Delayed/incomplete major sporting events

[TMC]

What sporting events do you remember that were not shown live and complete, whether they be tape delayed/joined in progress/edited for broadcast?

[Yong Fang]

The best example was "The Heidi Game".

https://www.profootballhof.com/news/...he-heidi-game/

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...0-years-later/

[TJ]

One of the biggest sporting events was the "Miracle on Ice" at the 1980 Winter Olympics. The USA's stunning upset of the Soviet Union was shown by ABC on tape delay in primetime.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracl...e#Game_summary

Some of the NBA Finals games were shown on tape delay by CBS from 1979 to 1981. Six championship series games were shown by CBS on tape delay over a three-season span. They were only shown live in the local markets.

In 1968, the infamous Heidi Game between the New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders took place, where NBC cut off the ending of the game to show the movie Heidi. Three years later, amazingly enough, something similar happened, where NBC cut away from the middle of a game for no reason. Here's the lesser known story behind the 1971 game between Cleveland and Washington, otherwise known as Heidi Game 2.



In a 2000 NFL game between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Diego Chargers, the Chargers led it 17-16 with 2 minutes left, looking to get their first win of the season. And then, CBS stopped showing the game everywhere, including Kansas City and San Diego, leaving tons of fans upset and wondering how it ended. It's yet another sequel to the Heidi Game controversy. This is the story behind the NFL on CBS and their broadcasting screwup.



In 1977, when Michigan played Ohio State, no one was able to watch the start of the game, because ABC did not start showing The Game until midway through the first quarter thanks to the visit of Egypt's Anwar Sadat to Israel. And to say that there was outrage over this would be a massive understatement. This is the story behind the crazy broadcasting controversy from 1977 involving ABC, Michigan, and Ohio State.

[Yong Fang]

The year that John Elway and the Denver Broncos won their first Super Bowl from our local CBS affiliate.

This was actually the AFC championship game, which for those not in the know, the winner goes to the Super Bowl.

During the game there was weather, as in adverse weather conditions, and a Tornado Watch was issued for the viewing area. What happened was during the football game, the local affiliate stopped showing the game and had the local weatherman do a report.

I dare say their phone lines went nuts. Even I tried to call. The weatherman (who is still employed at the station 25 years later) knew our anger at this and tried to tell us this was important and all of that. For me, and I think for the viewing public, unless there is an actual tornado on the ground, don’t preempt the game.

In the end and I forget if this was the rest of the game, there was a spoilt screen; the game was shown on one half and the poor weather guy on the other half with probably at least 200,000 plus people mad as hell about this and want the game on fully. The tornado won’t come and if it does, there is nothing to be done about it. Instead of the weatherman, put a “crawl” message on the screen.

The weatherman was Tim Simpson, WREG-TV. You can Google him. I should message him to see if he remembers that.

[Yong Fang]

I am from SEC country and went to an SEC school but nothing except the Second Coming of Christ or Nuclear Holocaust should preempt the Michigan/Ohio State game. Even if the President gets shot. Want to see that, go to another channel.