December 29, 1968: The New York Jets Win the AFL Championship

December 29, 1968: The American Football League Championship Game is played at Shea Stadium in Flushing Meadow, Queens, New York City. By any objective measure, it was a better game than the Super Bowl that was held 2 weeks later.

The Oakland Raiders had won the AFL Championship the year before, and were back in the Championship Game. The New York Jets were in it for the 1st time. Earlier in the season, on November 17, in Oakland, The Jets blew a lead with a little over 1 minute to play, and the Raiders scored 2 touchdowns. Most of the country didn't see it, though, as NBC cut away at 7:00 PM Eastern Time, to show the children's movie Heidi, infuriating millions of TV viewers. "The Heidi Bowl" was a sign that the AFL had finally achieved a place in the American sports firmament, alongside the established NFL.

Quarterbacked by Joe Namath, who had already earned the nickname "Broadway Joe" for his showmanship, the Jets finished the season 11-3. The Raiders, with a quarterback named Daryle Lamonica, known as "The Mad Bomber," and with a devastating, often dirty, defense, were 12-2. Each team won its Division.

Since it was an even-numbered year, it was the Eastern Division Champion's turn to host the Championship Game. And so, Shea Stadium, also the home of baseball's New York Mets, hosted a football championship before it hosted a postseason game in baseball. A crowd of 62,627 was on hand, the biggest in AFL history.

A short punt led to Namath passing to Don Maynard for a touchdown to open the scoring. The Raiders stalled on their next drive, and George Blanda hit the crossbar on a field goal attempt. Jim Turner kicked a field goal to put the Jets up 10-0 at the end of the 1st quarter.

The Raiders got off the deck, and Lamonica threw a 29-yard touchdown pass to Fred Biletnikoff. Turner kicked another field goal, and Blanda kicked one right before the half, to close the Raiders to within 13-10.

Blanda tied the game with a field goal in the 3rd quarter, but Namath took the Jets downfield, and just before the quarter ended, he threw a touchdown pass to Pete Lammons, putting New York up, 20-13.

Early in the 4th quarter, George Atkinson intercepted a Namath pass, and took it to the Jets' 5-yard line. Pete Banaszak ran it in on the next play, and for the 1st time, the Raiders led, 23-20. But Namath needed just 3 passes -- 10 yards to George Sauer, 52 to Maynard, and 6 to Maynard -- to put the Jets up, 27-23.

With a little over 5 minutes left, with the Raiders having the ball on the Jets' 26-yard line and 4th & 10, head coach John Rauch decided to go for the 1st down. It didn't work, as Verlon Biggs sacked Lamonica. On their next drive, Lamonica got to the Jets' 24, but he made a bad throw that was ruled a fumble, and Ralph Baker recovered for the Jets. With 1 last chance, the Raiders had the ball on their own 22 with 42 seconds left, but could only get to midfield before the clock ran out. The Raiders had outgained the Jets, 443 total yards to 400, but the Jets had won, 27-23.

In the off-season, Rauch decided he'd had enough meddling by Raiders owner Al Davis, and resigned. Davis promoted the linebackers coach to head coach: John Madden. Madden's legend was just beginning, while Namath's was about to reach the stratosphere.

And a storybook period for New York sports had begun: In a span of 17 months, the Jets had won the AFL Championship, the Jets would pull off one of the greatest upsets in sports history by becoming the 1st AFL team to win a Super Bowl, the Mets would win a "Miracle" World Series, and the Knicks would win their 1st NBA Championship.

*

December 29, 1968 was a Sunday. The NFL Championship Game was played the same day, and the Baltimore Colts, 13-1 on the regular season, avenged their only defeated annihilating the Cleveland Browns, 34-0 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. (As with the AFL, home-field advantage was determined on a rotating basis, not by best record. The merged NFL wouldn't start doing it that way until 1975.)

There were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 120-112 at Madison Square Garden. Willis Reed scored 34 points.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Baltimore Bullets, 101-99 at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum (now the McCamish Pavilion) in Atlanta.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 102-97 at the Milwaukee Arena. In 1974, it was renamed the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Detroit Pistons, 111-108 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Jerry West scored 34 points, Elgin Baylor scored 24, and Wilt Chamberlain scored 22 and had 25 rebounds.

There were 5 games in the American Basketball Association:

* The New York Nets lost to the Kentucky Colonels, 118-116 in overtime at the Long Island Arena in Commack, New York. Ron Perry scored 36 in defeat for the Nets.

* The Miami Floridians beat the New Orleans Buccaneers, 107-106 at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

* The Houston Mavericks beat the Los Angeles Stars, 93-83 at the Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston.

* The Oakland Oaks beat the Minnesota Muskies, 120-99 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Dallas Chaparrals, 102-92 at the Denver Auditorium Arena.

And there were 4 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-1 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Oakland Seals beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 2-1 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Boston Bruins and the Detroit Red Wings played to a tie, 3-3 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* And the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Los Angeles Kings, 4-1 at the Chicago Stadium.

December 19, 1998: President Bill Clinton Is Impeached

December 19, 1998: President Bill Clinton is impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives. He will go on trial before the U.S. Senate.

There were 4 Articles of Impeachment drawn up by the House's Committee on the Judiciary, and 2 of them passed the full House:

* Perjury before a grand jury: 228 Yea, 206 Nay. All but 5 Republicans voted for it: Amo Houghton and Peter King of New York, Connie Morella of Maryland, Chris Shays of Connecticut, and Mark Souder of Indiana. All but 5 Democrats voted against it: Ralph Hall and Charles Stenholm of Texas, Virgil Goode of Virginia, Paul McHale of Pennsylvania, and Gene Taylor of Mississippi.

* Obstruction of Justice: 221 Yea, 212 Nay. The same 5 Democrats voted for it. The same 5 Republicans voted against it, and so did Sherwood Boehlert of New York, Mike Castle of Delaware, Phil English and John McHugh of Pennsylvania, Nancy Johnson of Connecticut, Jay Kim of California, Jim Leach of Iowa, and Ralph Regula of Ohio.

* Perjury before a deposition: 229 Nay, 205 Yea, so this one failed.

* Abuse of Power: 285 Nay, 148 Yea. Taylor was the only Democrat to vote for this one, and 81 Republicans voted against it, so this one never had a chance.

The case was based on Clinton's attempt to hide the fact that he had an extramarital relationship with Monica Lewinsky, a former White House intern. It had nothing to do with using the power of his office to commit election fraud, as was the case with Richard Nixon, who resigned in 1974 before the full House could vote on Articles of Impeachment; and with Donald Trump, who was impeached in 2019 and acquitted early the next year.

On February 12, 1999, with 2/3rds of the Senate, 67 out of 100, required to vote "Guilty" in order to remove him from office, Clinton was acquitted. The vote was 55-45 "Not Guilty" on perjury, and a 50-50 split on obstruction of justice.

The evidence against Clinton was so ridiculous, the Republicans, who held the majority, could not get a majority, 51 votes, to say that he had done it. Surely, there were some Senators who knew he was innocent, but voted "Guilty" anyway, because, like the leaders of the impeachment movement in the House, they hated him so much.

UPDATE: Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who voted to impeach Clinton in the House and, as a newly-elected Senator, voted to convict him in the Senate, died on July 11, 2026. As of that date, of the 228 Congressmen who voted to impeach Clinton on at least 1 count, 5 are still serving in the House, 28 years later: Robert Aderholt of Alabama, Ken Calvert of California, Hal Rogers of Kentucky, Chris Smith of New Jersey, and Frank Lucas of Oklahoma. And 3 of them now serve in the U.S. Senate: John Thune of South Dakota, Jerry Moran of Kansas and Mike Crapo of Idaho. (That's pronounced CRAY-poh, although I wouldn't blame you if you thought it was CRAP-oh.)

