AFL-NFL Merger
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Image:NationalFootballLeague.png Image:AmericanFootballLeague.jpg The AFL-NFL Merger of 1970 involved the merger of the two major professional American football leagues in the United States during the time: the National Football League (NFL) and the American Football League (AFL). It came as a result of an intense competitive war between the two leagues. The merger paved the way for the combined league, which retained the "National Football League" name and logo, to become the most popular and most powerful sports league in America.
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Background
After its inception in 1920, the NFL fended off several rival leagues. Prior to 1960, the most important rival was the All-America Football Conference (AAFC), which began play in 1946. The AAFC differed from the NFL in several ways, including:
- Crowds at many AAFC games were generally larger than those at NFL games
- The AAFC actively recruited black players, forcing the NFL to change its "no blacks" policy, to which it had reverted in 1932
- The AAFC's perennial champions, the Cleveland Browns, were considered by many to be the best team in professional football during that time.
However, due to the AAFC's poor financial situation, it disbanded after the 1949 season. Three of its teams, the Baltimore Colts, Cleveland Browns, and San Francisco 49ers, were absorbed into the NFL in 1950.
Emergence of the AFL
After the NFL absorbed the AAFC, it went unchallenged by rival leagues until 1960. Lamar Hunt, son of oil millionaire H. L. Hunt, rebuffed in his attempts to gain at least part-ownership in an NFL team, conceived the idea of a rival professional football league, the American Football League. The league established teams in eight American cities: Boston, Buffalo, New York, Houston, Dallas, Denver, Oakland, and Los Angeles.
The AFL immediately took advantage of the NFL's shortcomings. The NFL had settled into a methodical, grind-it-out brand of football, influenced by legendary but hide-bound founders such as George Halas, who were still coaching and administrating teams as they had in the 1920s. Though they had opened the door a crack to black players, they maintained an unwritten quota system, and ignored the plethora of small colleges which had sprung forth to accommodate the rush of "GI Bill" students after World War II. Many of these small colleges were predominantly black, so a valuable source of talent was largely ignored by the NFL.
The AFL signed stars from small colleges, such as: Elbert Dubenion (Bluffton); Lionel Taylor (New Mexico Highlands); Tom Sestak (McNeese State); Charlie Tolar and Charlie Hennigan (Northwestern State of Louisiana); Abner Haynes (North Texas State); and a host of others. From major colleges, it signed talented players like: LSU's Heisman Trophy winner Billy Cannon; Arkansas' Lance Alworth; Notre Dame's Daryle Lamonica, Kansas' John Hadl, Alabama's Joe Namath, and many more. The AFL also signed players the NFL had given up on: so-called "NFL Rejects" who turned out to be superstars that the NFL had misevaluated, including: Jack Kemp, Babe Parilli, Ron McDole, Art Powell, John Tracey, George Blanda, Don Maynard, and Len Dawson.
The AFL instituted many policies and rules that today are considered an integral part of professional football:
- The two-point conversion
- Official time on the scoreboard clock
- Players' names on jerseys
- Network television broadcasting league games, first on ABC and later with NBC
- The sharing of gate and television revenues by home and visiting teams.
The NFL had none of these features before the American Football League came into being. Additionally, the AFL played a more exciting, wide-open game, with long passes and reverses; and it promulgated colorful uniforms and team logos.
War between the two leagues
At first, the NFL ignored the AFL and its 8 teams. They assumed the AFL would consist of nothing but "NFL rejects", and fans would not waste their time watching them when they could watch "The real thing". But unlike the NFL's previous rivals, the AFL was able to survive and grow. After the AFL's Dallas team moved to Kansas City, it started to prosper. The New York team began to draw record crowds, aided by the signing of quarterback Joe Namath. Namath and New York agreed to a $427,000 contract, something completely unprecendented at the time. And by 1965, NBC paid the AFL $36 million to televise its games, ensuring the league's financial survival.
As the rivalry between the leagues intensified, both leagues resorted to "dirty tricks" to sign players, and to "baby-sit" prospective draft picks to keep them away from the other league's representatives. The leagues entered into a massive bidding war over the top college prospects, paying huge amounts of money to unproven rookies in a desperate attempt to outbid each other for the best players coming out of college.
Because of the intense competition, teams often drafted players that they thought had a good chance of signing with them instead of selecting the best players. For example, 1965 Heisman Trophy winning running back Mike Garrett was expected to sign with an NFL team, so no AFL team picked him in the 1966 AFL draft until the 20th (final) round, where he was selected by the Kansas City Chiefs. However, Garrett surprisingly shunned the NFL and decided to sign with Kansas City. But still, once they were signed, there was tacit agreement to honor the other league's contracts and not sign players who were under contract with a team in their rival league.
