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1970 NFL

The merger forced a realignment between the combined league's clubs. Because there were 16 NFL teams and 10 AFL teams, three teams needed to transfer to balance the two new conferences at 13 teams each. In May 1969, the Baltimore Colts, Cleveland Browns, and the Pittsburgh Steelers agreed to join all ten AFL teams to form the American Football Conference (AFC). The remaining NFL teams formed the National Football Conference (NFC). Replacing the old Eastern and Western conferences (although divisions from those conferences still existed but were renamed to suit the realignment), the new conferences, AFC and NFC, function similar to Major League Baseball's American and National leagues, and each of those two were divided into three divisions: East, Central, and West. The two Eastern divisions had five teams; the other four divisions had four teams each. The realignment discussions for the NFC were so contentious that the final plan was selected from a vase in January 1970. The format agreed on was as follows: NFC East: Dallas, New York (Giants), Philadelphia, St. Louis, Washington - NFC Central: Chicago, Detroit, Green Bay, Minnesota - NFC West: Atlanta, Los Angeles, New Orleans, San Francisco - AFC East: Baltimore, Buffalo, Miami, Boston, New York (Jets) - AFC Central: Cincinnati, Cleveland, Houston, Pittsburgh - AFC West: Denver, Kansas City, Oakland, San Diego. Meanwhile, with the debut of Monday Night Football on ABC September 21, 1970, the league became the first professional sports league in the United States to have a regular series of nationally-televised games in prime-time, and the only league ever to have its games televised on three major broadcast networks at the same time. Division winners in the AFC were Baltimore in the East, Cincinnati in the Central, and Oakland in the West, with the Wild-Card going to the upstart Miami Dolphins, thanks to new head coach Don Shula. In the NFC, it was Dallas in East, Minnesota in the Central, and San Francisco in the West, with the Wild-Card going to Detroit. In the playoffs in the AFC, it was Oakland over Miami 21-14, and Baltimore over Cincinnati 17-0.  In the NFC, it was Dallas over Detroit by a very unusual 5-0 score, and San Francisco won a thriller over Minnesota 17-14. In the conference championship games, it would be the Colts defeating the Raiders 27-17, and the Cowboys over the 49ers 17-10, setting up the match-up between the Baltimore colts and the Dallas Cowboys in the first Super Bowl after the merger. Super Bowl V was played on January 17, 1971, at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida, the first Super Bowl game played on artificial turf, on first-generation Poly-Turf. The game is sometimes called the "Blunder Bowl" or the "Stupor Bowl" because it was filled with poor play, a missed PAT, penalties, turnovers, and officiating miscues. The two teams committed a Super Bowl record 11 combined turnovers in the game, and the Colts' seven turnovers are currently the most ever committed by a winning team in a Super Bowl. Dallas also set a Super Bowl record with 10 penalties, costing them 133 yards. It was finally settled with five seconds left when Colts rookie kicker Jim O'Brien kicked a 32-yard field goal. In order to win the game, Baltimore had to overcome a 13–6 deficit at the half to win 16-13, while losing their starting quarterback in the second quarter. It is the only Super Bowl in which the Most Valuable Player Award was given to a member of the losing team: Cowboys linebacker Chuck Howley, who intercepted two passes (sacks and tackles were not yet recorded). Howley, the first non-quarterback to win the MVP award, refused to accept it because it was meaningless to him after his team lost. In a similar vein, Colts defensive end Bubba Smith would later refuse to wear his Super Bowl V ring because of the "sloppy" play.

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