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Telling History: AFL-NFL Merger

Robert Gomel/Sports Illustrated

“If possible, I believe we should ‘coin a phrase’ for the Championship Game,” Kansas City Chiefs’ owner Lamar Hunt observed on the eve of the first title matchup in 1967 between his AFL champion Chiefs and the NFL champion Green Bay Packers. “I have kiddingly called it the ‘Super Bowl,’ which obviously can be improved upon.” Indeed, the media already called this inaugural AFL-NFL Championship Game “the World Series of Football,” but Hunt’s nickname immediately gained traction with fans and players. The Super Bowl – our most celebrated and watched sporting event – was born, the crowning achievement of a merger between the upstart American Football League and established National Football League.

So, just keep matriculating the ball down the field. I’m Joel Rhodes “Telling History.”

The American Football League operated for just 10 seasons between 1960 and 1970 in direct competition with the National Football League which had been around since the 1920s. Founded by owners rejected for membership in the NFL, the renegade AFL – led by Hunt – eventually consisted of 10 teams: the Boston Patriots, Buffalo Bills, Cincinnati Bengals, Denver Broncos, Houston Oilers, Kansas City Chiefs, Miami Dolphins, New York Jets, Oakland Raiders, and San Diego Chargers.

After a couple rather disappointing seasons, characterized by low attendance and uneven competition, AFL teams began capitalizing on several key advantages. Hunt’s strategic vision of creating regional rivalries with existing NFL teams generated fan interest. Moreover, the AFL cashed in on a growing generation gap in the 1960s, appealing to baby boomers with a more fun, entertaining, and modern alternative to their parent’s stodgy NFL: colorful uniforms with player’s names on their jerseys, “wide-open” offensive-oriented games with more passing and more points, and brash heroes like Jets quarterback “Broadway” Joe Namath. Lucrative multi-million-dollar television contracts followed suit.

By 1965, competition between the AFL and NFL over players, fans, and money reached a fever pitch. A no-tampering agreement failed, igniting an expensive and unsustainable bidding war for top players. Teams in both leagues recruited the same college talent and poached veteran players from other squads. Salaries skyrocketed in both leagues.

Team owners eventually declared a truce, agreeing to join forces in 1966. This merger of 15 NFL teams and 10 AFL, representing 25 cities, would be phased in over four years allowing separate television contracts to expire. NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle became the AFL’s chief executive and both leagues held a common draft to select players. But for the next four years the AFL and NFL maintained separate schedules with the winner of each league meeting in a championship game. Finally, in 1970 the AFL was absorbed into a single, unified National Football League.

Despite the merger, most Americans initially considered the AFL to be inferior, almost a junior varsity compared to the varsity NFL. Those first two Super Bowls in 1967 and 1968 reinforced such perceptions as the NFL champion, the mighty Packers overwhelmed the underdog AFL’s Chiefs and Raiders.

Super Bowls III and IV forever changed that narrative, however. In 1969 Joe Namath delivered on his audacious guarantee that his Jets would beat the heavily favored Baltimore Colts. And the next year a resounding Chiefs victory over the Minnesota Vikings – the last Super Bowl before the completed merger – put all NFL teams on equal footing.

Joel P. Rhodes is a Professor in the History Department of Southeast Missouri State University. Raised in Kansas, he earned a B.S. in Education from the University of Kansas before earning his M.A. and Ph.D. in History from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.