But that tacit agreement was shattered in early 1966, when the NFL New York Giants signed Pete Gogolak, the first professional soccer-style placekicker, who was already under contract and playing with the AFL's Buffalo Bills. That breach of trust by the NFL loosed the "dogs of war". When Al Davis of the Oakland Raiders took over as AFL Commissioner, he began stepping up the bidding war, immediately signed eight starting NFL quarterbacks, including John Brodie and Roman Gabriel, to contracts with AFL teams.
Meanwhile, both leagues spent a combined $7 million signing their 1966 draft picks.
The merger agreement
The intense rivarly led to serious merger talks between the two leagues. By June 8 1966, they announced a merger agreement. Under the agreement:
- The two leagues would combine to form an expanded league with 24 teams, which would be increased to 26 teams by 1969, and to 28 teams by 1970 or soon thereafter.
- All existing teams would be retained, and none of them would be moved outside of their metropolitan areas.
- AFL "indemnities" would be paid to NFL teams which shared markets with AFL teams. Specifically, the New York Giants would receive payments from the New York Jets, and the San Francisco 49ers would get money from the Oakland Raiders.
- Both leagues would now hold a "common draft" of college players, effectively ending the bidding war between the 2 leagues over the top college prospects.
- While maintaining separate schedules through 1969, the leagues agreed to play an annual AFL-NFL World Championship Game, matching the championship teams of each league, beginning in January, 1967 (which would later be known as the Super Bowl).
- The two leagues would officially merge in 1970 to form one league with two conferences. The merged league would be known as the National Football League. The history and records of the AFL would be incorporated into the older league, but the newer league's name and logo would be retired.
The features of the merger depended on the passage of a law by the 89th United States Congress, exempting the merged league from antitrust law sanctions. When NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle and other professional football executives appeared before the Congress' Subcommittee on Antitrust, chaired by New York congressman Emanuel Celler, two points were repeatedly made:
- Rozelle promised that if the merger was allowed, no existing professional football franchise of either league would be moved from any city
- Stadiums seating 50,000 were declared to be adequate for professional football's needs.
Eventually, Congress passed the new law to permit the merger to proceed.
As 1970 approached, three NFL teams, the Baltimore Colts, the Cleveland Browns, and the Pittsburgh Steelers, agreed to join the AFL teams to form the American Football Conference (AFC). The other NFL teams became part of the National Football Conference (NFC). However, the teams' owners had trouble deciding which teams went into which divisions. It was settled after various combinations were drawn up on slips of paper, put into a hat, and the official alignment was pulled out by Rozelle's secretary.
Meanwhile, all three of the major television networks signed contracts to televise games, thus ensuring the combined league's stability. CBS agreed to broadcast all NFC games, NBC agreed to broadcast all AFC games, and ABC agreed to broadcast Monday Night Football, making the NFL the first league to have a regular series of national telecasts in prime time.
Aftermath
Many observers believe that the NFL got the better of the bargain. Al Davis and New York Jets owner Sonny Werblin resisted the indemnity payments. Long-time sports writer Jerry Magee of the San Diego Union-Tribune wrote: "Al Davis taking over as commissioner was the strongest thing the AFL ever did. He thought the AFL-NFL merger was a detriment to the AFL." Many believe that had Al Davis been given the opportunity to continue his efforts, the NFL would have folded, or capitulated to join the AFL, rather than the AFL losing its identity. That action was a disappointment for American Football League fans who wanted their league to continue. Those feelings were reinforced when American Football League teams won the final two AFL-NFL World Championship games after the 1968 and 1969 seasons.
Despite Rozelle's pledge to the 89th United States Congress, many teams have moved since the merger.
- Established teams that permanently moved to a different city within the same metropolitan area:
- Arizona Cardinals: from eastern Phoenix suburb Tempe to western suburb Glendale in 2006
- Buffalo Bills: from Buffalo to Orchard Park, NY in 1973
- Dallas Cowboys from Dallas to Irving, TX in 1971
- Detroit Lions: from Detroit to Pontiac in 1975 and back to Detroit in 2002
- Los Angeles Rams: from Los Angeles to Anaheim in 1980
- Miami Dolphins: from Miami to unincorporated northern Dade County (now the city of Miami Gardens) in 1987
- Minnesota Vikings: from suburban Bloomington to downtown Minneapolis in 1982
- Boston/New England Patriots: from Boston to Foxboro, MA in 1971
- New York Giants: from Queens to East Rutherford, NJ in 1976
- New York Jets: from Queens to East Rutherford, NJ in 1984
- Washington Redskins: from Washington, D.C. to Landover, MD in 1997
After the merger, no NFL team moved to another metropolitan area until Los Angeles Raiders owner Al Davis won an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL in 1982, based on his contention that the NFL could not prevent franchises from moving.
