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The original was posted on /r/nfl by /u/ZappaOMatic on 2024-07-19 18:10:40+00:00.

Original Title: [OC] In 1943, the Steagles had to beat the Packers to force a 3-way tie that could’ve resulted in the NFL’s first wild card round. They instead lost to Don Hutson, who broke his finger earlier that day after closing a taxi door on his hand, broke another mid-game, scored 2 TDs, and called the plays.

Don Hutson was one of the greatest players in league history, dominating on both sides of the ball in the late 1930s and through World War II. By 1943, the Packers legend was set to retire after a decorated nine-year career before becoming an assistant coach with the team for 1944.

What was supposed to be his swan song game ended up being anything but…

The Championship Race

The date was December 5, 1943. The 6–2–1 Packers had locked up second place in the Western Division behind the 8–1–1 Bears; since the postseason was simply the Eastern and Western champs playing each other barring a tiebreaker playoff game, which was not possible in the West, Green Bay’s season was about to come to an end. Of course, even if out of contention for the title, they wanted to at least conclude the year and Hutson’s career on a strong note.

Their opponent, on the other hand, was still alive in the East. The 5–3–1 Steagles, a one-year merger of the Eagles and Steelers due to World War II, needed to beat the Packers to stay in contention with the 6–1–1 Redskins and 4–3–1 Giants. The Packers were the last game of the regular season for the Steagles, while the Giants and Redskins had games against each other on December 5 and December 12.[1][2][3] The back-to-back meetings were more a schedule quirk than anything, because they were supposed to open the season on October 3 until they found out both of their stadiums were being used by their cities’ MLB teams; they convinced the league to move the game to the end of the calendar, well after everyone else’s regular seasons had finished, which in turn forced the championship game to be pushed back a week too.[4]

If Phil-Pitt beat Green Bay while New York topped Washington in both games, all three teams would be 6–3–1 atop the Eastern Division. This would leave the league in a bit of a conundrum: although the aforementioned playoff game existed in the event of a tie, the NFL did not have a plan for three-way ties. The modern tiebreaker system, which accounts for head-to-head among other factors, did not exist at the time.

Although it had yet to happen, the NFL created various contingency plans in advance for three-way tiebreakers. One was as follows:[1]

  • Two of the three teams would play each other in a “semifinal” on December 19, which was the original scheduled date for the Championship Game. The third team would have a bye week.
    • The league did not specify which team would get the bye, but it would likely go to New York as they had a winning record in head-to-head games with Washington and Phil-Pitt. The Giants would be 3–1, the Steagles 2–1–1, and the Redskins 0–3–1.
  • The winner of the semifinal would then play the other team for the Eastern Division on December 26.
  • The 1943 NFL Championship Game would be on January 2, 1944, the first time it took place in January. In reality, 1965 was the first title game held that month.

Another, perhaps more taxing, approach was to have the Steagles, Giants, and Redskins play each other again in a round-robin format. This in turn would push the title game all the way back to January 9.[4]

Had this occurred, it would be the first time since the postseason format’s introduction in 1933 that a multi-round playoff existed but the second time a playoff happened at all. A playoff game was played in 1941 between the Bears and Packers to decide the Western Division champion, but that was the only instance.

In a sense, you could say the first game would have been the first Wild Card game, which did not exist for real until the Super Bowl era. Media at the time referred to such a game as a “semifinal”.[1]

In any case, the Steagles had everything to play for while the Packers did not. It also helped that they were undefeated at Shibe Park entering the game.[2]

“There isn’t much incentive for the Packers tomorrow as they have already cinched second place in the West,” wrote Jack Sell of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette the day before the game.[2] “Their great end, Don Hutson, will be playing his final game before retirement and will likely strive to pad the marks he has inscribed in the league record books.”

Speaking of Hutson…

Hutson’s Swan Song…?