They all stand by their votes to impeach Clinton, and not to do the same for Trump. The hypocrites.

*

December 19, 1998 was a Saturday. It was the off-season for baseball. There were no games played in the NBA, as the team owners had locked out the players, and they continued to do so until a new Collective Bargaining Agreement was accepted on January 20, 1999.

But there were 2 NFL games played, and one involved one of the New York teams. The New York Jets beat the Buffalo Bills, 17-10 at what was then named Ralph Wilson Stadium in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York. (UPDATE: As of March 29, 2021, it is named Highmark Stadium.) The Jets thus clinched the AFC Eastern Division Championship, for the 1st time since the Division began play in 1970.

In the other game, the team then known as the Washington Redskins beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 20-16 at Jack Kent Cooke Stadium in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland. (The stadium would soon be renamed FedEx Field.)

There was also a college football bowl game played that day, the Las Vegas Bowl, at Sam Boyd Stadium, home field of UNLV. North Carolina beat San Diego State, 20-13.

There were 10 NHL games played that day: 

* The New Jersey Devils played he Montreal Canadiens to a tie, 1-1 at the Molson Centre in Montreal. (It's now the Bell Centre.)

* The New York Rangers lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs, 7-4 in one of the last games played at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. (The last would be on February 13, 1999, the day after Clinton's acquittal.)

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-1 at the First Union Center in Philadelphia. (It's now the Xfinity Mobile Arena.)

* The Boston Bruins beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-1 at the FleetCenter in Boston. (It's now the TD Garden.)

* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2 at the Marine Midland Arena in Buffalo. (It's now the KeyBank Center.)

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Washington Capitals, 3-0 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Florida Panthers beat the Edmonton Oilers, 3-1 at the National Car Rental Center in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida. (It's now the Amerant Bank Center.)

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Los Angeles Kings, 5-2 at the Kiel Center in St. Louis. (It's now the Enterprise Center.)

* The San Jose Sharks beat the Colorado Avalanche, 2-1 at the San Jose Arena. (It's now the SAP Center.)

* And the Nashville Predators beat the Vancouver Canucks, 6-4 at General Motors Place in Vancouver. (It's now the Rogers Arena.)

December 16, 1973: The O.J. 2,000 Game

December 16, 1973: O.J. Simpson sets the NFL's single-season rushing yards record, becoming the 1st player to rush for 2,000 yards in a season.

In 1934, Beattie Feathers of the Chicago Bears became the 1st NFL player to rush for 1,000 yards in a season. His 1,004 yards stood as the record until 1947, when Steve Van Buren of the Philadelphia Eagles raised it to 1,008. In 1949, Van Buren broke his own record, with 1,146.

Jim Brown played 9 seasons in the NFL, 1957 to 1965, all with the Cleveland Browns, and led the League in rushing yards in 8 of them. Jim Taylor of the Green Bay Packers led in 1962. In 1958, Brown broke Van Buren's record by plenty, with 1,527. In 1963, with the schedule having been increased from 12 to 14 games, he raised the record to 1,863. In 2 years, he had increased the record by 33 percent; within 8 years, by 62 percent.

Simpson arrived in professional football in 1969, with the Buffalo Bills, having won the Heisman Trophy the year before and led USC to the National Championship the year before that. But his 1st 3 seasons were a bit of a struggle. In 1972, he rushed for 1,251 yards, leading the NFL, and the most by any player in 7 years, since Brown in his last season.

The Bills began the 1973 season in a new stadium, in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York. It was then named Rich Stadium, and is now named Highmark Stadium. Simpson started off as well as anyone could have hoped for, rushing for 250 yards.

This broke the single-game record of 247, then held by Willie Ellison of the Los Angeles Rams in a 1971 game. In 1976, Simpson would raise that record to 273, but it was broken a year later when Walter Payton rushed for 275. Today, the record is 296, set by Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings in 2007.

Simpson ran for 103 yards in Week 2, 123 in Week 3, 171 in Week 4, and 166 in Week 5. But in Week 6, he was held to 55 yards by the defending Champion Miami Dolphins and their "No-Name Defense." In Week 7, against a Kansas City Chiefs defense that had once been great but was now aging, Simpson ran for 157. That gave him 1,025 for the season, at the halfway mark. Brown's record of 1,863 and even 2,000 now seemed within reach.

Then Simpson went into a slump. He only got 79 yards in Week 8 and 99 in Week 9. He bounced back in Week 10, getting 120. In Week 11, he got 124. In Week 12, he got 137. That got him 1,584. And in Week 15, he got 219. That gave him 1,803. So, in the season's final game, he needed 61 for a new record, and 197 for 2,000.

Fortunately for Simpson and the Bills, they were playing the New York Jets. Unfortunately, it would be at Shea Stadium, in cold air, with snow falling, on a frozen field. But the Bills were used to that kind of weather back home, so it didn't bother them much -- even if Simpson himself was a San Francisco native who'd made his name at USC, in the steady warm weather of Los Angeles, on the pristine grass field at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

The result was not really in doubt. The game was 7-7 at the end of the 1st quarter, by which point Simpson had already surpassed Brown's single-season record, needing just 8 carries to do it. The Bills pulled ahead to 21-7 by the half, including a touchdown run by Simpson.

The Bills led 28-7 after 3 quarters, and the final was 34-14. In case you're a Jet fan who is wondering: For the Jets, who finished 4-10, Joe Namath completed 13 out of 30 passes, for 206 yards, 2 touchdowns and no interceptions. But he also got sacked 3 times.

With 5 minutes left, Bills quarterback Joe Ferguson handed off to Simpson, and he ran up the middle, gaining 7 yards. It gave him 200 yards even for the day, and 2,003 yards for the season. The Bills carried him off the field, and a crowd of 47,740, mostly Jet fans, gave him a standing ovation.

This turned out to be the last game as an NFL head coach for the Jets' Wilbur "Weeb" Ewbank. He had led the Baltimore Colts to the NFL Championship in 1958 and '59. It had been only 5 seasons since he and Namath had led the Jets to win the Super Bowl, but it now seemed very far away.

The Bills also became the 1st NFL team to rush for over 3,000 yards in a season. At a postgame press conference, Simpson -- because of his initials, sometimes called "Orange Juice" or just "Juice" -- introduced each member of the offensive line, who called themselves "The Electric Company," because, "We make the Juice flow."

Let the record show that they were: Left tackle Dave Foley, left guard Reggie McKenzie, center Mike Montler, right guard Joe DeLamielleure, and right tackle Donnie Green. DeLamielleure would eventually join Simpson in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. (Montler died in 2018, Green in 2019. As of the 2022 NFL season, Foley, McKenzie and DeLamielleure are still alive.)

The following season, their 1st season with the "charging" buffalo on their helmets instead of the standing one they'd had since their 1960 inception, the Bills made the Playoffs. Although he caught a touchdown pass in the AFC Divisional Playoff, the Bills lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers, in what turned out to be the only Playoff game Simpson ever appeared in.

