Sudden Death

In pro football, the 1965 NFL season was an exclamation point in the sport’s golden age. It was the turning point in the war between the establishment NFL and the insurgent AFL and featured many of the greatest players ever like Johnny Unitas and Jim Brown, who were longtime stars, and Dick Butkus and Gale Sayers, who were first-year wonders. And that season offered an epic Western Conference battle between two great teams-the Green Bay Packers and the Baltimore Colts. On the sidelines, Vince Lombardi and Don Shula. On the field, sixteen future members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame such as Unitas, Bart Starr, Lenny Moore, Ray Nitschke, John Mackey, Forrest Gregg, Raymond Berry, Herb Adderley, Jim Parker, and Jim Taylor. After 14 weeks, the two teams were tied. One game the day after Christmas at newly named Lambeau Field would decide the conference championship. And then after four quarters and a stalemate, just one score would. This is the story of the 1965 NFL season told through that historic conference race between Green Bay and Baltimore and played against the backdrop of national unrest and war in Vietnam.