The "Heidi" Game

On Nov. 17, 1968, one of the worst moments in sports broadcasting took place. 

The New York Jets were facing the Oakland Raiders in an AFL battle. The Jets held a 42-29 lead against the Raiders and seemed to be in good shape.

However, NBC made the controversial decision to switch off the game in the final minutes and start showing "Heidi" instead.

What fans on the east coast missed was an exciting comeback by the Raiders. They scored two touchdowns in the last minute to win the game 43-42.

This game would lead to new measures to make sure nothing like this would happen again.

In the late 1960s, few professional football games took longer than two and a half hours to play, and the Jets–Raiders three-hour time slot was thought to be adequate. A high-scoring contest, together with a number of injuries and penalties for the two bitter American Football League rivals, caused the game to run long. NBC executives had ordered that Heidi must begin on time, but given the exciting game, they decided to postpone the start of the film and continue football coverage. As 7 p.m. approached, many members of the public called NBC to inquire about the schedule, to complain or opine, jamming NBC's switchboards.

As NBC executives were trying to call the same switchboards to implement their decision, the change could not be communicated, and Heidi began as scheduled. The movie preempted the final moments of the game in the eastern half of the country, to the outrage of viewers who missed two Oakland touchdowns that turned the game around.

The Heidi Game led to a change in the way professional football is shown on network television; games are shown to their conclusion before evening programming begins. To ensure that network personnel could communicate under similar circumstances, special telephones (dubbed "Heidi phones") were installed, with a connection to a different telephone exchange from other network phones. In 1997, the Heidi Game was voted the most memorable regular season game in pro football history.

Foles' Eagles Fly By Raiders

OALAND, Calif. – The Oakland Raiders were looking to get back to the .500 mark with a win on Sunday over the Michael Vick-less Philadelphia Eagles. However, the Raiders second consecutive week against a franchise from Pennsylvania would look much different than their first week, when they edged out the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Raiders would get behind early as former Arizona Wildcat, and current backup quarterback for the Eagles, Nick Foles would have an impressive day. Foles would light up the Raiders secondary in the first quarter to the tune of a 21-3 lead, with three passing touchdowns, two on back-to-back plays to Riley Cooper, in which the Raiders first round draft pick DJ Hayden was burned both times.

The Raiders did have opportunities to pull closer to the Eagles, with a 66-yard pass from Terrelle Pryor to Rod Streater on their second drive, posting up a first and goal down just 7-0, but the offense would stall in the red zone and would settle for a Sebastian Janikowski field goal.

But settling for field goals wasn’t the worst of what the Raiders offense had in store for its fans on Sunday. Running back Darren McFadden would once again hit the sideline with an injury, a hamstring issue, and would not return to the game, making Rashad Jennings, once again the workhorse to the carry the load.

Jennings would have a decent day, carrying the ball 15 times for 102 yards and a score, but most of those came late in the game once the Eagles were up big.

After Jennings score, the Raiders were down 21-10, but the Eagles offense kept on pushing as Foles would hit another former Pac-12 product in former Stanford tight end Zach Ertz for his fourth touchdown of the game.

The Raiders would settle for another field goal late in the first half to pull within 15 at 28-13, but that was as close as they would get for the rest of the game.

The second half started and it was the Eagles who go the ball rolling quickly, not the Raiders. Foles continued to impress as he tossed three more touchdowns in the second half, one of which was a 46-yard pass to former Cal wide receiver DeSean Jackson, on a play in which Raiders defensive back Mike Jenkins was also called for defensive holding.

Foles seven touchdown passes on the day tied an NFL record, that Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning also reached this year in week one of the season. Foles now joins George Blanda, Sid Luckman, Y.A. Tittle, Joe Kapp and the previously mentioned Manning in the seven-touchdown club.

"A couple people came up to me and said that I tied the record with seven touchdowns," said Nick Foles. "It's a great honor. Hats off to our guys for doing a great job."