In a way, Simpson was unlucky: For all his personal success, as a player, an actor, and a commercial pitchman, he arrived in Buffalo just as the Dolphins were becoming the team that would dominate the AFC Eastern Division, which they remained until the mid-1980s, by which point Simpson was in the Hall of Fame, a sideline analyst for NFL games on NBC, and still doing commercials, especially for Hertz Rent-a-Car, sometimes with golf legend Arnold Palmer.

And he was popular. Still good-looking. Charming. For a lot of people, including myself, O.J. Simpson had been a hero for all or most of their lives.

And if he, rather than his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, had died on June 12, 1994, it would have been a shock, but not the greater shock that we all got. Though it's likely that the awful things he had already done by that point would have come out eventually.

The film The Dark Knight featured Aaron Eckhardt as fictional District Attorney Harvey Dent, who said, "You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." And he went on to prove it.

The film The Sandlot featured Art LaFleur as the ghost of Babe Ruth, saying, "Heroes get remembered, but legends never die."

O.J. Simpson was a hero. He is a legend. But it's worth remembering that not all legends are heroic ones, or have happy endings.

The O.J. 2000 Game remains considerably more memorable than the one in which the record O.J. set was broken, by Eric Dickerson of the Los Angeles Rams. How much more memorable? This much: I had to look up not only the date, but the year that it happened. And I was just short of my 15th birthday at the time, so I remember it having happened, though I wasn't watching as it happened.

It was December 9, 1984: The Rams beat the Houston Oilers, 27-16 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium), and, with 215 yards, Dickerson surpassed Simpson, finishing the game with 2,007. There was 1 more week to play, and in the season finale, he ran for 98, finishing the year with 2,105.

This remains the NFL record. In 1985, Herschel Walker ran for 2,411 yards for the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League. But, just as Dickerson needed a 15th game to surpass Simpson (O.J. still holds the record for most rushing yards in the 1st 14 games of a season), Walker played an 18-game season. What's more, the USFL was not highly regarded. Dickerson himself said, "The difference is, I did it in the majors, and he did it in the minors." The next year, Walker came to the NFL, with the Dallas Cowboys. His peak total in the NFL was 1,514 yards, in 1988.

There have now been 8 2,000-yard rushing seasons in NFL history. Since Simpson and Dickerson: Barry Sanders had 2,053 for the 1997 Detroit Lions, Terrell Davis had 2,008 for the 1998 Denver Broncos, Jamal Lewis had 2,006 for the 2003 Baltimore Ravens, Chris Johnson had 2,006 for the 2009 Tennessee Titans, Adrian Peterson had 2,097 for the 2012 Vikings, and Derrick Henry had 2,027 for the 2020 Titans.

(UPDATE: Saquon Barkley had 2,005, in a 17-game season in which he was held out for the 17th game to protect him from injury, for the 2024 Philadelphia Eagles. Counting the Playoffs and the Super Bowl, he had 2,504, an all-time record, breaking the 1998 mark of Davis, 2,468.)

Oddly, while Lewis and Peterson would both eventually break (and Peterson still holds) the record for most rushing yards in a game, neither did it in the season in which they rushed for over 2,000 yards. Simpson did (in 1973) -- and didn't (in 1976, when he raised the single-game record).

For comparison's sake: Jim Brown's highest single-game total was 237; Walter Payton, the 1st man to rush for more yards in a game than Simpson (275), and eventually the NFL's all-time rushing leader, topped out at 1,852 yards in a season; and Emmitt Smith, who surpassed Payton and remains the all-time rushing leader, topped out at 237 for a game and 1,773 for a season.

*

December 16, 1973 was a Sunday. These other games were played in the NFL:

* The New York Giants lost to the Minnesota Vikings, 31-7 at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut. (This was after the old Yankee Stadium was renovated, but before Giants Stadium was completed.)

* The Baltimore Colts beat the New England Patriots, 18-13 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

* The Washington Redskins beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 38-20 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington.

* The Atlanta Falcons beat the New Orleans Saints, 14-10 at Atlanta Stadium. (It was renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in 1975.)

* The Miami Dolphins beat the Detroit Lions, 34-7 at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the Chicago Bears, 21-0 at the old Soldier Field in Chicago.

* The Dallas Cowboys beat the football version of the St. Louis Cardinals, 30-3 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Diego Chargers, 33-6 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Houston Oilers, 27-24 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The Los Angeles Rams beat the Cleveland Browns, 30-17 at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the San Francisco 49ers, 37-14 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

* The Oakland Raiders beat the Denver Broncos, 21-17 at the Oakland Coliseum.

* And there was no Monday Night Football game that week.

There were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The Kansas City-Omaha Kings beat the Detroit Pistons, 105-104 at the Kansas City Municipal Auditorium.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 115-110 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 121-98 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

* And the Phoenix Suns beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 113-109 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

There were 3 games played in the American Basketball Association:

* The New York Nets beat the Utah Stars, 129-109 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Memphis Tams, 85-80 at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis.

* And the Kentucky Colonels beat the San Diego Conquistadors, 106-101 at the San Diego Sports Arena. (It's now named the Pechanga Arena.)

There were 7 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Chicago Black Hawks, 6-1 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New York Islanders lost to the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-0 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Boston Bruins beat the California Golden Seals, 5-3 at the Boston Garden.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Buffalo Sabres, 5-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Atlanta Flames, 2-1 at The Omni.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Vancouver Canucks, 7-5 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* The Montreal Canadiens, the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Los Angeles Kings and the Minnesota North Stars were not scheduled.

And there were 6 games in the World Hockey Association:

* The Edmonton Oilers beat the Jersey Knighs, 7-6 at the Cherry Hill Arena in the Philadelphia suburb of Cherry Hill, Camden County, New Jersey.

* The Chicago Cougars beat the New England Whalers, 3-2 at the Boston Garden.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Toronto Toros, 4-3 in overtime at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Cleveland Crusaders and the Houston Aeros played to a tie, 2-2 at the Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston.

* The Minnesota Fighting Saints beat the Winnipeg Jets, 3-2 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* The Los Angeles Sharks beat the Vancouver Blazers, 5-3 at the Los Angeles Sports Arena.

December 14, 1963: The Polo Grounds Closes

December 14, 1963: The last event is held at the Polo Grounds, after 53 years of the current stadium, and 72 years of sports on the site. The New York Jets lose to the Buffalo Bills, 19-10.

I suppose it was only fair: The Jets, still known as the New York Titans at the time, ruined the Bills' 1st regular-season game, 27-3 over the September 11, 1960, also at the Polo Grounds -- and, of course, also the first game for the Jets-to-be.

It was a bit of an ignominious end for a stadium that had hosted 13 World Series, 5 NFL Championship Games and 2 Heavyweight Championship fights. Only 6,526 fans attended the wake. That was still more than the 1,752 who were at the last competitive baseball game at the old Harlem Horseshoe. On September 18, 1963, the New York Mets lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-1.

The following April, with both the Mets and the Jets having moved into the new Shea Stadium, the same demolition crew that demolished Ebbets Field in 1960 used the same wrecking ball, painted to look like a baseball, to take the Polo Grounds down. The Polo Grounds Towers opened on the site in 1966, with a playground named Willie Mays Field.

Polo Grounds Towers, as seen from Coogan's Bluff

*

December 14, 1963 was a Saturday. Actress Cynthia Gibb was born. Singer Dinah Washington died. And the Baldwin Hills Dam broke in Los Angeles, killing 5 people. I have separate entries for Washington's death and the dam break.

Also in the American Football League that day, the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Boston Patriots, 35-3 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. In the National Football League, the Green Bay Packers beat the San Francisco 49ers, 21-17 at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco. The rest of both Leagues played the next day, Sunday.

