QB Daryle Lamonica helped engineer the Raiders touchdown to take the lead over the Jets.

"People began calling before 7:00 saying one of two things," said former NBC executive Chet Simmons. "'What are you going to do about Heidi?' Or, 'Don't let the game go on.' What it did was it literally blew out the switchboard."

The episode wound up having a major impact on the future of TV sports programming. It prompted the NFL to insert language into its TV contracts guaranteeing that, in the future, games of visiting clubs would be shown to their home markets in their entirety.

"Probably the most significant factor to come out of Heidi was, whatever you do, you better not leave an NFL football game," said Val Pinchbeck, the NFL's retired chief of broadcasting. "Ten years earlier, if you did the same thing on a telecast, would you get the same type of an uproar? I don't know. But you sure did at that point in time. It sure let you know that you better not take my football away from me at 7:00 p.m."

Heidi Game Facts

The Heidi Game was voted the most memorable regular-season game in NFL history by a select group of media in a 1997 poll taken in conjunction with the NFL's 10,000th regular-season game.

Ten future Pro Football Hall of Fame selections were involved in the game: Oakland - WR Fred Biletnikoff, QB/K George Blanda, CB Willie Brown, owner Al Davis, C Jim Otto, T Art Shell, and G Gene Upshaw; New York - head coach Weeb Ewbank, WR Don Maynard, and QB Joe Namath.

Because of the blown switchboard, many fans could not get through to NBC to complain. Instead, they began calling the New York City Police Department and the New York Telephone Company.

"It was on the front page of the New York Times," said Chet Simmons of NBC's decision. "And when you say something is on the front page of the New York Times, you've got to figure it's pretty important."