Prompted by the Chicago Bears' win on a safety in overtime yesterday, I was looking up when overtime started in the NFL. It began in the 1974 season, and, in fact, the very first game to go into overtime happened on the day I was born: September 22, 1974. The Steelers and the Broncos played to a 35-35 tie at the end of regulation and then were unable to score in overtime.

Actually, I should have remembered it was 1974 considering how many copies of the September 21-27, 1974, issue of TV Guide I own. The cover story is Los Angeles Herald-Examiner columnist Melvin Durslag's 1974 football preview: "Another radical departure in NFL rules involves regular-season games that end in ties. The principals will henceforth enter into 15-minute sudden-death periods. But if they can't break the tie within that period, the game ends in a stalemate. Sudden death has a major flaw, because the team that wins the flip and receives the kickoff has an outrageous edge. No game in overtime should be settled without each team going on offense at least once. The WFL approach can be tougher on the players, but is fairer. Instead of sudden death, it orders an extra period that must go a minimum of 15 minutes. That way, both teams will have a chance to move the ball."

The other "radical departure" was two changes to place-kicking: this was when the goalposts were moved back 10 yards, from the goal line to the end line, and missed field goals resulted in the other team gaining possession at the line of scrimmage instead of at the 20-yard line. (Melvin Durslag was against this, too, because it would result in more punts.)