It was the last weekend of the college football season before the bowl games, and only 2 games were played. The University of Houston beat the University of Louisville, 21-7 at Rice Stadium in Houston, where they were groundsharing with their crosstown rivals, Rice University.

And Number 9 Alabama, coached by Paul "Bear" Bryant and quarterbacked by Joe Namath, beat the University of Miami, 17-12 at the Orange Bowl stadium in Miami. 'Bama and the University of Mississippi, each of whom had faced an integration crisis over the last year and change, did not play each other in the regular season, but 'Bama's losses to Florida and arch-rival Auburn, along with Ole Miss' undefeated season, gave Ole Miss the Southeastern Conference Championship. But since 'Bama hadn't had their shot at Ole Miss, they were pitted against each other in the Sugar Bowl, which traditionally features the SEC Champion, and 'Bama won, 12-7.

There were 4 games played in the NBA that day:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Philadelphia 76ers, 123-119 at the old Madison Square Garden.

* The Cincinnati Royals beat the Boston Celtics, 108-105 at the Boston Garden.

* The St. Louis Hawks beat the Detroit Pistons, 104-92 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Baltimore Bullets, 113-108 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. Jerry West led all scorers on the day with 38 points.

The NHL's entire "Original Six" was in action that day:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-3 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins, 3-1 at the Montreal Forum.

* And the Detroit Red Wings beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 5-4 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

And in English soccer, Arsenal, the North London team that I would one day support, traveled to the Birmingham area, and played Wolverhampton Wanderers, a.k.a. Wolves, to a 2-2 draw.

December 13, 2007: The Mitchell Report Is Released

December 13, 2007: The Report to the Commissioner of Baseball of an Independent Investigation into the Illegal Use of Steroids and Other Performance Enhancing Substances by Players in Major League Baseball is released the public. Since the leader of the investigation was George J. Mitchell, the document becomes popularly known as The Mitchell Report.

Mitchell had a distinguished career in politics. He was a U.S. Attorney in his native Maine, and a Judge of the U.S. District Court. When his mentor, Senator Ed Muskie, resigned in 1980 to become U.S. Secretary of State, Mitchell ran for his seat, and won it, being elected to a full term in 1982 and re-elected in 1988. At that point, his Democratic colleagues elected him to be the Senate Majority Leader, a post he held for the rest of his term. He did not run again in 1994.

Instead, being of Irish descent, he accepted a post as U.S. Special Envoy for Northern Ireland, and was among the negotiators of the Good Friday Accord that ended "The Troubles" in 1998. His ancestral homeland was grateful, and he was appointed the Chancellor of the Queen's University in the Northern Irish capital of Belfast. Officially, he held this post for nearly 10 years, from 1999 to 2009, even as he served as Vice Chair of the 9/11 Commission in November and December of 2002.

In 2006, in the wake of Congressional hearings the year before that tainted the reputations of several current and former players, Major League Baseball Commissioner Allan H. "Bud" Selig asked Mitchell to lead an investigation into the use of performance-enhancing drugs by players.

After 20 months of investigations, Mitchell released a report running 409 pages, and including the names of 89 former and (then) current players, claiming evidence of use of steroids or other substances prohibited by MLB. Among them were former Yankees Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and David Justice; and some stars from other teams, including Barry Bonds, who already held the records for most home runs in a season and most home runs in a career.

This was just a few weeks after the Boston Red Sox had won their 2nd World Series in 4 seasons. And it did not escape the notice of some people in the media that Mitchell was a member of the board of directors of the Fenway Sports Group, owners of the Red Sox. But the report mostly let the Red Sox off the hook. It was as if Mitchell was trying to say, "The Red Sox are clean, and their recent victories were won fairly. But the Yankees, the team that Red Sox fans hate the most, won their recent Pennants and World Series unfairly."

It was a dark moment for Yankee Fans. Just 3 years and change earlier, they could legitimately say that their last title was in 2000, and Boston's last was in 1918. Now, it was generally accepted by baseball people, official and unofficial alike that the Red Sox had won 2 of the last 4 World Championships, while the Yankees hadn't "really" won one since 1978.

On July 30, 2009, The New York Times reported that 104 players had failed steroid tests in 2003, and that 2 of them were David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, the 2 biggest hitters on those Boston title teams. Just like that, the Sox' 2004 and 2007 titles were exposed as frauds.

What's more, The Mitchell Report was also exposed as a fraud, because it said nothing about Ortiz and Ramirez. Mitchell, already a behind-the-scenes political operative when Richard Nixon was digging himself a deeper hole in the Watergate scandal, should have known: It's not the crime that really gets you, it's the cover-up. He had accused, with evidence that held up better with some players than with others, but had covered up the "crimes" of players for his own team.

It is a tremendous stain on the career of a great public servant. And it destroyed The Mitchell Report's credibility completely.

*

December 13, 2007 was a Thursday. And, wouldn't you know it, New England beat New York that night. The New England Patriots beat the New York Jets, 20-10 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands. Speaking of cheating: This was the year that the Patriots had been exposed in the "Spygate" scandal.

I have to give Bill Belichick credit for one thing: He didn't lie about it. Whereas the Red Sox and their fans still insist that everything they've won since 2004 is legit, Belichick basically said, "Yeah, I cheated. What the hell ya gonna do about it, huh?"

There were 2 games played in the NBA that night. The Washington Wizards beat the Miami Heat, 104-91 at the American Airlines Arena (now named the Kaseya Center) in Miami. And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the San Antonio Spurs, 102-97 at the Staples Center (now named the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

There were 10 games played in the NHL that night:

* Here's one where the New York Tri-State Area beat New England: The New Jersey Devils beat the Boston Bruins, 3-1 at what's now named the TD Garden in Boston. The Scarlet & Black got a goal from Brian Gionta, and 2 from Jamie Langenbrunner.

* The New York Islanders beat the Phoenix Coyotes, 3-2 at the Nassau Coliseum. (The New York Rangers were not scheduled.)

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-1 at the Wachovia Center (now named the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Ottawa Senators beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-1 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh (then known as the Mellon Arena, before reverting to its original name).

* The Calgary Flames beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 9-6 at the St. Pete Times Forum (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Nashville Predators, 2-1 at the Sommet Center (now the Bridgestone Arena) in Nashville.

* The Edmonton Oilers bear the Detroit Red Wings, 4-3 in a shootout at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* The Florida Panthers beat the St. Louis Blues, 1-0 at the ScotTrade Center (now the Enterprise Center) in St. Louis.

* The Dallas Stars beat the Los Angeles Kings, 4-1 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* And the San Jose Sharks beat the Vancouver Canucks 5-2 at the HP Pavilion (now the SAP Center) in San Jose, California. 

December 10, 1983: Farewell to Bradshaw, and to the NFL In New York City

December 10, 1983: For the last time, so far, a National Football League game is played within the Five Boroughs of the City of New York. It does not go well for the home team.

The New York Jets had been playing home games at Shea Stadium in Flushing Meadow-Corona Park in Queens since it opened in 1964. But the City's Department of Parks, which owned it (and also owned Yankee Stadium in the South Bronx), gave scheduling priority in September, the month when the NFL regular season begins, to the Major League Baseball team for whom it was really built, the New York Mets.

As a result, the Jets often had too many away games at the start of the season. Not only did this mean they often got off to bad starts, but it meant more home games later in the season. This was not as much of an advantage as you think: Shea was a wind tunnel, and could get very cold.

