The NFL is the most watched television franchise in the world right now, dominating the ratings every week. Networks are tripping over one another to acquire the rights to air games.
That was not always the case, however. For decades, the NFL had blackout rules that prevented local TV affiliates from airing games that didn’t sell a sufficient amount of tickets. Many games went untelevised in local markets. (Before that, in the 1960s, all NFL games were blacked out in the local TV markets.)
And then there were the cases where games were scheduled at odd times on odd days. Such was the case of the New York Giants-San Diego Chargers game on Saturday, Nov. 1, 1975.
To this day, it is the last Giants game that was not televised. I will allow the folks at Awful Announcing set the stage:
That year, the Giants shared Shea Stadium with the Jets as the team was awaiting construction on the old Meadowlands to be completed. While in transition, the Giants played at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, CT for two seasons and then moved to Shea in 1975 before playing in New Jersey in 1976.
Why was this particular game played on a Saturday? It was because Shea Stadium was the primary home to the New York Mets and old school Jets fans can remember the team playing on the road for most of the first month of the season until baseball season ended. So as the Giants and Jets both played at Shea in 1975 and knowing both couldn’t play at home on the same day, the NFL allowed the Giants to play home games on a few Saturdays. In this case, the Giants were home to the Chargers.
For games played outside the normal Sunday and Monday windows, the NFL allowed the teams to sell the rights so the Chargers and Giants could sell the game to local stations. However, no station in San Diego or New York were interested in picking up the game (again hard to believe) so it went untelevised. Had that happened today, CBS would have had the rights to the game and aired at least in the local markets.
Neither the Giants nor the Chargers could find an affiliate to air the game.
I do recall this happening, but as a teenager back then, I didn’t think much of it. The Giants were 2-4 and the Chargers were 0-6. Very few were clamoring to see this matchup between the dismal Giants, with Craig Morton at quarterback, and the Chargers, who had scored a total of just 37 points in their first six games with three shutouts.
If you owned a TV affiliate in the New York or Southern California market, would you pre-empt college football, “Wide World of Sports,” professional bowling or a low-budget horror movie for that? Probably not.
Nevertheless, the attendance was listed at 52,032, which is more likely to be tickets sold rather than butts in the seats. There’s no way to tell how many fans actually attended.
Keep in mind it was the 1970s and many people began to work on Saturdays — second jobs, overtime, etc. — as times were hard, especially in New York. Taking off to attend a football game was not really an option.
The Giants won the game, 35-24, by the way. No one cared then. Fewer care now.
