2017 NFL Season opens with 1967 AFL Chiefs and Patriots.
The opening of a new NFL Season is always exciting. Nobody is really sure how things will play out over the next four months. What teams will surprise and what teams will disappoint? What new stars will be born and what players will begin to fade? Just who will survive to be the last team standing in Minneapolis in February? Whose best laid season plans will be in ashes come January?
Launching A Miniature NFL
Like new coaches with an expansion team, Norman Sas and Lee Payne launched Tudor’s miniature NFL (and AFL) 50 years ago this month. They thought they had a good product, and like good coaches, they had spent a lot of late nights at the drawing board.
As we’ve explained in The Unforgettable Buzz, there were many details to work out in getting the Tudor NFL line into production and ready for toy store shelves. There was the making of the games and the details of the fields and the grandstands, all of which took place in Brooklyn. But the most important part of the line, the player painting, was an endeavor that could challenge the best football coach. Yet Norman and Lee coordinated it all like the pros they were.
A Hall Of Fame Worthy Toy
The result was stunning, and we young boys knew a Hall of Fame Toy when we saw one. And 50 years later it’s why we still love looking at a Tudor No. 620, No. 510, or Sears No. 613. Or the epic color lineup of NFL and AFL teams in the Tudor Rule Book.
Not that we ever do otherwise, but we’re going to keep things old school with our 2017 weekly team matchups. It only seems fitting since this is the 50th anniversary of Tudor Games’ miniature NFL. While it’s hard to believe that 50 years have gone by, it’s truly an amazing feat that it still exist.
How many toys and games have a 50 year lifespan? And how many games are still playable 50 years on?
That the Tudor games still play and the Tudor teams are still so colorful and beautiful are a tribute to one of the greatest toy companies there ever was (and is).
We hope your team does well this season — on and off the vibrating gridiron.