- Established teams that moved to a different metropolitan area and/or state:
- Baltimore Colts: from Baltimore to Indianapolis in 1984
- Cleveland Browns: from Cleveland to Baltimore as the Ravens in 1996. The Ravens are officially considered an expansion team and a separate franchise from the Browns, while the Browns are treated as having "suspended operations" from 1996 to 1998.
- New Orleans Saints: temporarily relocated from New Orleans to San Antonio and Baton Rouge for the 2005 regular season, and may play in any of these two cities and New Orleans in 2006
- Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans: from Houston to Memphis in 1997 and permanently to Nashville in 1998
- Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders: from Oakland to Los Angeles in 1982 and back to Oakland in 1995
- Los Angeles Rams: from Los Angeles to St. Louis in 1995
- St. Louis Cardinals: from St. Louis to Tempe, AZ in 1988
The above teams moved to new stadiums that were built to attract or retain NFL franchises. All of these stadiums were paid for by public funds, except for the Patriots' new stadium.
The Green Bay Packers are a notable exception to the patterns described in this article. Between 1933 and 1994, the franchise had played a split schedule, in which some of their home games were played in Milwaukee and the remaining home games were played in Green Bay, first at City Stadium and from 1957 at Lambeau Field. The Packers made Lambeau Field their exclusive home stadium in 1995, and abandoned the Milwaukee market.
Six expansion teams have been formed since the merger. All of these teams became the primary tenant in their stadiums.
The first four post-merger franchises on the following list were true expansion teams that entered new markets for the NFL at the time of expansion. The two Florida-based teams occupied existing stadiums that were expanded to meet the NFL's attendance requirements.
The last two teams were formed in markets that had previously hosted an NFL franchise. Baltimore was designated as an expansion team, even though most of the franchise's personnel and equipment had been relocated from Cleveland.
One of the NFL's criteria for expansion has been the region's ability to host a Super Bowl. The Super Bowl has been seen as a powerful incentive for local governments, businesses and voters to support the construction, seat licenses and taxes associated with new or renovated stadiums. However, only five Super Bowls since 1984 have been played in stadiums used by three of these expansion teams; four of these games was played in Florida, and one game was played in Texas.
- Expansion teams formed since the merger:
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1976
- Seattle Seahawks in 1976
- Carolina Panthers in 1995
- Jacksonville Jaguars in 1995
- Baltimore Ravens in 1996
- Houston Texans in 2002
The league has and continues to award Super Bowls to cities that have built new football stadiums for their existing franchises. In some cases, cities have been selected as provisional Super Bowl sites, with the construction or renovation of a suitable facility as a major requirement for hosting the actual game. In the past, New York City and San Francisco have each received provisional site awards. In both cities, the league moved the game to a different site when public funding initiatives failed. The most recent provisional site award went to Kansas City for a Super Bowl to be played after 2012 in Arrowhead Stadium.
In addition, the following areas have used public funds to build new stadiums to retain or regain franchises: Kansas City, St. Louis, Baltimore, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Houston, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Chicago, Tampa and Seattle.
Professor Stephen F. Ross of the University of Illinois has stated that the best deterrent to franchise moves would be to have two separate leagues, since it is unlikely that one league would leave a major market, to be taken over by the other league.
Nevertheless, the merger paved the way for a new era of prosperity for the NFL. Since 1970 there essentially has been only one major professional football league in the United States. Other leagues such as the XFL and the United States Football League (USFL) have never been a serious challenge to the NFL, folding after 1 or 3 seasons, respectively.
References
- NFL Record and Fact Book (ISBN 193299436X)
- Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League (ISBN 0062701746)
- The AFL: A Football Legacy from SI.com (accessed September 7, 2005)
- John Steadman's Baltimore News-American column on the AFL-NFL merger (accessed September 7, 2005)
- Rozelle's pledge to Congress gets swept under rug by Jerry Magee, San Diego Union-Tribune, February 22, 2004
- Should Congress Stop the Bidding War for Sports Franchises? (Hearing before the Subcommittee on Antitrust, November 29, 1995)