Just to put this in perspective, the Jacksonville Jaguars through eight games in the 2013-2014 campaign have scored seven touchdowns on offense all season, and those seven touchdowns are more than the Raiders have accounted for through the passing game all year as well.

"When a quarterback has seven touchdowns, we have to sit there and take that personal," said Tracy Porter. "We can't give a guy seven touchdowns in a game, let alone put up 49 points on us. It was flat-out embarrassing that we allowed that to happen."

Down 48-13 the Raiders struggled to get anything going, as they were held without a score in the third quarter.

Then it was time for the backups, as both teams brought in their back up quarterbacks. For the Eagles it was another Pac-12 product in former USC rookie quarterback Matt Barkley, and for the Raiders it was a Penn State rookie, Matt McGloin.

While Barkley would only complete one pass, McGloin would lead the Raiders to s score, albeit in garbage time. The score for the Raiders came on a Jeremy Stewart rush up the middle for two-yards after McGloin had moved the offense 71-yards.

The final score was 48-20 in favor of the Eagles as the Raiders drop to 3-5, and the Eagles raise their record to 4-5 on the season.

"It's embarrassing," said Pryor. "I hate losing. It's not acceptable to me and I don't like it. All the guys in here agree with me. We have to do something about it instead of tanking it."

The next game for the Raiders comes on the road as they travel to face their second NFC East opponent in as many weeks as the New York Giants (2-6) open their doors to host the silver and black.

The matchup will be the twelfth between the two teams, and the Raiders first game in the new MetLife Stadium. The Raiders lead the all-time matchup 7-4, however the Giants have won the last two meetings in 2005 in Oakland and 2009 in New Jersey.

The game is scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 10 with a 10 a.m. kickoff.

Raiders End Bye Week Drought In Win Over Steelers

OAKLAND, Calif. – The Oakland Raiders and Pittsburgh Steelers rivalry goes back several decades, and it was reignited Sunday, Oct. 27 when the Silver and Black hosted the Black and Yellow to a matinee kickoff at the O.Co Coliseum.

Right from the get go the game was exciting as on the first play of scrimmage, Raiders quarterback Terrelle Pryor busted off a 93-yards quarterback option run for a touchdown. Giving the Raiders an early 7-0 lead after Sebastian Janikowski added on the extra point.

TOD FIERNER / Courtesy - Oakland Raiders quarterback Terrelle Pryor broke NFL history on Sunday, Oct. 27 rushing for a 93-yard touchdown on the first play of the game. Pryor's play broke the NFL record for longest rush by a quarterback.

"I was very surprised, because it's never open like that," Pryor said. "Very surprised. But with the game plan, the way they put things together, it doesn't surprise me that sometimes it may happen like that."

"You have to understand the beast that's playing quarterback," Steelers safety Ryan Clark said. "You have to understand what he brings to the game and that that's a part of their game and that they can do that. Once a guy like that gets in front of the whole defense, he's a legit 4.4. It's real. It just looks slow because he's 6-6, but he was moving."

The run by Pryor was the longest in Raiders franchise history and longest quarterback run in NFL history.

The Raiders offense would continue to pour it on against the Steelers as Darren McFadden tacked on a touchdown to give the Raiders a 14-0 lead in the first quarter.

The Steelers would put their first points of the game on the board with a Shaun Suisham field goal to start the second quarter. But the Raiders would answer that with their third touchdown of the game, a direct snap to McFadden in which he opted to run for the touchdown although he was looking for Pryor in the end zone.

The Raiders 21-3 lead would hold into the half as Suisham missed the first of two errant field goals on the day.

The second half saw the Raiders defense step up and get to Ben Rothelisberger several times, as they hit Big Ben five times separate times for sacks.

"We are becoming a football team," said Charles Woodson. "I think we have some good players that have been assembled on this team, and we're learning how to play together. We're learning each other and what each other's strengths and weaknesses are. We're just making some plays out there."

The Steelers would miss out another field goal attempt in the third quarter as Suisham missed another kick wide right with 5:49 to play in the third quarter. But the Steelers would make a game of it over the final 20 minutes.

