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Copyright Sports
Illustrated |
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July 13, 2009
The AFL
GAME CHANGERS ~ Fifty
years ago a group of would-be owners who couldn't
get into the NFL launched a rival league that would
transform the way pro football is played—and
contribute mightily to its rise as the nation's most
popular sport
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Following the 1965 season Pete Gogolak asked for a better contract. Buffalo offered him $13,000 a year, up from $9,900. The New York Giants, whose straight-on kicker, Bob Timberlake, had missed 14 of 15 field goal tries in '65, trumped the Bills' offer to Gogolak, violating an unwritten agreement between the leagues not to raid each other's rosters. Gogolak jumped to the NFL for $32,000, and the bidding war for players was on. Fearing that such competition would ruin both leagues, the NFL and AFL agreed in 1966 to merge four years later.
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LANCE ALWORTH
San Diego Chargers 1962--70,
Dallas Cowboys 1971--72
WHEN ALWORTH, a Mississippi native
and Arkansas All-America, drove to San
Diego for the first time, he thought
he'd see "palm trees, beautiful and
green." Upon crossing into the Golden
State, however, he was surprised to find
only mountains and desert. "I said,
'Wait a minute, where's California?'" he
recalls. But for the player known as
Bambi for his deerlike speed and moves,
California soon turned into the
dreamland he'd expected. In 11 pro
seasons—nine with the Chargers—he caught
542 passes for 10,266 yards and 85 TDs.
In 1978 he was the first AFL player
inducted into the Pro Football Hall of
Fame. What does he cherish most about
his AFL days? "How close everyone was,
and how much fun we had." He settled in
Del Mar, Calif., and owns a chain of
railside storage facilities. Says
Alworth, 68, "Life is super after
football."
Seven-time AFL All-Pro > AFL
All-Time Team > NFL 75th Anniversary
All-Time Team |
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Sports Illustrated
couldn't completely reverse its
'sixties antipathy towards the
American Football League.
Since it originally used few
color action shots of the AFL,
it apparently couldn't find any
to use in its retrospective.
The above is from the print
issue of King's story in the
July 13, 2009 SI.
King wrote a great story.
He might have pointed out that
the above play ended not with an
Alworth touchdown, but with
Booker Edgerson catching him
from behind - something few
defensive backs ever
accomplished.
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REMEMBER
the
AFL
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The AFL raised the game's status in America
Early in 1959, nine of the 20
largest cities in the U.S., including Houston (7th
in population), Boston (13th), Dallas (14th), San
Diego (18th) and Buffalo (20th) did not have a pro
football team. The 12-team NFL wanted to go slow
with expansion, but Hunt's move pressed the
accelerator, forcing the NFL to admit Dallas and
Minnesota rather than cede those territories to the
new league. The AFL brought football to five cities
that didn't have a pro team (Boston, Buffalo,
Denver, Houston and Oakland), second pro teams to
New York and Los Angeles, and another to Dallas to
compete with the NFL's expansion Cowboys, which also
began play in 1960.
Not every city, though, was ready for pro
football or willing to support a second team. Wilson
had to float Raiders owner Wayne Valley a $400,000
loan to keep Oakland going beyond the first season.
Barron Hilton's Los Angeles Chargers moved to San
Diego after one season. Hunt took his Dallas Texans
franchise to Kansas City after three years because
Big D wasn't big enough for two pro teams.
Yet once AFL teams found their homes, the fan
base grew rapidly—average attendance was a healthy
34,291 by 1966 (compared to 50,829 for the NFL)—as
did league revenue and respect for the operation.
Six years after the Orange Bowl turned down Wilson
and his $25,000 franchise, lawyer Joe Robbie and
entertainer Danny Thomas paid $7.5 million to put an
AFL expansion team in the stadium.
The NFL eventually would have expanded into some
of these cities, but it's inconceivable that the
league would have more than doubled from 12 teams in
1959 to 26 in 1970, after the merger. And it's
possible that cities such as Oakland, Buffalo and
Kansas City might never have gotten teams if the AFL
hadn't given them a shot. Spreading pro football to
more parts of the country, and proving how popular
the game could become—that was the AFL's greatest
impact on America. |
GEORGE BLANDA
Chicago Bears 1949--58, Houston Oilers
1960--66, Oakland Raiders 1967--75
THERE'S ONE man, more than any other, who
can appreciate Brett Favre's annual
retirement dilemma. "I absolutely can
identify with him," says Blanda, 81. "I've
felt his pain." After 10 years as a QB and a
kicker for the Bears, the 32-year-old Blanda
was without an NFL job. He missed a season,
then caught on with the AFL's Oilers in 1960
and quarterbacked them to the league's first
two titles. "The AFL," says Blanda, "was a
godsend." In '67 he joined the Raiders as
kicker and backup QB, playing nine more
seasons before retiring at 48 as football's
alltime leading scorer, with 2,002 points.
(He's now third.) A 1981 Hall of Fame
inductee, Blanda splits his time between
Oakbrook, Ill., and La Quinta, Calif., with
his wife, Betty. They'll celebrate their
60th anniversary in December. The man knows
a thing or two about longevity.
1961 AFL Player of the Year > Two AFL
championships > AFL All-Time Team |
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