Before Brett Favre, Hutson was the Packers player who kept retiring then changing his mind. In February 1943, he announced he would end his career because of chest injuries.[5]

“Don’t kid me. For the last three years we’ve been hearing that Hutson definitely was through with pro ball, and for the last three years he’s been a thorn in the Bears’ side,” George Halas’ wife Minnie sarcastically remarked in late July.[6] Indeed, Hutson signed a one-year contract extension a week later, reasoning the Packers could use his services with so many players going into the military and franchise quarterback Cecil Isbell retiring to become a coach. Hutson was also looking to go into coaching himself, but figured he would stick around for one more season.[7] Even Isbell said he expected Hutson to unretire.[8]

“Some of my oldest friends are really mad at me because I’m retiring,” quipped Isbell.[8] “I suppose they’ll be a lot madder at Don if he stays on the sideline.”

Even at a lean 30 years of age, Hutson led the league in nearly every receiving category and even tied for the most field goals made with three (with Ward Cuff). Of course, he did have some benefit of the ongoing war taking away talent; Hutson himself was eligible to be drafted but was exempt in order to support his family of five. (His brothers Robert and Ray, on the other hand, both served. Robert died in a 1943 plane crash in the Himalayas while Ray served until war’s end.)[9] Still, if you asked any of his peers or players in later decades, they’d be quick to inform you that Hutson would ball out regardless of era.

Even with Isbell gone, his replacements Tony Canadeo and Irv Comp more than proved their worth, because it wouldn’t be the Packers without a star QB being succeeded by another. Canadeo made first-team All-Pro in 1943, while Comp was a rookie who still saw plenty of action. Their contributions along with Hutson’s might not have been enough to win the division, but a 6–2–1 record obviously keeps them as one of the top teams in the league.

Game Day

The Steagles and Packers had played each other in the preseason at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, where the latter won 28–10. At the time, the Steagles were still trying to get used to their new environment as a unified team. By December, however, they had the second-best defense in the league. Even if going up against their second-ranked offense and having never beaten them as the Eagles or Steelers, they felt more than ready to take on Green Bay again.[4]

“We stopped Baugh, maybe we can pull up with the answer for Hutson,” commented Steagles boss Bert Bell.[4] “Be a funny thing, wouldn’t it, if we would stop Hutson and knock off Green Bay Sunday and the Giants could beat Washington twice and let the Steagles tie for the Eastern title. It would be a very funny thing. That George Marshall would be fit to be tied. I would love to see that. I sure would.”

Their meeting was at Shibe Park in Philadelphia, where the Steagles were unbeaten (won twice, tied once) entering the game.[2] Meanwhile in New York, the Giants beat the Redskins 14–10, keeping the Steagles well in the hunt. The ball was now in Phil-Pitt’s court as a stadium record 34,294 filed in to watch.[9]

Before kickoff, Steagles coaches Greasy Niele and Walt Kiesling stressed one thing: stop Don Hutson. To do this, the plan was to bully him on every play, keeping defenders on him and attack him, which was a valid strategy at the time given pass interference rules were not as robust as they are today.[4]

Hutson had already been stopped before, albeit in a slightly unexpected manner. Days prior to the game, Hutson was leaving a taxi cab when the door accidentally slammed shut on his right hand and broke his index finger. This forced him to wear a splint on his hand for the game, and understandably left him in a sour mood.[4]

It was a back and forth in the first quarter. The game began poorly for the Steagles when Jack Hinkle lost a fumble on the opening drive. Canadeo took off for the first score of the game afterward, and Hinkle redeemed himself by scoring himself afterward. Zimmerman was then picked off by Comp. Bob Thurbon broke up a potential TD pass to Hutson in the end zone, only for the defense to be fooled when Lou Brock ran to his left on a sweep, then reversed course and found a wide open Canadeo in the right corner of the end zone for the score. On the next drive, Zimmerman launched a pass for Tony Bova that Hutson tried to intercept, but his finger injury caused him to juggle the ball and it bounced into Bova’s hands, who raced into the end zone for the TD.[10][4] To add, well, injury to injury, Hutson broke yet another right finger during the quarter.[11]

The Steagles initially seemed to carry the momentum into the second quarter when Canadeo’s pass was tipped and caught by Phil-Pitt’s Tom Miller on the Green Bay 14. Thurbon was imm…

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