Let’s get this out of the way right now: this isn’t about a writer on a Kansas City Chiefs website being ticked off that his favorite team lost an overtime game without having a chance to possess the ball.
Well... maybe it is a little bit. But bear with me.
Before 1974, regular-season games that were tied when the final gun sounded remained... well, tied. While the NFL and AFL were being run as separate leagues, nobody seemed to care. Ties were just a fact of life. But once the AFL merged with the NFL in 1970, tradition didn’t seem to matter as much.