What's more, once the baseball season ended, the City tended to cut down on maintenance, leaving things messier, and various things to break down more often and stay broken down longer. Worst of all, from the Jets organization's point of view, lease at Shea was bad.

Team owner Leon Hess was an oil company boss, and could afford it. But that wasn't the point: The lease terms the Mets and the Yankees had with the City; the terms the New York Giants, the New Jersey Nets and the New Jersey Devils had with the State of New Jersey at the Meadowlands Sports Complex; and the terms the New York Islanders had with the County of Nassau at the Nassau Coliseum were all better. Throw in the fact that the Madison Square Garden Corporation owned the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers, so those teams had no lease at all at The Garden, and the Jets had easily the worst lease in the New York Tri-State Area.

So Hess made a deal with the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, operator of the Meadowlands Complex. Starting in 1984, the Jets would play home games at Giants Stadium. This led to other problems, but it was still better than at Shea, not least because Giants Stadium then had 16,000 more seats than Shea did in its football configuration.

In this last game at Shea, the Jets hosted the Pittsburgh Steelers. Most of the stars of the Steeler teams that won 4 Super Bowls in 6 seasons from 1974 to 1979 had retired, or were now too far along in their careers, or too injured, to be significant contributors.

One such player was their quarterback, Terry Bradshaw. He had missed the 1st 14 weeks of the season with a bad elbow. But he said he was ready to come back for the season's last 2 games, and hopefully one more Playoff run.

The weather wasn't especially bad: 45 degrees at kickoff, with the wind at 12 miles per hour. A crowd of 53,996, about 6,000 short of a sellout, came out to watch the end of 2 eras, even though they only knew for sure about 1. At one point, the scoreboard operator had some fun, turning "N.Y. JETS" into "N.J. JETS."

At first, it looked like Bradshaw had turned back the clock. In the 1st quarter, he threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Gregg Garrity. In the 2nd quarter, he threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Calvin Sweeney. That made it 14-0 Steelers.

But on that pass to Sweeney, he felt something pop in his elbow. He had reaggravated the injury. He walked off the field, and never played another down.

Cliff Stoudt took over at quarterback, and put together 2 drives that ended in field goals by Gary Anderson, making it 20-0 Steelers at the half. He threw a touchdown pass to Bennie Cunningham in the 3rd quarter, and it was 27-0.

Finally, late in the 3rd quarter, Pat Ryan threw a 27-yard touchdown pass to Johnny "Lam" Jones, and the Jets were on the board. But in the 4th quarter, Stoudt threw to Sweeney, and it was another touchdown. Final score: Steelers 34, Jets 7.

Thousands of fans stormed the field, tore down the goalposts, ripped up the field, and took other souvenirs. The grounds crew had 4 months to get the field ready for the Mets.

The win clinched the AFC Central Division title and a Playoff berth for the Steelers, who went on to lose to the Los Angeles Raiders in the Divisional Round. The Jets finished 7-9, 5th and last in the AFC Eastern Division, out of the Playoffs.

In 2004, a stadium was proposed for the West Side of Manhattan, between Pennsylvania Plaza (including Penn Station and Madison Square Garden) and the Hudson River. It was to seat 85,000, and be a new home for the Yankees and the Jets, bringing the NFL back to New York City proper, the NFL back to Manhattan for the 1st time since the Giants left the Polo Grounds in 1955 (the Jets had played at the Polo Grounds from 1960 to 1963, in the AFL), and the Yankees back to Manhattan for the 1st time since they left the Polo Grounds in 1922.

It would have a retractable roof, allowing it to host Super Bowls, a college football bowl game called the Big Apple Bowl, and the NCAA Final Four. What's more, it would be the centerpiece of New York's bid to host the 2012 Olympics.

City officials, especially Mayor Mike Bloomberg, wanted it badly. Nobody else seemed to want it. The Yankees turned it down, preferring to build a new Yankee Stadium across 161st Street from the old one. The Mets didn't want it, either, preferring to build Citi Field next-door to Shea Stadium. The baseball teams seemed to want to keep their respective identities in The Bronx and Queens, respectively.

The real killer for the stadium was the realization of Woody Johnson, the pharmaceutical executive who had bought the Jets from Leon Hess' heirs, that the Jets would still be second-class citizens in this stadium. So he negotiated a deal with the Giants and the New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority to build what became MetLife Stadium, next-door to Giants Stadium.

It would be owned 50-50 by the 2 New York NFL teams, and they would share the maintenance costs, and, not having to worry about whether a baseball team in the same stadium might make the Playoffs and mess up the schedule, would agree on open dates before each season started.

On June 6, 2005, the New York State Public Authorities Control Board voted West Side Stadium down. A month later, the International Olympic Committee voted on a site for the 2012 Olympics. New York finished 4th, behind London, Paris and Madrid, but ahead of Moscow. London ended up hosting the games, with the stadium eventually hosting soccer team West Ham United, and Major League Baseball's London Series, starting in 2019, with the Yankees playing the Boston Red Sox.

In 2010, the New Meadowlands Stadium, later renamed MetLife Stadium, opened. It pretty much guaranteed that no NFL game would be played within the City of New York for the majority of the 21st Century.

*

December 10, 1983 was a Saturday. One other NFL game was played that day, before all of the rest, except the Monday night game, were played the next day: The Miami Dolphins beat the Atlanta Falcons, 31-24 at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

It was a little early for college football bowl games, but one was played: The Independence Bowl, at Independence Stadium in Shreveport, Louisiana. The U.S. Air Force Academy, ranked Number 16 in the nation, beat the University of Mississippi, a.k.a. Ole Miss, 9-3.

There were 7 games played in the NBA:

* The Boston Celtics beat the Atlanta Hawks, 104-87 at The Omni in Atlanta.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Chicago Bulls, 101-95 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Kansas City Kings beat the Indiana Pacers, 119-103 at the Kemper Arena (now the Hy-Vee Arena) in Kansas City.

* The Utah Jazz beat the Houston Rockets, 128-121 at The Summit in Houston. (The arena has since been converted into the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch.")

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Washington Bullets, 125-120 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the San Diego Clippers, 109-93 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

* And the Dallas Mavericks beat the Golden State Warriors, 126-123 in overtime at the Oakland Coliseum Arena. Mark Aguirre scored 40 points for the Mavs.

And there were 9 games played in the NHL that day:

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Philadelphia Flyers, 8-2 at the Brendan Byrne Arena.

* The New York Islanders beat the Minnesota North Stars, 4-2 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Boston Bruins, 4-2 at the Boston Garden.

* The Hartford Whalers played the Winnipeg Jets to a tie, 5-5 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena).

* The Washington Capitals beat the Montreal Canadiens, 2-0 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs played the Calgary Flames to a tie, 3-3 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Detroit Red Wings, 8-3 at the St. Louis Arena.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Los Angeles Kings, 6-4 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Edmonton Oilers, 3-2 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. 

December 6, 1969: The Altamont Disaster

Mick Jagger in cape. Note the Hell's Angel behind him.

December 6, 1969: The Altamont Free Concert is held at the Altamont Speedway in Tracy, California. After seeing the 500,000 or so people who had come to the Woodstock Music & Art Fair in New York's Catskill Mountains in August, with several West Coast acts performing, including Jefferson Airplane, that band's drummer, Spencer Dryden, suggested a "Woodstock West."