The fourth quarter saw the Steelers punch in two touchdowns, the first on a short pass from Rothelisberger to Emmanuel Sanders, and the second on a Le’Veon Bell touchdown run with 1:27 left to play. Down 21-16 the Steelers would opt to go for the two-point conversion to pull within three points, and they were successful as Sanders rushed it in for the conversion, putting the score at 21-18.

The Steelers luck would run out though as they were not able to convert on the onside kick attempt as the Raiders ran down the majority of the clock, giving just 18 seconds to the Steelers to make a hail mary pass from their own three-yard line.

Rothelisberger would hit his favorite target on the day in Sanders, but he was well short of the end zone being tackled for a 33-yard gain.

The final score was 21-16 in favor of the Raiders, making it their first win after a bye week in ten seasons. The win also improves their record to 3-4 on the season.

The Raiders next game on the schedule comes at home as they face their second opponent from Pennsylvania in as many weeks when they host the  Philadelphia Eagles (3-5) on Nov. 3. Kick off is scheduled for 1:25 p.m.

Rice Sets A New Touchdown Record

On Sept. 5, 1994, Hall of Famer and San Francisco 49ers great Jerry Rice catches an National Football League (NFL) record touchdown with career touchdown reception 127.

Rice would go on to catch another 70 touchdowns over his career ending his career as the player with the most receiving touchdowns of all time with 197 touchdown receptions.

Over his career Rice played for the 49ers, Oakland Raiders, Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos. However, he never actually played a regular season game with the Broncos, just playing with them in the preseason before being cut.

Rice still holds nearly every possible receiving record for both regular and post-season performance.
Including being the NFL’s all-time leader in receptions, yards and touchdowns. In his 20 NFL seasons, Rice missed only 10 regular season games, seven of them in the 1997 season, and the other three in the strike-shortened season of 1987. His 303 games are by far the most ever played by an NFL wide receiver.

Rice finished his regular season career with 1,549 receptions for 22,895 yards with 208 touchdowns for a total of 1,256 points scored. Of the 208 touchdowns Rice scored 10 of those are rushing and one is passing with the majority, 197 coming as receptions.

Six times Rice led the league in receiving yards and touchdown receptions with his highest single season totals coming in 1995 and 1987 respectively.

His 1,848 receiving yards in 1995 was the highest single season total until 2012 when Calvin Johnson of the Detroit Lions broke the record with 1,964 receiving yards.

His 22-touchdown reception season of 1987 was the highest single season mark of any receiver until then New England Patriots Randy Moss broke the mark in 2007. However, Rice caught 22 in 14 games while it took 16 games for Moss to catch 23.

Rice also led the league in receptions twice, with his highest single season total coming in 1995 with 122, although he did not lead the league in receptions that year.

Rice’s 20-year career saw him make 13 Pro Bowl appearances, including 11 consecutive appearances from 1986-1996. In 1995 Rice was the Pro Bowl MVP. He was a 12-time All-Pro selection, including 11 consecutive times from 1986-1996. He was a two-time NFC Offensive Player of the Year in 1986 and 1987. He was a two time AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year in 1987 and 1993. He was the UPI NFC Player of the Year in 1988 and also the PFWA MVP that same year. Rice was the Bert Bell Award winner in 1987. Rice was also the UPI NFL-NFC Rookie of the Year in 1985.

Rice helped the 49ers to three Super Bowl Championships in Super Bowl XXIII (23), XXIV (24) and XXIX (29). He was named the Super Bowl MVP for Super Bowl XXIII (23).

Rice has been named to the NFL 1980’s, 1990’s All-Decade Teams, and was named to the NFL 75 Anniversary All-Time Team in 1994.

Rice was inducted into Canton’s Football Hall of Fame in 2010.

The San Francisco 49ers retired his no. 80 jersey.

Rice is rated the no. 1 NFL Player of all-time by NFL.com, which is no wonder why his nickname is the “G.O.A.T.” or the Greatest of All Time.