[EDIT 11/30/2023: Introducing the "football" label]
The game gets a rating of 42.3 and a 78 share. An estimated 29.44 million households watch CBS on Jan. 12, 1975.
It is also the first Super Bowl in which a safety is made. Fran Tarkenton is sacked in the second quarter to give the Steelers the first points of the game.
These playoffs are the third in a row in which the Steelers and Oakland Raiders meet and the first of three consecutive playoff years in which the two play for the AFC championship.
What is remembered as the game of the season is the divisional playoff game Dec. 21 between the Raiders and the Miami Dolphins. The winning play for the Raiders was a catch that running back Clarence Davis makes despite the Dolphins coverage that would be known as "The Sea of Hands."
The MVP of the league according to the AP is Raiders QB Ken Stabler, who led the league with 26 touchdown passes.
The UPI Coach of the Year for the NFC is second-year St. Louis Cardinals coach Don Coryell, who led his team from a 4-9-1 record to a 10-6 record. For the AFC, it's Sid Gillman, who led the Houston Oilers from a 1-13 record that even his skills couldn't prevent to a 7-7 record in his coaching swan song.
Los Angeles Rams DT Merlin Olsen, a 13-year veteran, wins the Bert Bell Trophy for MVP as voted by the Maxwell Club of Philadelphia.
The AP names Steelers DT Joe Greene Defensive Player of the Year and gives Steelers linebacker Jack Lambert the honor of Defensive Rookie of the Year.
San Diego Chargers running back Don Woods is the AFC Rookie of the Year according to the UPI and Offensive Rookie of the Year according to the AP. He has 1,162 rushing yards, second-best in the NFL, and 10 TDs for rushing and receiving combined.
Chuck Foreman of the Vikings is the NFC Player of the Year according to The Sporting News. He has 777 yards on 199 rushes, 586 yards on 53 receptions, and a league-best 15 touchdowns for rushing and receiving combined.
The leading rusher in the AFC – and the league – is the Denver Broncos' Otis Armstrong with 1,407 yards. In the two years before and the two years after, that is O.J. Simpson's honor.
This time, Ken Anderson of the Cincinnati Bengals is the leader in QB rating with a mark of 95.7, which is 1.2 points better than Stabler's.
The Baltimore Colts' Lydell Mitchell rushes a record 40 times Oct. 20 in a 35-20 Colts win at Shea Stadium against the New York Jets. Mitchell has 72 receptions this year, a record for a running back thus far and the leading figure for any player in the season.
Emmitt Thomas of the Kansas City Chiefs is the first since 1964 to get 12 interceptions in a season. By the way, those INT's go for 214 yards.
Tampa is awarded an NFL franchise April 24, and Seattle joins them June 5. The ownership group for the latter could have been the Seattle Kings, who felt they were guaranteed the franchise and promoted it greatly, but the $16 million fee, the labor dispute, and the WFL are factors leading them to concede to Seattle Professional Football, a more local group of owners, who get the franchise Dec. 5.
An NFLPA strike precludes the Chicago College All-Star Game – an event in which the Dolphins as reigning champions would have played college all-stars, one that will only be held twice more – but no regular-season games are cancelled. The point of contention is free agency, and the slogan is "no freedom, no football." The union gets back to work, and this whole thing will be settled by a federal ruling Dec. 20 that ushers in free agency.
This is the first season in which games outside of the playoffs can go to sudden-death overtime. This might be a move prompted by the use of overtime in the WFL.
Among other rule changes influenced by the WFL's rules: the moving of the goalposts to behind the end zone, kickoffs from the 35-yard line, and a new rule for missed field goals.
The New York Giants play at the Yale Bowl again this year. They will play at Shea Stadium, also home of the Jets, in 1975.
With the first pick in the '74 NFL Draft, the Dallas Cowboys get Ed "Too Tall" Jones, a 6'9" defensive end from Tennessee State.
Throughout the season, the Dolphins maintain their home winning streak, which started in 1971. At the end of the season, the streak is 27, and that's where it will be left when they lose their first regular-season home game in '75.