As with Woodstock, the hard part turned out to be securing a location. Finally, Altamont was suggested. The concert's poster says it's in Livermore, but current sources say it's in Tracy. Regardless, it's at the eastern edge of the San Francisco Bay Area's East Bay region. Opened in 1966, the facility last known as Altamont Raceway Park hosted auto racing until it was closed in 2008. The 7,500-seat main structure still stands, 56 miles east of San Francisco, 45 miles east of Oakland, 49 miles northeast of San Jose, and 78 miles south of Sacramento.

The initial plan was to have the Airplane, their San Francisco and Woodstock compatriots The Grateful Dead, and the band that, with The Beatles having retreated from live performing, were now the biggest live rock and roll band in the world, The Rolling Stones. Anybody else they could get would have been considered gravy.

Well, 5 bands performed, but The Dead wouldn't be one of them. In order of their taking the stage: Santana, also San Franciscans who had been at Woodstock; The Jefferson Airplane; The Flying Burrito Brothers, based in Los Angeles, including former members of The Byrds Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman; David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash & Neil Young, who had also been at Woodstock, and Crosby had also been a Byrd; and The Rolling Stones.

The day before, The Stones had released a new album, titled Let It Bleed. Lead singer Mick Jagger would later call it his favorite Stones album. But on December 6, he got the title's wish -- which contradicted a line from the album's closing song: "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need." What everybody got at Altamont, nobody wanted or needed.

Airplane lead singer Grace Slick was interviewed for Rolling Stone magazine 20 years later. (While the band was named for "Rollin' Stone," a blues song by Muddy Waters, the magazine was named for Bob Dylan's song "Like a Rolling Stone.") She was one of several performers who said that Woodstock was the worst performance of her career, and added that the music was better at Altamont.

But everything else was wrong. She said, "The vibes were bad. Something was very peculiar, not particularly bad, just real peculiar. It was that kind of hazy, abrasive and unsure day. I had expected the loving vibes of Woodstock, but that wasn't coming at me. This was a whole different thing."

On July 5, the Stones had given a concert at Hyde Park in London, in memory of bandmate Brian Jones, who had died of a drug-related drowning 2 days earlier. (After being kicked out of the band for his drug use, something no other member of that famously druggy band was.) Like Woodstock, it was said to have attracted 500,000 fans.

The security at that concert was run by the London chapter of the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club. There were no security issues there. So Stones lead singer Mick Jagger suggested the Hell's Angels as security for Altamont. Unfortunately, no one counted on the fact that the Hell's Angels weren't just a motorcycle club: They were a gang, involved in organized crime, a Mafia on two wheels. And they would be operating out of the East Bay, their home territory.

At Woodstock, out of 500,000 people, there were 3 deaths, all accidental: A drug overdose, a burst appendix, and a kid who made the mistake of trying to sleep under a tractor on a hill. At Altamont, out of 300,000 people, there were 4 deaths. Three were accidental: Two in a hit-and-run car accident, and one kid high on LSD who fell into an irrigation canal and drowned.

One death at Altamont was no accident. As can be seen in Gimme Shelter, the documentary film made by Albert and David Maysles, during the performance of "Sympathy for the Devil," the Stones had to stop, because there were fights near the stage. While playing "Under My Thumb," they had to stop for a medical emergency.

Just as The Who, 10 years later to the week, didn't know until they had finished a concert in Cincinnati that 11 fans had been killed in an accident before the show, the Stones didn't know what the emergency was. If they did, they might have stopped the show entirely. Certainly, they would've closed with a song other than "Street Fighting Man," their song inspired by the Paris demonstrations of the year before.

The Hell's Angels guarding the stage were mean, and they were drunk. Meredith Hunter, an 18-year-old black man from Alameda, climbed onto a speaker. He had been told that, the further east you got from Oakland and Berkeley, the worse the racism got. This was a reasonable claim: Inland, California can be just as hicky as The South, just as New York State is the further you get from the City, and Pennsylvania is the further you get from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Hunter had heard this, so he packed a gun. He wasn't using it when he stood on the speaker. But the Angels grabbed him, started punching him, and, discovering the gun, stabbed him. The Angel who did the stabbing would be charged with murder, but was acquitted on self-defense grounds.

Afterward, the Maysles Brothers showed Jagger their footage of what happened, and filmed him watching it. Mick, who has so often embraced his devilish image -- before taking the title role in "Sympathy for the Devil," he titled a Stones album Their Satanic Majesties Request -- is not a man known for attacks of conscience. On the film, he appears genuinely shocked and scared.

Not enough to change his ways, though. He was still 26 years old, and the leader of what was already being called "The World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band." He thought he could do anything, and get away with it. And he has gotten away with a lot. The shock is not that Jagger's excesses of the 1960s led to the disaster at Altamont, 25 days before the decade's end. It's that he, or the Stones as a whole, haven't had another incident like Altamont -- or worse.

Rolling Stone soon called Altamont "Rock and roll's all-time worst day, December 6th, a day when everything went perfectly wrong." Shades of Franklin Roosevelt calling December 7th, 1941, the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor, "a date which will live in infamy." And in 1990, writer A.E. Hotchner would publish a book about the Stones, Jones' death, and Altamont, titled Blown Away: The Rolling Stones and the Death of the Sixties.

Of course, worse was to come: The rest of December 1969 -- I was born 12 days after Altamont -- and the 1st half of 1970 would see the breakup of The Beatles, Diana Ross leaving the Supremes, President Richard Nixon extending the Vietnam War into Cambodia, the Kent State Massacre, and the Hard Hat Demonstration that essentially supported the 2 previous occurrences.

As the poet William Butler Yeats wrote half a century earlier, "Things fall apart. The center cannot hold."

*

December 6, 1969 was a Saturday. "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye," by the "studio group" Steam, hit Number 1. I have a separate entry for this event.

It was the off-season for baseball. There was 1 game played in the NFL that day, and it was also in the Bay Area: The San Francisco 49ers beat the Chicago Bears, 42-21 at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco. And there was 1 game played in the AFL: The New York Jets beat the Houston Oilers, 34-26 at the Astrodome in Houston.

The big story in America that day was not expected to be Altamont. It was expected to be a college football game that was moved to the Saturday after the intended last week of the regular season, because it looked like the teams involved would be ranked the top two in the nation. In this "Game of the Century," Number 1 Texas beat Number 2 Arkansas, 15-14 at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Arkansas. I have a separate entry for this event.

There was 1 other college football game played that day: The Pasadena Bowl, held at the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena. San Diego State beat Boston University, 28-7.

Also that day, there were 5 games played in the NBA: 

* The New York Knicks beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 124-99 at what was still being called "The New Madison Square Garden Center." Walt Frazier and Bill Bradley each scored 29 points for the Knickerbockers, who advanced to 26-2 on the season that would end with their 1st NBA title. In a losing cause, Lew Alcindor (he changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1972) scored 26, and Len Chappell scored 24.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Cincinnati Royals, 120-102 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Seattle SuperSonics beat the Baltimore Bullets, 132-129 in overtime at the Baltimore Civic Center (now the CFG Bank Arena).

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Boston Celtics, 116-114 in overtime at the Chicago Stadium.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the San Diego Rockets, 128-115 at the San Diego Sports Arena. Wilt Chamberlain did not play for L.A., but Jerry West scored 30, and Elgin Baylor 25. Elvin Hayes scored 40 in a losing effort. The Rockets moved to Houston in 1971, and the arena is now named the Pechanga Arena.

