1969 NFL season The 1969 NFL season was the 50th regular season of the National Football League , and the last one before the AFL - NFL Merger . To honor the NFL ' s 50th season , a special anniversary logo was designed and each player wore a patch on their jerseys with this logo throughout the season . As per the agreement made during the 1967 season , the New Orleans Saints and the New York Giants switched divisions again , returning back to the 1967 alignment . The season ended when the Minnesota Vikings defeated the Cleveland Browns in the NFL Championship Game , only to be defeated by the American Football League ' s Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl IV . Division races . The Eastern Conference was split into the Capitol and Century Divisions , and the Western Conference had the Coastal and Central Divisions . In the past , if two teams were tied for the division lead at season ' s end , a one - game playoff was conducted to break the tie . Starting in 1967 , a tiebreaking system was implemented in which head to head record , then net points in head - to - head competition , followed by which team that had less recently been in a title game were the tiebreakers . . As such , only one team in a division would be the division winner , even if the won - lost record was the same . ( This tiebreker was only needed once in the 3 years it was in existence , when in 1967 the Rams and Colts tied for the Coastal Division title but the Rams advanced to the playoffs based on their 1 - 0 - 1 record vs . the Colts ) . The 1969 division races were largely uneventful . All 4 division winners assumed 1st place by week 5 and never gave up their lead . The closest races were in the Central and Coastal where the Vikings and Rams won their divisions by 2½ games , but they had both clinched with 3 games to play . As home field in playoffs was rotated and not determined by a teams ' record at that time , the division winners had nothing to play for and the last month of the season was uneventful , save for the Rams ' quest for a perfect record , which ended in L . A . in a week 12 loss to the Vikings , 20 - 13 . The other story of note was Vince Lombardi ' s return to coach the Washington Redskins after a one - year hiatus from coaching ; he led the Redskins to a 7 - 5 - 2 - record , their first winning record in over a decade . Final standings . " W = Wins , L = Losses , T = Ties , PCT = Winning Percentage , PF = Points For , PA = Points Against " " Note : Prior to 1972 , the NFL did not include tie games when calculating a team ' s winning percentage in the official standings " Playoffs . In the Eastern Conference Championship game , the Cleveland Browns and Dallas Cowboys met for the 3rd straight year . The Cowboys had won in 1967 and the Browns in 1968 ; this was the rubber match before the Browns would move to the American Conference in the 1970 merger / realignment . The Cowboys were favored as they featured the best offense in the NFL , a better record than Cleveland and they were home . However , the Browns jumped on the Cowboys early and often in cruising to a surprising 38 - 14 win . In the Western Conference , the Vikings were 4 point favorites over the Rams in Minnesota . In week 12 of the season , the 10 - 1 Vikings beat the 11 - 0 Rams in L . A . , 20 - 13 . This time , the Rams broke out on top and led 17 - 7 at halftime . After the Vikings scored to make it 17 - 14 , the Rams settled for another short field goal ( both Ram field goals came when they could not get a touchdown from inside the 5 yard line ; this would ultimately cost them the game ) to make it 20 - 14 . Joe Kapp led the Vikings to the go ahead touchdown early in the 4th quarter , and then the Vikings sacked Ram QB Roman Gabriel in the end zone to make it 23 - 20 . The Rams forced a Viking punt and began driving for a potential tying field goal or go ahead touchdown but Gabriel was intercepted with under 2 minutes to play to clinch the win . In the NFL final , the Browns were thoroughly dominated for the second year in a row . In 1968 the Colts beat them 34 - 0 ; in this game the Vikings won 27 - 7 , completely shutting down the Browns offense while Minnesota gained nearly 200 rushing yards .