On Oct. 13, Dennis Morgan of the Cowboys returns a Cardinals punt for a 98-yard touchdown. He is the third player to do so for that many yards, and no one will go longer until 1994.
Mack Herron of the New England Patriots breaks Gale Sayers's single-season record of 2,440 all-purpose yards in a season by accumulating 824 running, 474 receiving, and 1,146 returning. The new record, four better than Sayers's, will last one year.
Besides Lambert and Swann, other future Hall of Famers making their debut this year are Raiders TE Dave Casper, Steelers WR John Stallworth, and Steelers center Mike Webster.
Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw only plays eight regular-season games. His breakout will not be until '75.
With 2,598 passing yards, Tarkenton gets past Y.A. Tittle (33,070) on the all-time list. His 35,846 career yards are second only to Johnny Unitas.
Roger Staubach's 52.8 completion percentage is, and will be, his personal worst for a season of 200 attempts or more.
Joe Namath has 20 TD passes, a level he hadn't reached since 1967. Also, 22 of his passes are intercepted.
Harris, consensus Rookie of the Year in '72, has 1,006 yards on 208 carries. He scores five rushing TDs in the regular season and six in the playoffs.
After four games with the Chiefs, future Hall of Fame DT Curley Culp is traded to the Oilers.
Raiders kicker George Blanda, who reaches the age of 47 early in the season, plays his next-to-last year and wins the Man of the Year Award.
Washington Redskins quarterback and five-time Pro Bowler Sonny Jurgensen plays his last season and leads the NFC in passer rating with 94.5. His final TD is in the Skins' regular-season finale against the Bears, and he goes 6 for 12 with three interceptions in Washington's playoff loss to the Rams.
Besides Jurgensen, other retiring players this year include future Hall of Famers Bobby Bell, Deacon Jones, Bob Lilly, and Jim Otto. Sid Gillman, another future Hall of Famer, coaches for his final year in '74.
One of the latest Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees is tackle and place-kicker Lou Groza. Another is defensive halfback and cornerback "Night Train" Lane.
Roy Blount, Jr.'s About Three Bricks Shy of a Load, a.k.a. About Three Bricks Shy... and the Load Filled Up, is published. This is an acclaimed book about the '73 Steelers.
Former cornerback and current blaxploitation star Fred Williamson has a short-lived gig joining Frank Gifford and Howard Cosell on Monday Night Football. Ex-Detroit Lions DT Alex Karras replaces him on the program early in the season.
Jack Kent Cooke becomes the majority stockholder of the Redskins after the last of deceased founder George Preston Marshall's stock is retired.
Bubba Smith sues for the incident in Tampa (see NFL '73 section). Official Ed Marion, local man hired to hold the first-down marker Robert Lastra, and the NFL are on the other side of a $2.5-million lawsuit. One version of the story is that Smith hit the marker and Lastra didn't let go.
On Oct. 22, Ed Meadows, the Chicago Bears DT who was infamous for a late hit on Bobby Layne of the Lions in 1956, one that ignited an already hot nationwide discussion about football violence, shoots and ends it all. He was 42, and his six-year career took him to four teams.
NFL '74 homepage on Pro-Football-Reference
NFL, WFL, and CFL standings on The Pro Football Archives
The beginning of the Steel Curtain in retrospect from the New York Daily News
The art of Super Bowl IX on Bolding Sports Research
The Sea of Hands game according to the Raiders' official site
The Rams, featuring Merlin Olsen on Rams Talk
The Steelers' '74 draft class represented in the Pro Football HOF
The '74 players' strike on SI's Monday Morning Quarterback
The '76 expansion teams on the Pro Football HOF Web site
The men who could have been Kings on SportsPress Northwest
NEXT MONTH: The hockey highlights of the early '74-75 season, including the return of Ken Dryden, the Soviets thrashing the WHA stars, Esposito's 500th goal, Taro Tsujimoto, and more.
