It’s hard to imagine that years after a fiasco involving a television network that other geniuses would produce a rerun of that shameful act.

How many readers can recall the infamous “Heidi Game”? It took place in the fall of 1968 and involved two leading (at the time) National Football League teams, the Oakland Raiders and the New York Jets. There was a virtual rerun of the “Heidi Game” this past Sunday, although not quite of the magnitude of the one 47 years ago.

Let me explain:

In 1968, the Raiders trailed the Jets, 32-29 late in the game. Time was running out and network big shots were panicky over the probability that the length of the game would delay the start of other programing later that evening. In those days, experts say, football games seldom took longer than two and a half hours. But because of dropped passes, penalties, poundings and promos, this game took longer, and NBC executives decided to honor the promise to begin the Heidi special on time.

As 7 p.m. arrived, people called in to the network to complain that their kids were being deprived of the opening minutes of the children’s classic. NBC decided to let the game run to its conclusion but then changed its mind. By that time, phone lines had jammed, and the final minutes of the Oakland-New York game were pre-empted.

Meanwhile, Oakland did the impossible by scoring not one, but two touchdowns in nine seconds, to win the game. News anchor David Brinkley told the TV audience the next day, “This is the part you would have seen if the network hadn’t cut you off.” That network then showed the interrupted footage.

That brouhaha led network officials to change their rules, deeming that, except for extreme circumstances, programs will run to their conclusions. The change also led to the installation of special telephones (appropriately called “Heidi phones”) to allow callers/complainers to talk to live people who would give reasons for the cut-off or delay.

Some good came of the fiasco, as the Heidi Game was voted the most memorable pro football game in the regular season, in the entire history of professional football. TV data in 1968 was transmitted through phone lines which understandably blew out 26 fuses due to the overload brought on by angry callers: those wanting the football game to stay, and those preferring Heidi.

Sunday’s game between the Raiders and the Steelers got lopped by a couple of minutes to allow airing the start of the upcoming Denver-Indianapolis game. If games and other programing are supposed to run until their conclusion, why did the network brass make such an exception and truncate the Oakland-Pittsburgh game with a couple of minutes still on the clock?
Despite the possibility of the earlier game’s going into overtime, network officials switched coverage.

In fairness, last Sunday’s game wasn’t exactly like the one played in 1968; the Raiders didn’t miraculously come from behind to kick the Steelers. Rather, Pittsburgh kicked a field goal with a few seconds remaining to win it by three in regulation. Had viewers been able to see that field goal that would have been more satisfying to all.

Except the Raiders.

We wonder why the network made such an exception. What action takes place during the first two minutes of a football game anyway? I expect I’ll get over 1) Missing the last minutes of a game that featured my Raiders and 2) Having my Raiders allow the Steelers to win in the last seconds.

• • •

Wagon Mounder Tom Herrera, once reacted to a prediction I made about the Raiders, a prediction that came out right. When I served as adviser to the Highlands newspaper, La Mecha, the then-sports editor wrote a weekly column in which he invited readers to weigh in on the following Sunday’s NFL scores.

I never picked the Raiders to lose — not even once — prompting Tom, one of my journalism students, to say something like, “You’d pick the Raiders to win even if they were the Oakland Ayatollah Khomeinis.” Tom was right!

Oakland will host the Minnesota Vikings next Sunday.

Go, Oakland Ayatollahs!