Written for print magazine in 2021
Among the thirty most-watched television broadcasts in U.S. history, twenty-nine are Super Bowls (the lone exception being the M*A*S*H series finale). Each year viewership for the Super Bowl dwarfs that of the World Series, the NBA Finals, and every other sporting event in the world. Over the past 55 years, the game has grown into a bonafide cultural phenomenon. In 2020, a single 30-second ad spot reportedly cost advertisers an estimated $5,400,0001. And yet, if the original NFL owners had had their way, the Super Bowl might never have existed.
Although Super Bowl I was not played until 1967, by the late 1950s the popularity of the National Football League was already beginning to compete with Major League Baseball3. Seeing the surging success of football as an omen of good things to come, a group of wealthy businessmen decided they wanted in. They approached the NFL commissioner with talks of expansion. They were rejected. Rather than give up on the prospect of owning a professional football franchise altogether, the businessmen founded their own league—the American Football League—in 1960.
The AFL consisted of eight teams: the Boston Patriots, the Buffalo Bills, the Dallas Texans, the Denver Broncos, the Houston Oilers, the Los Angeles Chargers, the New York Titans, and the Oakland Raiders. Initially, the NFL was not concerned about this upstart competition. After all, the NFL still owned the lion’s share of the money, they had the fans, and they had the superior players. Enthusiasm for the new AFL, they assumed, would quickly fizzle out. It was only a matter of time before the NFL’s superior product would win the day. They were wrong.
Right away the AFL began to develop a reputation for playing a more exciting and free-flowing style of football than the traditional, defensive-minded tactics employed by NFL teams. The new league quickly built a following. In 1965, NBC outbid ABC for the broadcast rights to the AFL season3. With a sudden windfall at their disposal, the New York Jets (who changed their name from the Titans in 19634) were able to offer Joe Namath, the star quarterback from the University of Alabama, the largest salary in all of professional football, NFL included3.
At the time, each league had a separate draft, meaning that elite college players were drafted twice. Drafted players would then choose which league they preferred to play for. The signing of Joe Namath came as a huge blow to the NFL. Now that the AFL proved it was capable of luring away top-notch talent, NFL owners became worried that the AFL would start a bidding war, further driving up the prices of player contracts. The tide was beginning to turn.
Enter Al Davis (cue The Imperial March).
For a brief two-month stretch in 1966, the notorious soon-to-be owner of the Oakland Raiders was handed the reins to the entire American Football League. As Commissioner, Davis immediately went looking for a fight. He didn’t have to look far.
Since the AFL was founded in 1960, the two leagues had shared a gentleman’s agreement that once a player was drafted he became a part of that league and the other league would not then attempt to win him over. But when the Giants signed kicker Pete Gogolak away from the Bills, the delicate truce was broken. Commissioner Davis went on the warpath. Rather than settling for kickers, he convinced three of the NFL’s top quarterbacks to switch over to the AFL5. And he might not have stopped there, except for the steps taken by NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle and Kansas City Chiefs’ owner Lamar Hunt.
Without Davis’ support, Rozelle and Hunt negotiated a merger between the NFL and AFL6. While the joint league continued to operate under the name National Football League, it was divided into the National Football Conference and the American Football Conference. Furthermore, Davis’s short tenure as Commissioner came to an end, and he returned to the Oakland Raiders, which he owned and managed until his death in 2011.
The merger did not come into effect immediately. It was not until the 1970 season that inter-conference games became a fixture of the regular season schedule. However, each year between 1966 and 1970, a championship game was played between the winner of the National Football Conference and the winner of the American Football Conference. Once again, Hunt was instrumental in facilitating the transition. As early as 1966, he was the first to use the term “Super Bowl,” though it was not officially adopted (and retroactively applied) until after the merger was complete. Hunt was also responsible for the Super Bowl’s now-iconic use of Roman numerals.
Super Bowl LVI will take place on February 13, 2022. Regardless of which teams are playing, it is safe to assume that it will once again carry the mantle as the most viewed television broadcast of the year.
Sources:
1. SUPER BOWL LIV DRAWS NEARLY 100 MILLION TV VIEWERS, 44 MILLION SOCIAL MEDIA INTERACTIONS
2. The World’s 50 Most Valuable Sports Teams 2015
3. NFL and AFL announce merger
4. The Jets became the Jets 51 years ago today
5. Looking at Raiders legend Al Davis’ role in the AFL-NFL merger
