While many AFL players and observers believed their league was the equal of the NFL, their first two Super Bowl performances did nothing to prove it. Oakland took part in a 1961 supplemental draft meant to boost the weaker teams in the league, but it did little good. Foss commissioned a friend of Harry Wismer's to develop the AFL's eagle-on-football logo. Buffalo rookie back O.J. During the summer of 1959, he sought the blessings of the NFL for his nascent league, as he did not seek a potentially costly rivalry. The American Football League stands as the only professional football league to successfully compete against the NFL. The NFL also adapted how the AFL used the growing power of televised football games, which were bolstered with the help of major network contracts (first with ABC and later with NBC[49]). As the influence of the AFL continues through the present, the 50th anniversary of its launch was celebrated during 2009. [31] The AFL also planned to add two more teams by 1967. As fierce competition made player salaries skyrocket in both leagues, especially after a series of "raids", the leagues agreed to a merger in 1966. After a close first half, the NFL champion Green Bay Packers overwhelmed the AFL champion Kansas City Chiefs, 35–10. USAFL now boasts over 30 clubs nationwide, representing 2000 players. [28], After the 1963 season, the Newark Bears of the Atlantic Coast Football League expressed interest in joining the AFL;[29] concerns over having to split the New York metro area with the still-uncertain Jets were a factor in the Bears' bid being rejected. The bidding war for players between the AFL and NFL escalated in 1965. Cloud view gives you a tag cloud of twitter trends that are most talked about. Led by Bills players such as Cookie Gilchrist, the players successfully lobbied to have the game moved to Houston's Jeppesen Stadium. For other uses, see, Professional football league that merged with National Football League in 1970, Legitimacy and the end of an era (1968–1970), Expanding and reintroducing the sport to more cities, Influence on professional football coaching, Commissioners/Presidents of the American Football League. The Bidwills hoped to move their franchise, preferably to St. Louis, but could not come to terms with the league, which demanded money before it would approve the move. Under the terms of the agreement, the two leagues would hold a common player draft. [35] The league resulting from the merger was a 26-team juggernaut (since expanded to 32) with television rights covering all of the Big Three television networks and teams in close proximity to almost all of the top 40 metropolitan areas, a fact that has precluded any other competing league from gaining traction since the merger; failed attempts to mimic the AFL's success included the World Football League (1974–75), United States Football League (1983–85), the United Football League (2009–2012) and the AAF (2019), and two iterations of the XFL (2001 and 2020). The AFL's free agents came from several sources. Only the party from Minneapolis-Saint Paul accepted, and with the addition of Ole Haugsrud and Bernie Ridder the Minnesota group joined the NFL in 1961 as the Minnesota Vikings. [26], The San Diego Chargers, under head coach Sid Gillman, won a decisive 51–10 victory over the Boston Patriots for the 1963 AFL Championship. [32] Although Davis's intention was to help the AFL win the bidding war, some AFL and NFL owners saw the escalation as detrimental to both leagues. The court upheld the Houston contract, and with Cannon the Oilers appeared in the AFL's first three championship games (winning two). In the fall of 2009, the Showtime pay-cable network premiered Full Color Football: The History of the American Football League, a 5-part documentary series produced by NFL Films that features vintage game film and interviews as well as more recent interviews with those associated with the AFL. On January 15, 1967, the first-ever championship game between the two separate professional football leagues, the AFL-NFL Championship Game (retroactively referred to as Super Bowl I), was played in Los Angeles. The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. The AFL also appealed to fans by offering a flashier style of play (just like the ABA in basketball), compared to the more conservative game of the NFL. Tweet. Additional expansion teams would eventually be awarded by 1970 or soon thereafter to bring it to a 28-team league. Hunt next secured an agreement from Howsam to bring a team to Denver. [47][48] The remaining 13 NFL teams became part of the National Football Conference. From an embryonic set of six clubs, the league quickly grew to 24 teams within the first year. The Western All-Stars, led by Chargers quarterback John Hadl, defeated the Eastern All-Stars, 26–3. Alarmed with the rate of spending in the league, Hilton Hotels forced Barron Hilton to relinquish his stake in the Chargers as a condition of maintaining his leadership role with the hotel chain.[33]. A third AAFC team, the Baltimore Colts (not related to the 1953–1983 Baltimore Colts or to the current Indianapolis Colts franchise), played only one year in the NFL, disbanding at the end of the 1950 season. All of these innovations pioneered by the AFL, including its more exciting style of play and colorful uniforms, have essentially made today's professional football more like the AFL than like the old-line NFL. [38] That notion was reinforced one year later in Super Bowl IV, when the AFL champion Kansas City Chiefs upset the NFL champion Minnesota Vikings, 23–7, in the last championship game to be played between the two leagues. The opponents were two of the original AFL franchises, the Buffalo Bills and Tennessee Titans (the former Houston Oilers). By then, the NFL wanted to quickly award the new Dallas franchise to Murchison so the team could immediately begin play and compete with the AFL's Texans. The stadiums are either being used for other uses (the former San Diego Stadium, Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Fenway Park, Nickerson Field, Alumni Stadium, Nippert Stadium, the Cotton Bowl, Balboa Stadium and Kezar Stadium), still standing but currently vacant (Houston Astrodome), or demolished. In protest, Davis resigned as AFL commissioner on July 25 rather than remain until the completion of the merger, and Milt Woodard was named president of the AFL,[28][34][35] with the "commissioner" title vacated because of Rozelle's expanded role. The AFL took advantage of the burgeoning popularity of football by locating teams in major cities that lacked NFL franchises.
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