On Friday, Nov. 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. CT, America changed forever. While waving to crowds from the back seat of his midnight-blue 1961 Lincoln Continental as his motorcade wove through Dallas’s Dealey Plaza, John F. Kennedy was shot. Within an hour, the country was processing the awful news: The 35th president of the United States was dead.
Like every other American, the NFL’s 37-year-old commissioner was in shock. But Pete Rozelle, a former Rams GM who had been on the job for nearly four years, also had a decision to make, and he knew what to do. He picked up a phone at NFL headquarters in New York City and called Pierre Salinger, a friend from their days as classmates at the University of San Francisco and Kennedy’s press secretary.
Somehow, Rozelle reached Salinger at the Honolulu Airport. In less than 48 hours, the NFL was scheduled to play a full slate of seven games. What should the commissioner do?