Two games were played in the American Basketball Association:

* The Denver Rockets beat the Washington Caps, 108-97 at the Washington Coliseum. The Rockets would become the Denver Nuggets in 1974, renaming themselves for the city's 1st NBA team, which were founded in 1935, joined the NBA in 1948, and folded in 1950. After the 1969-70 season, the Caps moved to Norfolk, and became the Virginia Squires. The Nuggets, the New York Nets, the Indiana Pacers and the San Antonio Spurs were merged from the crumbling ABA into the NBA in 1976. The Squires were not.

* And the New Orleans Buccaneers beat the Miami Floridians, 112-104 at the Miami Beach Convention Hall.

* Five games were played in the NHL. The New York Rangers, the only NHL team in the Tri-State Area at the time, were not involved in any of them:

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Montreal Canadiens, 4-3 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 6-1 at the Boston Garden.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-0 at Maple Leaf Gardens.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-1 at the St. Louis Arena.

* And the Los Angeles Kings beat the Oakland Seals, 5-3 at The Forum in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood, California.

Also, Arsenal drew with Southampton, 2-2 at Highbury in North London.

November 29, 1992: The Dennis Byrd Game

November 29, 1992: The New York Jets lose 23-7 to the Kansas City Chiefs at Giants Stadium – and nobody cares. The reason is the injury to Jet defensive tackle Dennis Byrd, the result of a freak accident on the field.

Dennis DeWayne Byrd was born on October 5, 1966 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He grew up in Mustang, Oklahoma, played defensive end at the University of Tulsa (the Golden Hurricane), and was drafted by the New York Jets in the 2nd round of the 1989 NFL Draft.

On November 29, 1992, Byrd was enjoying a modest, not particularly noteworthy career when he took the field against the Kansas City Chiefs at Giants Stadium. Byrd and teammate Scott Mersereau attempted to sack Chiefs quarterback Dave Krieg, but Krieg got away, resulting in a collision between the Jet defenders. Byrd's helmet hit Mersereau straight in the chest, compressing Byrd's neck and breaking a bone in his neck the C-5 veretbra.

This was 1 year and 1 day after Detroit Lions guard Mike Utley had broken his neck in a game, and just 3 days after an emotional Thanksgiving Day game in which Utley guided his wheelchair out to midfield and served as the Lions' Honorary Captain.

Like Utley, Byrd was paralyzed from the neck down as a result of his injury. Utley took years before he could even take a few steps unaided, and, essentially, remained in a wheelchair, although he didn't let that stop him from getting around and raising money for spinal cord research.

Byrd was considerably luckier: With intense physical therapy, he was able to walk to midfield for the Jets' season opener on September 5, 1993, and serve as Honorary Captain. In the meantime, every Jet helmet had a sticker with his uniform number, 90 over an ichthys -- a "Jesus fish," indicative of Byrd's faith. The 1st game after his injury was against the Buffalo Bills, and some of their players wore the logo on their helmets as well.

The Jets announced an annual Most Inspirational Player Award, to be named for him. They also announced that his Number 90 would never be reissued, and on October 28, 2012, it was formally retired.

Byrd was married to Angela Hales, and they had 4 children. He wrote Rise and Walk: The Trial and Triumph of Dennis Byrd. It was made into a TV-movie starring Peter Berg. He coached on high school football staffs in Oklahoma, at Owasso High School and Lincoln Christian School in Tulsa, the latter naming its football stadium for him. He also became a motivational speaker. 

On October 15, 2016, Byrd was driving his 2004 Hummer H2 southbound on Oklahoma State Route 88, between Claremore and Oologah. A 17-year-old kid (whose name, legally, could not be released) from Claremore was driving a 2000 Ford Explorer, and it veered into the oncoming lane, and hit Byrd's Hummer head-on. Byrd was dead on the scene, just past his 50th birthday.

*

November 29, 1992 was a Sunday. These other NFL games were played that day:

* The Washington Redskins beat the Phoenix Cardinals, 41-3 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington.

* The Atlanta Falcons beat the New England Patriots, 34-0 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

* The New Orleans Saints beat the Miami Dolphins, 24-13 at the Superdome in New Orleans.

* The Cleveland Browns beat the Chicago Bears, 27-14 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 21-9 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Indianapolis Colts beat the Buffalo Bills, 16-13 at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 19-14 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

* The San Diego Chargers beat the Los Angeles Raiders, 27-3 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego.

* The Minnesota Vikings beat the Los Angeles Rams, 31-17 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).

* The San Francisco 49ers bear the Philadelphia Eagles, 20-14 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

* Three days earlier, on Thanksgiving, the Dallas Cowboys beat the New York Giants, 30-3 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas.

* Also on Thanksgiving, the Houston Oilers beat the Detroit Lions, 24-21 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.

* And the night after this, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Seattle Seahawks beat the Denver Broncos, 16-13 at the Kingdome in Seattle.

Baseball was out of season. There were 7 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Los Angeles Clippers, 101-91 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Atlanta Hawks, 108-101 at The Omni in Atlanta.

* The Orlando Magic beat the Golden State Warriors, 126-102 at the Orlando Arena.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 99-92 at The Summit in Houston. (It's now the Central Campus of televangelist Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church.)

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Dallas Mavericks, 123-95 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Detroit Pistons, 99-87 at the McNichols Arena in Denver.

* And the Chicago Bulls beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 108-99 at the Seattle Center Coliseum. Michael Jordan led all scorers on the day with 35 points.

There was 1 game in the NHL: The Buffalo Sabres beat the Ottawa Senators, 5-2 at the Ottawa Civic Center (now the TD Place Arena).

November 27, 1994: Dan Marino's Fake Spike

November 27, 1994: The New York Jets are playing the Miami Dolphins, at Giants Stadium, in the Meadowlands, in East Rutherford, Bergen County, New Jersey. At the time, Bill Belichick was the head coach of the Cleveland Browns, Tom Brady was in high school, the New England Patriots were 5-6, and the idea that the Pats would one day be considered the Jets' arch-rivals was ridiculous.

The Dolphins were the Jets' arch-rivals, beyond any question. While the Jets' one and only Super Bowl appearance, their win in Super Bowl III, was at the Orange Bowl, the Dolphins' former home field, the Dolphins had dominated the head-to-head matchups. Between 1970 and 1994, the Jets were a pathetic 14-28-1 against the Dolphins.

From 1983 onward, a big reason for this domination was the quarterbacking of Dan Marino. He set several NFL career passing records, most of them long since broken. He would not have set so many if he wasn't playing the Jets twice as season as an AFC Eastern Division opponent.

Marino arrived the season after the Dolphins had beaten the Jets in an AFC Championship Game, and, as the Jets' "New York Sack Exchange" defense of the early 1980s got older, and head coach Don Shula kept the Dolphins a consistent winner (although making only 1 Super Bowl themselves through Marino's 17-season tenure), Marino was able to fluff up his stats in his 2 annual contests with Gang Green.

Going into this game, the Jets were 6-5, the Dolphins 7-4 and had lost their last 2 games. A Jet win would have created a tie for the AFC East lead, and, at the rate the Dolphins were going, the Jets would have to be favored to win the Division.

The Jets led 17-0 with 12:58 left in the 3rd quarter, and extended that lead to 24-6 with 3:39 left in the quarter. But the Dolphins came back. Marino threw 3 touchdown passes to Mark Ingram, getting a 2-point conversion on one (in this 1st season in which the NFL used the 2-pointer).

