December 24, 1977: An NFL Playoff game is played on Christmas Eve, at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The Baltimore Colts, Champions of the AFC Eastern Division, face the Oakland Raiders, Champions of the AFC Western Division and defending World Champions.
The only score of the 1st quarter was a 30-yard touchdown run by the Raiders' Clarence Davis. In the 2nd quarter, the Colts' Bruce Laird intercepted Ken Stabler, and returned it 62 yards for a touchdown. Later in the quarter, Toni Linhart, the Colts' Austrian kicker, kicked a 36-yard field goal, and it was 10-7 Baltimore at the half.
Stabler capped the Raiders' 1st drive of the 2nd half with an 8-yard touchdown pass to tight end Dave Casper. He was nicknamed "Ghost," after the cartoon character Casper the Friendly Ghost. That touchdown was immediately canceled out by Marshall Johnson returning the ensuing kickoff 87 yards for a touchdown, and the Colts were back up, 17-14. Later in the 3rd quarter, former Colt Ted Hendricks, a linebacker known as "The Mad Stork," blocked a punt, setting up another Stabler-to-Casper touchdown, and it was 21-17 Oakland.
Early in the 4th quarter, Ron Lee ran the ball in to make it 24-21 Baltimore. The Raiders struck back, and Pete Banaszak scored to make it 28-24 Oakland. With less than 8 minutes to go, Lee ran the ball in to make it 31-28 Colts.
Stabler went to work, and got into Colt territory with 2:17 left. Tom Flores, a former Raider quarterback, now the offensive coordinator under head coach John Madden, and later his replacement as head coach, told Stabler, "Take a peek at the Ghost to the post," meaning a deep pattern by Casper, who would then turn toward the goalpost, a play designed to draw the Colts' safeties away so that the receivers could catch the ball. Casper later said that the play had been effective, but he hadn't caught a pass on it in the entire regular season.
Stabler threw a pass that looked like it would fall well beyond Casper. But Casper changed direction, and made a sensational catch, going down at the Colts' 14-yard line. With 29 seconds left, Errol Mann kicked a 31-yard field goal, and the game went to overtime.
The 1st overtime, the 5th quarter, was scoreless. The game went to a 2nd overtime, a 6th quarter, making it the 3rd-longest game in NFL or AFL history to that point. (As of the 2022 season, it is the 5th-longest.) Just 43 seconds into that period, Stabler ended the game with his 3rd touchdown pass of the game to Casper: Raiders 37, Colts 31.
This would be the last Playoff game that Memorial Stadium would ever host: After 3 straight Division titles, the Colts never made the Playoffs in Baltimore again, and moved to Indianapolis in 1984. The original version of the Cleveland Browns became the Baltimore Ravens in 1996, played 2 seasons at Memorial Stadium, and then moved into what is now known as M&T Bank Stadium.
By that point, the Raiders had gone to the 1977 AFC Championship Game, lost it to the Denver Broncos, won Super Bowl XV, moved to Los Angeles, won Super Bowl XVIII, and moved back to Oakland.
A 5-time Pro Bowler, Casper became a financial planner, and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2002. As of December 24, 2022, he is still alive. A 4-time Pro Bowler, Stabler became a broadcaster, died in 2015, and was elected to the Hall of Fame the next year.
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December 24, 1977 was a Saturday. Baseball was out of season. There were no college football bowl games on this day. Neither the NHL nor the WHA played any games, as usual for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The NBA usually plays on Christmas Day, but not on Christmas Eve, and didn't play on this day, either. Neither did the ABA.
There was 1 other NFL Playoff game that day: The Denver Broncos beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 34-21 at Mile High Stadium in Denver. The next day being a Sunday, but also being Christmas Day, the NFL had previously been ripped for playing a 1971 Playoff game on Christmas.
So they pushed these games back to Monday, the 26th: The Dallas Cowboys beat the Chicago Bears, 37-7 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas; and the Minnesota Vikings beat the Los Angeles Rams, 14-7 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. That's one of the first football games I can ever remember seeing on television. Despite Southern California being known for not much rain, this game became was known as the Mud Bowl: The players got so muddy, I couldn't tell the difference between the blue and gold Rams and the purple and white Vikings.
In the Conference Championship Games, the Broncos beat the Raiders, and the Cowboys beat the Vikings. In Super Bowl XII, the Cowboys beat the Broncos.
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