdowns.