Another RIval LeagueIn 1960, the NFL stood as the most popular sports league in America. (Especially after "The Greatest Game Ever Played" took place in 1958. But as the new decade began, another professional football league formed, the American Football League. The members of the AFL wanted to directly compete with the members of the NFL. They started with eight franchises and drafted high-profile college athletes. As the first part of the decade rolled along, the two leagues began to compete for these college athletes in order to draw fans to their games. In fact, one signing of a kicker truly triggered this football battle into a war. The Kicker heard 'Round the WorldWhen the AFL's Buffalo Bills kicker Pete Gogolak asked for more money, his team refused to do so. After two seasons with the Bills, Gogolak decided to become a free agent and signed with the NFL's New York Giants for the 1966 season. This signing made it seem like the NFL stole a player from the AFL, and the leagues began to clash. Unfortunately, I could not load the video to my blog, but here is the link to it. bit.ly/2DdxyCx The NFL.com video gives a run-down of the leagues merging as the NFL's No. 1 "Thing that Changed the Game." But another signing in 1965 gave the AFL both legitimate credibility and star-power. "Broadway" JoeIn 1964, Joe Namath had quarterbacked legendary head coach Paul "Bear" Bryant and the Alabama Crimson Tide to a national championship. After his college career ended, Namath had offers from the NFL's St. Louis Cardinals and the AFL's New York Jets. Namath signed with the Jets for $427,000, which was a large amount of money back in the 1960s. But, Namath's signing in 1965 foreshadowed a merger because if the two leagues were going to pay any amount of money to get the better players, franchises in both leagues would suffer. However, Namath played a vital role in legitimizing the merger toward the end of the decade. The Super BowlThe Super Bowl actually started as a match between the AFL champion and NFL champion. In the merger agreement of 1966, the teams of the two leagues would play in the "World Championship" or "Super Bowl" for the remaining four seasons that the leagues would be separate. The members of the organizations also agreed to compromise into one National Football League for the 1970 season, with the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC). In Super Bowl I, the Green Bay Packers, coached by Vince Lombardi, defeated the Kansas City Chiefs, coached by Hank Stram, 35-10. The next season, the Packers became the first team to win three NFL Championships in a row (1965, 1966 and 1967), and they defeated the Oakland Raiders 33-14 in Super Bowl II. And then Super Bowl III turned out to be a shocking upset. The AFL Strikes BAckSuper Bowl III pinned the AFL Champion New York Jets against the NFL Champion Baltimore Colts. The Colts entered the game as 18-point favorites, meaning odds-makers predicted the Colts to beat the Jets by at least 18 points. However, Joe Namath and the Jets had a different prediction. A few days before the game, Namath guaranteed that the Jets would win the game! The Jets won 16-7, and Namath won the game's Most Valuable Player Award. In Super Bowl IV, the final game between the AFL and NFL, the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Minnesota Vikings 23-7. The two Super Bowl wins for the AFL proved that they were equivalent to the NFL and that the AFL-NFL merger was legitimate. That's all for this blog, and my next one will explore the 1970s.
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Daniel Benitez Archives
April 2020
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