NFL 1961

1961 NFL season
Regular season
season	September 17, 1961 - December 17, 1961
East Champions	New York Giants
West Champions	Green Bay Packers
Championship game
NFL Champion	Green Bay Packers
NFL season  <1960 1962>

The 1961 NFL season was the 42nd season of American football in the National Football League (NFL), which at the time, along with the American Football League (AFL), was the top football league in the United States . The regular season began on September 17, 1961 and ended three months later, on December 17, 1961.

As an expansion team , the Minnesota Vikings were added, which were originally supposed to join the newly founded competitive league American Football League in 1960 , but were poached by the more established NFL. It was the first season in which each team played 14 instead of the previous 12 season games. The champions were the Green Bay Packers , who beat the New York Giants 37-0 in the 1961 NFL Championship Game .

In the preseason, as in previous years, there were games against teams from the Canadian Football League . The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Toronto Argonauts 36-7 and the Chicago Bears defeated the Montreal Alouettes 34:16, with a mass brawl towards the end of the game, causing four players to be disqualified.

The Associated Press (AP), United Press International and Maxwell Football Club , who gave the Bert Bell Awards , chose Green Bays running back Paul Hornung as the most valuable player of the season , while the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) voted YA Tittle , quarterback for the Giants, selected

The NFL sold the television rights to the Championship Game to NBC for two years. The price was $ 615,000 per game.

Furthermore, the NFL decided in the founding place of the league, in Canton (Ohio) , to build the Pro Football Hall of Fame .

Regular season

With the Minnesota Vikings' access to the Western Conference, the Dallas Cowboys moved to the Eastern Conference.

Western Conference team S. N U SQ P + P− Green Bay Packers 11 3 0 .786 391 223 Detroit Lions 8th 5 1 .615 270 258 Baltimore Colts 8th 6th 0 .571 302 307 Chicago Bears 8th 6th 0 .571 326 302 San Francisco 49ers 7th 6th 1 .538 346 272 Los Angeles Rams 4th 10 0 .286 263 333 Minnesota Vikings 3 11 0 .214 285 407

Eastern Conference team S. N U SQ P + P− New York Giants 10 3 1 .769 368 220 Philadelphia Eagles 10 4th 0 .714 361 297 Cleveland Browns 8th 5 1 .615 319 270 St. Louis Cardinals 7th 7th 0 .500 279 267 Pittsburgh Steelers 6th 8th 0 .429 295 287 Dallas Cowboys 4th 9 1 .308 236 380 Washington Redskins 1 12 1 .077 174 392

Legend:

S iege	N iederlagen	U nentschieden	SQ games won (relative)
P + points made	P− opposing points	Championship game	Playoff Bowl

Postseason

date	Surname
December 31, 1961	NFL Championship Game	1 2 3 4th total New York Giants 0 0 0 0 0 Green Bay Packers 0 24 10 3 37
January 6, 1962	Playoff Bowl	1 2 3 4th total Philadelphia Eagles 0 10 10 Detroit Lions 24 14th 38
January 14, 1962	Pro Bowl	1 2 3 4th total Western Conference 14th 3 7th 7th 31 Eastern Conference 3 7th 6th 14th 30th

See also

• AFL 1961

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dieter Hoch / Holger Korber / Dirk Ladwig: The history of the NFL. From the small beginnings to the rise to the largest professional league in the world. Berlin 2016, page 62
2. ↑ The NFL is mulling a huge possible change to its regular season schedule. CBS Sports, accessed April 8, 2018 . 
3. ↑ Dieter Hoch / Holger Korber / Dirk Ladwig: The history of the NFL. From the small beginnings to the rise to the largest professional league in the world. Berlin 2016, page 64
4. ^ A History of CFL vs NFL Exhibition Games. Retrieved April 8, 2018 . 
5. ↑ 1961 NFL Standings & Team Stats. Pro-Football-Reference, accessed April 8, 2018 . 
6. ^ ^{A b} Dieter Hoch / Holger Korber / Dirk Ladwig: The history of the NFL. From the small beginnings to the rise to the largest professional league in the world. Berlin 2016, page 198
7. ↑ Championship - New York Giants at Green Bay Packers - December 31st, 1961. Retrieved April 8, 2018 . 
8. ↑ Today in Philly Sports History: Eagles Lose "Playoff Bowl" to Lions, 1962. Retrieved April 8, 2018 . 
9. ^ Unitas' Last Second Pass Nips East, 30-31 . In: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette . January 15, 1962, p. 23 .