''Note: There were three earlier and unrelated American professional football leagues of the same name: One in 1926, one in 1936-1937 and one in 1940-1941. They are listed at the end of this article.''
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The AFL's free agents came from several sources. Some were players who could not find success playing in the NFL, while another source was the
Canadian Football League . In the late 1950s, many players released by the NFL, or un-drafted and unsigned out of college by the NFL, went North to try their luck with the CFL, and later returned to the states to play in the AFL.
In the league's first years, men like the Oilers'
George Blanda , the Chargers/Bills'
Jack Kemp , the Texans'
Len Dawson , the Titans'
Don Maynard , the Raiders/Patriots/Jets'
Babe Parilli , the Pats'
Bob Dee proved to be AFL standouts. Other players such as the Broncos'
Frank Tripucka , the Pats'
Gino Cappelletti , the Bills'
Cookie Gilchrist and the Chargers'
Tobin Rote ,
Sam Deluca and
Dave Kocourek also made their mark to give the fledgling league badly-needed credibility. Rounding out this mix of potential talent were the true "free agents", the walk-ons and the "wanna-be's", who tried out in droves for the chance to play professional football.
The American Football League took advantage of the burgeoning popularity of football by locating teams in major cities that lacked NFL franchises, and by using the growing power of televised football games (bolstered with the help of major network contracts, first with
ABC and later with
NBC ). It featured many outstanding games, such as the classic 1962 double-overtime American Football League championship game between the
Dallas Texans and the defending champion
Houston Oilers . At the time it was the longest
Professional Football Championship Game ever played.
The AFL appealed to fans by offering a flashier style of play, compared to the more conservative game of the NFL. Long passes ("bombs") were commonplace in AFL offenses, led by such talented quarterbacks as
John Hadl ,
Daryle Lamonica and
Len Dawson .
After the AFL-NFL merger agreement in 1966, and after the AFL's
Jets defeated the "best team in the history of the NFL", the Colts, a popular misconception fostered by the NFL and spread by media reports was that the AFL defeated the NFL because of the
Common Draft instituted from 1967 on. This apparently was meant to confirm that until the AFL did not have to compete with the NFL in the draft, it could not achieve parity. But the 1968 Jets had less than a handful of "Common Draftees". Their stars were honed in the AFL, many of them since the Titans days. As noted below, the AFL got its share of stars long before the "Common Draft".
Players who chose the AFL to develop their talent included
Lance Alworth and
Ron Mix of the
Chargers , who had also been drafted by the NFL's
San Francisco 49ers and
Baltimore Colts respectively. Both eventually were elected to the
Pro Football Hall Of Fame after earning recognition during their careers as being among the best at their positions. Among specific teams, the 1964
Buffalo Bills stood out by holding their opponents to a pro football record 913 yards rushing on 300 attempts, while also recording fifty quarterback sacks in a fourteen-game schedule.
Another example is cited by the
University Of Kansas site, which describes the 1961
Bluebonnet Bowl , won by KU, and goes on to say ''"Two Kansas players, quarterback
John Hadl and fullback
Curtis McClinton , signed professional contracts on the field immediately after the conclusion of the game. Hadl inked a deal with the ''[AFL]''
San Diego Chargers , and McClinton went to the ''[AFL]''
Dallas Texans ."'' Between them, in their careers Hadl and McClinton combined for an
American Football League Rookie Of The Year award, seven
AFL All-Star selections, two Pro Bowl selections, a team MVP award, two
AFL All-Star Game MVP awards, two
AFL Championships , and a
World Championship . And these were players selected by the AFL long ''before'' the "Common Draft".
Despite having a national television contract, the AFL often found itself trying to gain a foothold, only to come up against roadblocks. For example, CBS-TV, which broadcast NFL games, ignored and did not report scores from the other league.
Prompted by the NFL's disdain for the new league, newspaper, radio and TV reporters from NFL cities took to calling former NFL players who went to the AFL ''"NFL Rejects"'', implying that if a player had spent time in the NFL and then played with an AFL team, he was "washed up" and not good enough to play in the "superior" NFL. Book, ''"Blanda"'' by Wells Twombly, p. 194
That assessment was contradicted by the play of the following "NFL Rejects":
Jack Kemp ,
Babe Parilli ,
Ron McDole ,
Art Powell ,
John Tracey ,
George Blanda ,
Don Maynard ,
Len Dawson , and
Lionel Taylor . They all started their careers in the NFL. In the American Football League, they all set standards at their respective positions.
The eight new teams of the American Football League essentially made 280 additional positions available for American professional football players. One source of talent that had been traditionally ignored by the NFL was small, historically black colleges.
