Most recent NFL playoff game with no surviving videotape?

[NFL500]

It's long been noted that Super Bowl II is the lone Super Bowl with no known surviving broadcast footage. Watching NFL Films highlights of the 1974 AFC Divisional Playoff Game between the Dolphins and the Raiders on NFL Network today had me wondering: What is the most recent NFL postseason game with no network footage still available? Is it "The Sea of Hands" Game? Or the 1974 NFC Championship Game between the Rams and Vikings? Or maybe the 1975 AFC Divisional Playoff Game between the Bengals and Raiders? Just curious.

As for Super Bowl II, there still may be hope some of that telecast will be found. Last year, a CBS promo for the 2nd AFL-NFL Championship that aired on the day of the game was discovered.

[Jay Z]

I would believe that anything 1977 and forward probably has a complete game, except for the 1977 Broncos Steelers game, where the first part was not broadcast to most (or any?) of the country because of the Colts Raiders overtime game.

For 1976, the Super Bowl exists, all of the AFC Championship Game, and part of the NFC Championship Game. Most of both NFC division round games (Vikings-Redskins and Rams-Cowboys) exist. I don't know of any broadcast footage for either of the AFC Divisional games that year, so that would be your answer.

I believe radio broadcasts do exist for all playoff games since 1970, though maybe a couple of those are missing.

[Rupert Patrick]

The 1976 AFC Divisional Playoff Games, Pittsburgh at Baltimore and New England at Oakland, are the most recent NFL playoff game TV broadcasts that are not available on video at all, only NFL Films highlights of the games are available of the games. The third period of the 1976 Cowboys Rams Divisional game broadcast does not exist either. Everything from that point forward exists except for the beginning of the 1977 Steelers Broncos game which was joined in progress due to the double OT finish of the Raiders Colts game. If memory serves, the Steelers Broncos game broadcast begins with about six minutes to play in the first period.

[JeffreyMiller]

A couple of guys named Newton Minnow and Comrade Dobler have been posting complete games from the 60s and 70s on Youtube ... several playoff games with intros and commercials. While I am not an advocate of posting this stuff on Youtube, I admit to watching a few of these videos and much of it is absolutely spectacular. I just watched the Oakland at Miami playoff game from 1973.

I am wondering if someone from NFL FIlms is monitoring what's showing up on Youtube anymore. I recall stuff being yanked way back when, but these have been up for quite a while.

[jeckle_and_heckle]

A couple of guys named Newton Minnow and Comrade Dobler have been posting complete games from the 60s and 70s on Youtube ... several playoff games with intros and commercials. While I am not an advocate of posting this stuff on Youtube, I admit to watching a few of these videos and much of it is absolutely spectacular. I just watched the Oakland at Miami playoff game from 1973.

I am wondering if someone from NFL FIlms is monitoring what's showing up on Youtube anymore. I recall stuff being yanked way back when, but these have been up for quite a while.

Are you sure you don't mean "Minow?"

Newton N Minow was the former chair of the FCC and is quite noted for his "vast wasteland" speech.
It is likely he is aware of what he can post and what he cannot.
Now he may be a contributor to what has become the vast wasteland of cyberspace?

It is difficult to imagine Minow consorting with the ilk of a Conrad Dobler but "Comrade" is another story.

If, in fact, "Minnow" is not a misspelling, then the poster is, indeed, a daring soul.

[JeffreyMiller]

Umm ... I can read. Go look for yourself.

[JohnR]

I think his Youtube handle is an attempt at irony.

[JeffreyMiller]

Indeed ... just reporting it the way it was written.

[L.C. Greenwood]

It's long been noted that Super Bowl II is the lone Super Bowl with no known surviving broadcast footage. Watching NFL Films highlights of the 1974 AFC Divisional Playoff Game between the Dolphins and the Raiders on NFL Network today had me wondering: What is the most recent NFL postseason game with no network footage still available? Is it "The Sea of Hands" Game? Or the 1974 NFC Championship Game between the Rams and Vikings? Or maybe the 1975 AFC Divisional Playoff Game between the Bengals and Raiders? Just curious.

As for Super Bowl II, there still may be hope some of that telecast will be found. Last year, a CBS promo for the 2nd AFL-NFL Championship that aired on the day of the game was discovered.

It's amazing beyond words to realize those network executives didn't save the postseason games from the entire decade of the 70s moving forward. Super Bowl 3, and the ensuing merger in 1970 kicked off a decade of growth for the NFL, and even a chimp would know that old footage had value for the regular network coverage of league games. But even NFL Films screwed up, when they lost a sizable portion of the 1971 Dolphins-Chiefs classic. That's why you don't see that great game with different video when they did a Greatest Games flashback. All they had was the roughly 30 minute show highlights.

[NFL500]

I'm sure the Denver area got the Steelers-Broncos game in its entirety, but certainly not the rest of the country with the Raiders and Colts going to double OT to settle things. How ironic that NBC and CBS didn't alternate playoff games that day as they almost always did in the 1970s and 1980s.

As for the Steelers-Colts and Patriots-Raiders playoff games in 1976, it may be possible that footage from those games would be on the pregame show for the 1976 AFC Championship Game should that program still exist. I'll always be thankful for whoever saved the Super Bowl III pregame show, likely the same person or persons who saved the game. Were it not for that pregame show, I don't think there'd be any surviving network footage of the classic 1968 AFL Championship Game between the Raiders and the Jets.

Speaking of championship games, I've noticed that many of the AFC and NFC ones from the 1970s are intact, In fact, the only two I've never seen even a videotape fragment of are the 1971 and 1974 NFC contests. Does anyone here know if any of that footage still exists?