The Heidi Game

On November 17, 1968, one of the most famous professional football games was played in Oakland, California.

The reason it was so famous? Not because of an amazing play or an individual performance.

But because of a memorable decision made by the television station it was on. NBC decided to edit out the ending of the football game so that they could show the movie "Heidi."

Here's the story.

The game between the Oakland Raiders and New York Jets was a pretty big one with both teams battling for playoff position. The game started at 4:00 eastern time, and footbal games usually finish in about 3 hours or so. And here's where it got interesting. NBC had signed a contract with the movie's sponsor, Timex, to start the movie Heidi at 7:00 sharp, whether the game was still going or not.

Sure enough, the clock read 6:59 pm and the score read New York 32, Oakland 29 with 1:05 left in the 4th quarter.

And at 7:00 pm, the game, which was exciting and going down to the wire, had been cut off for Heidi.

People freaked and phoned NBC to complain. And guess what happened? The Raiders scored 2 touchdowns in 1:05 and won the game 43-32. And nobody in America saw it.

Since that day, a close football game has never been cut off before the end.