It was still 24-21 Jets with 42 seconds left to play. Marino threw to Ingram, who was tackled at the Jets' 8-yard line. Everybody in the stadium, it seemed, was expecting Marino to spike the ball after the next snap, to stop the clock, to try to get a little closer, and then use the Dolphins' last time-out to get the field goal unit on the field. NBC announcer Paul Maguire said he was expecting that. And as the Dolphins hurried up to get their formation set up, Marino was motioning that he was going to spike the ball.

When the ball was snapped with 25 seconds to go, the Dolphins line barely blocked at all, as if Marino really was going to spike the ball. And he only stepped back to the 12-yard line. And then he threw the ball, into the near right corner of the end zone. Ingram was there, covered by not especially well by Aaron Glenn, and he caught it. Touchdown. The 4th Marino-to-Ingram touchdown of the game. Dolphins 28, Jets 24.

The fans went wild. Given that New York City has people from all over the world, and that television coverage in the 1970s when the Jets were bad meant that a lot of Baby Boomers became Dolphin fans (and Pittsburgh Steeler fans, and Dallas Cowboy fans, and Oakland Raider fans), it wasn't that surprising that a lot of fans inside Giants Stadium cheered wildly after the play. Some of them may even have been Jet fans, excited over seeing a great moment, before reality sunk in and they realized that they had lost. (There were still 22 seconds on the clock, but quarterback Boomer Esiason could only get the Jets to the Dolphins' 35-yard line before time ran out.)

For Marino, perhaps the best pure passer the sport has ever known, but who lost his only Super Bowl appearance (XIX, 1985, to the San Francisco 49ers), it is his most memorable moment. For the Jets, it is just one of many moments that suggest that they are, if not the worst franchise in NFL history, then, perhaps, the dumbest.

The Dolphins finished the season 10-6, and beat the Kansas City Chiefs in the Playoffs, before losing to the San Diego Chargers. The Jets didn't win another game, falling to 6-10. Team owner Leon Hess fired the head coach -- Pete Carroll, who went on to win 2 National Championships at USC and a Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks.

Hess then hired former Philadelphia Eagles head coach Rich Kotite, saying, "I'm 80 years old. I want results now!" He got them: Kotite went 3-13 in 1995, and 1-15 in 1996, quitting before he could be fired. From the fake spike to the last game of the Kotite experiment, the Jets went 4-33, as poor a stretch as the NFL has ever known.

Hess hired Bill Parcells, who had rebuilt the Giants and the Patriots, and he did the same, getting the Jets to the AFC Championship Game in 2 years. Then Hess died, with results, if incomplete ones. That's been the story of the Jets since January 12, 1969: Incomplete results.

*

November 27, 1994 was a Sunday. These other NFL games were played that day:

* The New York Giants beat the Washington Redskins, 21-19 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington.

* The Atlanta Falcons beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 28-21 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

* The Cleveland Browns beat the Houston Oilers, 34-10 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The New England Patriots beat the Indianapolis Colts, 12-10 at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis.

* The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Minnesota Vikings, 20-17 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. Michael Husted kicked a 22-yard field goal to win it in overtime.

* The Denver Broncos beat the Cincinnati Bengals 15-13 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

* The Chicago Bears beat the Arizona Cardinals, 19-16 at Sun Devil Stadium in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, Arizona. Kevin Butler kicked a 27-yard field goal with 16 seconds left in overtime.

* The San Diego Chargers beat the Los Angeles Rams, 31-17 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Los Angeles Raiders, 21-3 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* The Seattle Seahawks beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 10-9 at the Kingdome in Seattle.

* Three days earlier, on Thanksgiving, the Detroit Lions beat the Buffalo Bills, 35-21 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.

* Also on Thanksgiving, the Dallas Cowboys beat the Green Bay Packers, 42-31 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas.

* And the next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the San Francisco 49ers beat the New Orleans Saints, 35-14 at the Superdome in New Orleans.

Baseball was in the off-season. And the NHL team owners had locked the players out do, so the season didn't start until January 20, 1995. But there were 4 games played in the NBA that day:

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Phoenix Suns, 115-110 at the American West Arena (now the Mortgage Matchup Center) in Phoenix.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Golden State Warriors, 106-91 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.

* The Utah Jazz beat the Sacramento Kings, 94-89 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Indiana pacers, 99-89 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

November 22, 2012: The Butt Fumble

November 22, 2012: The New York Jets have had many embarrassing moments in their history. Most of them have unfolded before a local audience. Butt... this one happened in front of a national audience, on a national holiday.

In 2009 and 2010, under head coach Rex Ryan and quarterback Mark Sanchez, the Jets reached the AFC Championship Game, including beating their arch-rivals, the cheating New England Patriots, in the 2010-11 Playoffs. But in 2011, they faltered, finishing 8-8. And in 2012, they got off to a 4-6 start, including a loss to the Patriots in Foxboro.

Jets vs. Patriots had become a New York Tri-State Area vs. New England rivalry to, well, rival those of Yankees vs. Red Sox, Knicks vs. Celtics and Rangers vs. Bruins. The fans of each team hated each other, and the players didn't much like each other, either. And now, they were going to play at MetLife Stadium, at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, Bergen County, New Jersey in front of a nationwide audience on Thanksgiving Night.

At the end of the 1st quarter, it was 0-0. Jet fans were thinking they had a chance. But that chance evaporated in the 2nd quarter. Shonn Greene fumbled, and the Patriots recovered. Tom Brady threw an 83-yard touchdown pass to Shane Vereen.

Then came the ignominious moment. Sanchez took the ball, tried to run the ball up the middle, and ended up running up the middle of guard Brandon Moore, crashing into his rear end, and fumbling the ball. Steve Gregory picked it up, and ran it 32 yards for a touchdown. It was 14-0 Patriots, and, with social media already a factor, it quickly became known as "The Butt Fumble."

Steve Gregory (28), celebrating his Thanksgiving hors d'oeuvre

with Tom Brady (12) and Vince Wilfork (75)

People not familiar with the Jets could have presumed that things couldn't get any worse. People who were familiar with the Jets knew that it can always get worse. Joe McKnight took the opening kickoff, was hit by Devin McCourty, and fumbled. Julian Edelman picked it up, and returned it for a touchdown.

It was 21-0, and, as the great New York sportscaster Warner Wolf could have said, "Turn your sets off right there." The final score was Patriots 49, Jets 19.

The Jets finished the season 6-10. Once known as "The Sanchise," Sanchez remained the Jets' starting quarterback for the rest of the 2012 season, but missed the entire 2013 season with a shoulder injury. He remained in the NFL through the 2018 season, with 4 other teams, playing 17 more games, making 11 starts. Since 2019, the former USC All-American has been part of ESPN's college football coverage.

*

November 22, 2012 was a Thursday, and a Thanksgiving. The teams that usually host NFL games on Thanksgiving did so. The Detroit Lions lost to the Houston Texans, 34-31 in overtime at Ford Field. Shayne Graham kicked the winning field goal.

At least the Lions didn't lose to their arch-rivals. The Dallas Cowboys did, falling to the Washington Redskins, 38-31 at Cowboys Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. The stadium is now named AT&T Stadium.

Unusually, there were no college football games played that day. There were high school games, including my alma mater, East Brunswick in Middlesex County, New Jersey, losing to arch-rival Old Bridge, 34-0 at Vince Lombardi Field in Old Bridge.

The NHL team owners had locked the players out, so there were no games scheduled for the night. The NHL and the NBA usually don't play on Thanksgiving, anyway, and the NBA didn't.