This is the first in a series of examinations of football-related legends and whether they are true or false. Here is an archive of other football legends.

Let’s begin!

FOOTBALL LEGEND: The NFL tried to trademark “The Big Game.”

STATUS: True

The National Football League is quite strict when it comes to protecting its trademarks, which include the words and phrases “NFL,” “Super Bowl” and “Super Sunday” (a trademark registered specifically with regards to its use in conjunction with football).

As such, when it comes to hosting Super Bowl parties at churches and bars, the NFL prohibits Super Bowl parties at anywhere that promotes a particular message, which includes churches. In addition, unless you are a place that regularly airs sporting events (like a sports bar), you are constrained from using a TV bigger than 55 inches.

And, of course, you can not use the NFL’s trademarks like “Super Bowl” or “Super Sunday” in your advertisements.

So the most popular alternative is to say “The Big Game,” as in “Come Watch The Big Game This Sunday at 6pm!”

And that’s been the case for years, until the NFL, in 2006, actually registered a trademark claim on the term “The Big Game,” as well!!!

However, on top of a number of companies that advertise on the Super Bowl (like Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Wal-Mart) who protested the move, so, too, did the colleges of Stanford and California, who have been playing an annual match called “The Big Game” for decades!

Ultimately, mostly based on the Stanford/Cal argument, the NFL backed off the attempt to register the claim, but it’s still amazing to think that they actually went as far as to register the mark!

FOOTBALL LEGEND: NBC determined they would cut away from the November 17, 1968 Raiders/Jets game because they did not want to break a deal with Timex, the sponsor for their new TV movie debuting that night, Heidi.

STATUS: False

The “Heidi Game” will long live in sports infamy.

On November 17, 1968, the Eastern Division-leading New York Jets were playing at the Oakland Raiders, who were just barely out of second place in the Western Division (both teams were 7-2, but the Kansas City Chiefs had played one more game than the Raiders, so they were 8-2 – the Raiders, however, were defending AFL champions).

It was, as you might expect, a pretty big ballgame, the second part of a football doubleheader on NBC. The only problem was, as the game neared the end and the Jets just kicked a field goal to go up 32-29 with a little over a minute left, the game was also closing in on the time allotted to it in the NBC schedule. Normally, that would not be THAT big of a deal, but NBC had a brand new made-for-TV movie debuting at 7pm Eastern time, an adaptation of the classic children’s tale, Heidi.

NBC had a deal with the sponsor of the movie, Timex, to start the film promptly at 7pm.

So when the clock turned seven, the screens on the East Coast went from this…

to this…

Which would be bad enough, as fans were quite irate at this happening.

However, it got even WORSE, as, you see, Oakland came roaring back, and scored a remarkable TWO touchdowns in that last one minute and five seconds!!!

After a 20-yard pass and a “pulling the face mask” penalty on the Jets, the Raiders were into Jets territory, and then scored on a 43-yard touchdown pass with just over 40 seconds left. On the ensuing kick-off, the Jets fumbled the ball on their own 10 yard line and the Raiders recovered and scored another touchdown with just over 30 seconds left.

So viewers, who were already agog at the idea of missing out on the ending of the Jets game, were understandably even MORE angered when this “sports bulletin” ran across the bottom of Heidi…

Can you even IMAGINE how angry people were?

This was, more or less, the beginning of the “the following program will be delayed until the live sporting event concludes” policy that basically all networks use nowadays.

However, amazingly enough, while everyone assumed NBC had just bitten the bullet and gone with Heidi, as it turned out, NBC actually had decided NOT to go with Heidi!!!

As the game reached its dramatic conclusion, they determined that the fallout from irritating their sponsor would pale compared to the fallout from cutting away from the game, so NBC executives called Dick Cline, who was NBC’s Broadcast Operations Supervisor (in other words, the guy who would disconnect the feed on the one show and begin the feed on another).

However, at the same time, NBC’s switchboards were swamped with people calling in to ALSO ask what would happen at 7pm – so many people called that the NBC executives’ phone call could not get through!

They then decided to call the on-site producers to tell them to not cut away, but they were told that any orders to make such a dramatic change in programming would have to come directly from NBC’s Broadcast Operations (as you might imagine, the on-site producers were not prepared to make such a bold move without absolute proof that they would not be blamed for it).

When the executives finally went through, it was too late, the connection had been severed. They asked for Cline to bring the game back, but sadly, back in 1968, all video feeds were handled by telephone, not satellite, so once a connection was severed, it took a LOT of doing to re-connect all the individual stations, and it was impossible to do in the time it took for the game to end.

From this point forward, a dedicated line to the Broadcast Operations Supervisor was established for just these types of situations.

FOOTBALL LEGEND: A paternity test was done on George Gipp – almost seventy-seven years after he died!

STATUS: True

George Gipp was one of the early legends of Notre Dame football, becoming just the second consensus first All-American in Football from the school in 1920, his senior year.

Gipp played for the Notre Dame Varsity for four years between 1916-1920 (his years 21-25), and held many records for decades, including the all-time rushing record, which he held for nearly sixty years!

Gipp played multiple positions for the Fighting Irish, including quarterback, halfback (his main position) and even punter!

He tragically died of a streptococcal throat infection in December of his Senior year (days after leading the Irish to a victory).

Years later, Notre Dame Coach Knute Rockne immortalized Gipp with a motivational speech he gave his team (trailing at halftime as underdogs against an undefeated Army team in 1928) that told them of Gipp’s last words to him:

I’ve got to go, Rock. It’s all right. I’m not afraid. Some time, Rock, when the team is up against it, when things are wrong and the breaks are beating the boys, ask them to go in there with all they’ve got and win just one for the Gipper. I don’t know where I’ll be then, Rock. But I’ll know about it, and I’ll be happy.

“Win one for the Gipper!” became a memorable slogan, especially when it was immortalized in the 1940 film, Knute Rocke: All-American (with future United States President Ronald Reagan playing Gipp).

While Gipp was an All-American boy on the field, he also might have been a bit busy off the field, as well, and was actually subject to a paternity test involving a pregnant 18-year-old high school student.

That’s normal enough, except for WHEN the paternity test took place – in 2007!!

In 2007, Gipp’s body was exhumed to do DNA testing to see if he WAS, indeed, the father of a baby who was born within days of Gipp’s death (and who also passed on in 2006).

There was not a match, Gipp was not discovered to be a father seventy-six years after he died.

Okay, that’s it for this week!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com