1968 American Football League Championship Game
The 1968 AFL Championship Game was the ninth annual title game of the American Football League, played on December 29 at Shea Stadium in Queens, New York City, New York. In a rematch of the notorious Heidi Game played earlier in the season, thr New York Jets (11–3) of the Eastern Division hosted the defending champion Oakland Raiders (12–2) of the Western Division. Although the Raiders had the better record (on account of having prevailed in the aforementioned contest), the Jets were slight favorites. The Raiders had hosted a tiebreaker playoff game the week before against the Kansas City Chiefs (12–2) to determine the Western Division champion, while the Eastern champion Jets won their division outright and thus were idle.
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Date | December 29, 1968 | ||||||||||||||||||
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Stadium | Shea Stadium, Queens, New York City, New York | ||||||||||||||||||
Attendance | 62,627 | ||||||||||||||||||
Hall of Famers | |||||||||||||||||||
Raiders: Al Davis (owner/general manager), Fred Biletnikoff, George Blanda, Willie Brown, Jim Otto, Art Shell, Gene Upshaw Jets: Weeb Ewbank (head coach), Winston Hill, Don Maynard, Joe Namath | |||||||||||||||||||
TV in the United States | |||||||||||||||||||
Network | NBC | ||||||||||||||||||
Announcers | Curt Gowdy, Kyle Rote | ||||||||||||||||||
Stadium
Slightly favored, the Jets defeated the Raiders 27–23 to win the championship and the chance to play the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III.