pride in his teammates' play, and said, in a figurative sense, that he felt the Cowboys did not really lose the game because the effort expended was its own reward. Gifford wrote that the interview attracted considerable attention, and that Meredith's forthcoming and introspective responses played a part in his selection for ABC's Monday Night Football telecasts three years later. Defensive tackle Bob Lilly took a different view, telling reporters that the Cowboys were a great team except that they could not win the "big one". Wide receiver Lance Rentzel later remarked that on the team plane home from Green Bay to Dallas' Love Field, "not one word was spoken the entire flight." Final statistics Statistical comparison Individual statistics Legacy The game was the end of an era and the beginning of another. This would be the last year the NFL championship game was considered more important than the AFL-NFL World Championship Game, for in the following year Joe Namath and the New York Jets staged an upset victory over the Baltimore Colts that would bring the AFL to full legitimacy and validate the merger of the two leagues that had been agreed upon in 1966 and would be consummated in 1970. Landry, along with others, believed that football games should never be held in weather conditions so harsh. In the post-merger era of the NFL, the World Championship Game (as the Super Bowl is officially called) would be offered to cities on a bid, and no outdoor stadium in a cold-weather city would be offered the World Championship Game until 2013, when MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey hosted Super Bowl XLVIII on February 2, 2014. The NFL, reflecting the impact the "Ice Bowl" had on the sport, considered the selection of MetLife Stadium to be a "one off" occasion. Fortunately, the temperature at kickoff was a balmy 49 degrees, and the game just missed a snowstorm that came the following day. With Green Bay having won five NFL championships in seven years and the first two Super Bowls, Vince Lombardi retired as head coach of the Packers on February 1, 1968, but retained his position of general manager for the 1968 season. Many Dallas players described this game as the most devastating loss of the 1966–1970 period. Having lost this game and the 1966 title game in the winning seconds of each game, Landry was subject to