Pro Football: A Maximum of Crunch

As the Franks said to the Romans, “It must be fun to be a Hun.” Or a Green Bay Packer. Preseason games are supposed to be exhibitions, and that is all last week’s Green Bay-Dallas game was: an exhibition of brutality in the purest Packer tradition. The faces might be unfamiliar. Donny Anderson was at halfback, in place of retired Paul Hornung; Jim Grabowski at fullback, replacing deported Jim Taylor; Zeke Bratkowski at quarterback, filling in for injured Bart Starr. But the effect was the same — a minimum of razzle-dazzle and a maximum of crunch. “When it stops paying off for us,” grunted Coach Lombard!, “then we’ll make some changes.”

Changes are unlikely. The second biggest crowd in Cotton Bowl history, 78.087 strong, was on hand — hoping to see the hometown Cowboys avenge their narrow 34-27 defeat bv Green Bay in last year’s National Football League playoff. What they saw was a Packer defense that kept Dallas’ highly touted offense from scoring a touchdown — the first time that had happened in almost two years. The Packers crushed the Cowboys 20-3.

The exhibition season may have already settled the question (if there ever was any) of which team is the best in pro football. Quite possibly it has also settled the question of whether the American Football League, after seven years, is finally ready to play on a par with the N.F.L. As of last week, A.F.L.

teams had played eleven games against their N.F.L. elders and lost eight of them. Of course, some people refuse to learn their place. The Denver Broncos, who lost ten out of 14 games in the A.F.L. last year, knocked off two N.F.L.

teams in succession — the Detroit Lions (13-7) and the Minnesota Vikings (14-9). And the same Kansas City Chiefs who were buried 35-10 by Green Bay in the Super Bowl last January gave George Halas’ N.F.L. Chicago Bears one of the worst drubbings in their 47-year history, 66-24. “The Chiefs gave every indication they could play as good as any team in the National Football League,” said Halas. Any team, perhaps, except the Green Bay Packers.