Black Players who did manage to make NFL rosters were subject to unwritten but stringent "quotas" for the number of black players on a team and the positions that could be filled by blacks. At that time, there were no black quarterbacks, centers, or middle linebackers in the NFL.
The American Football League, in contrast, actively recruited from the black colleges, and used black players at positions not permitted to them in the NFL. For example, in 1963, the AFL's Kansas City Chiefs became the first team in pro football history to use the first overall pick of a draft on a player from a small black college – defensive tackle
Buck Buchanan of
Grambling State , while the NFL's New York Giants relegated Buchanan to their 19th round pick that year (Buchanan was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1990).
Eighteen black players from
Eddie Robinson 's Grambling teams made AFL rosters in the sixties. The larger NFL had just fourteen; on a per-team ratio the AFL had about two Grambling players per team, NFL teams had about one. The same could be said in general for the ratio of all black players in each league. The effect was cumulative, and more and more outstanding black players opted for the AFL, recognizing their chances to play were greater there. The Denver Broncos made
Marlin Briscoe the first modern starting black quarterback, and
Gene Mingo the first ever black
Placekicker in professional football.
Willie Lanier (also destined for the Hall of Fame), for example, became pro football's first black middle linebacker with the Chiefs. Hank Stram's strategic innovations were not the only ideas copied by old-line NFL teams after the merger: so were his "color-blindness" and his team's use of blacks at formerly "white" positions.
From 1960 to 1968, the AFL determined its champion via a single-elimination playoff game between the winners of its two divisions. In 1969, a four team tournament was held, with the second-place teams in each division also participating.
The AFL did not play an All-Star game after its first season in 1960, but did stage All-Star games for the 1961 through 1969 seasons. All-Star teams from the Eastern and Western divisions played each other after every season except 1965. That season, the league champion Buffalo Bills played all-stars from the other teams.
After the 1964 season, the AFL All-Star game had been scheduled for early 1965 in
New Orleans ' Tulane Stadium. After numerous black players were refused service by a number of area hotels and businesses, black and white players alike called for a
Boycott . Led by Bills players such as
Cookie Gilchrist , the players successfully lobbied to have the game moved to Houston's
Jeppesen Stadium .
32
As chosen by 1969 AFL Hall of Fame Selection Committee Members: 2001 National Football League Record and Fact Book, p. 405, Edited by Randal Liu and Matt Marini, Workman Publishing Company, New York, ISBN 0-7611-2480-2
The following is a sample of some records set during the existence of the league. The NFL considers AFL statistics and records equivalent to its own.
- Yards passing, game - 464, George Blanda (Oilers, October 29 , 1961 )
- Yards passing, season - 4,007, Joe Namath (Jets, 1967)
- Yards passing, career - 21,130, Jack Kemp (Chargers, Bills)
- Yards rushing, game - 243, Cookie Gilchrist (Bills, December 8 , 1963 )
- Yards rushing, season - 1,458, Jim Nance (Patriots, 1966)
- Yards rushing, career - 5,101, Clem Daniels (Texans, Raiders)
- Receptions, season - 101, Charlie Hennigan (Oilers, 1964)
- Receptions, career - 567, Lionel Taylor (Broncos)
- Points scored, season - 155, Gino Cappelletti (Patriots, 1964)
- Points scored, career - 1,100, Gino Cappelletti (Patriots)
- Joe Foss , commissioner (November 1959–April 1966)
- Al Davis , commissioner (April 1966–July 1966)
- Milt Woodard , president (July 1966–March 1970)
The league arose as a result of a contract dispute between
Red Grange and his previous team, the
National Football League 's
Chicago Bears . When in 1926 the Bears refused to agree to new terms for Grange's services, his agent,
C. C. Pyle , formed a new team, the
New York Yankees , around Grange, as part of a new American Football League. The league lasted just one season, and in 1927 the Yankees joined the NFL.
{Link without Title} . The NFL's Rock Island Independents joined the AFL. The Philadelphia Quakers were the league champions.
The Syracuse Braves moved to Rochester in midseason and disbanded during the season. The Brooklyn Tigers moved to Rochester after the Rochester Braves disbanded. The Cleveland Rams joined the NFL the following season. Boston was the champion in 1936.
Los Angeles was the league champion in 1937.
Columbus was league champion, with a final record of 8-1-1.
Columbus was league champion, with a final record of 5-1-2.
- Jack Horrigan and Mike Rathet, ''The Other League/The Fabulous Story of the American Football League''
- Jack Orr , ''We Came of Age/A Picture History of the American Football League''
- George Sullivan , ''Touchdown!/The Picture History of the American Football League''
- Sal Maiorana, ''If You Can't Join 'Em, Beat 'Em: A Remembrance of the American Football League'', ISBN 1-4107-4942-8
