From: acquiredfm
The NFL’s journey to becoming America’s dominant sports league involved a pivotal merger with the American Football League (AFL) [00:59:11]. This event solidified the NFL’s position and reshaped the landscape of professional football.
Birth of the American Football League (AFL)
The American Football League (AFL) was founded in August 1959 [00:59:30]. The driving force behind its creation was Lamar Hunt, a young heir to a large Dallas, Texas oil fortune [00:59:35]. After being repeatedly rebuffed by the NFL in his attempts to get an expansion team or buy the Cardinals, Hunt realized he could gather other wealthy individuals interested in owning professional football teams and start a new league [01:00:08].
The initial six teams of the AFL, soon to become eight, included:
- Dallas Texans (later the Kansas City Chiefs) [01:00:36]
- Boston Patriots [01:00:36]
- Buffalo Bills [01:00:38]
- Houston Oilers [01:00:39]
- Miami Dolphins [01:00:39]
- New York Titans (later the New York Jets) [01:00:42]
- Denver Broncos [01:00:44]
- Los Angeles Chargers [01:00:47]
- Oakland Raiders [01:00:48]
The formation of the AFL marked the most successful attempt to challenge the NFL to date [01:00:22].
Initial NFL Reaction and Leadership Crisis
Initially, the NFL, under Commissioner Bert Bell, adopted a friendly stance towards the new AFL, largely doubting its potential for success [01:00:56]. However, this period of uncertainty was compounded by Bert Bell’s sudden death in 1959, leaving the NFL in a leadership crisis [01:01:29].
The NFL owners struggled to agree on a new commissioner, taking 11 days and 23 separate votes [01:07:17]. They ultimately chose a compromise candidate, 33-year-old Pete Roselle, the third-year general manager of the Los Angeles Rams [01:08:24]. Roselle, with his public relations background, was seen as the perfect leader to unify the league and confront the existential threat posed by the AFL [01:09:35].
The AFL’s Innovative Television Strategy
Unlike its predecessors, the AFL embraced television as a core strategy [01:02:50]. Inspired by cast-aside ideas from baseball executive Branch Ricky, Lamar Hunt proposed centrally negotiating one national television contract for the entire AFL and splitting the revenue equally among all teams [01:02:41]. This “league first” mentality was a direct counter-positioning to the NFL’s current model of individual team TV deals [01:03:07].
While major networks like CBS and NBC, which already had deals with NFL teams, initially dismissed the AFL’s proposal, ABC, a relatively upstart network, saw an opportunity [01:03:44]. Rune Arledge, a young executive at ABC who would later become Bob Iger’s mentor, recognized the untapped demand for nationally televised football games [01:04:18].
ABC signed a league-wide, five-year TV rights deal with the AFL for $8.5 million [01:06:15]. This was the single biggest sports rights TV deal in history at the time [01:06:26] and was secured before the AFL had even played a single game [01:06:37].
Roselle’s Response and the Sports Broadcasting Act
Faced with the AFL’s unprecedented television deal, Pete Roselle immediately implemented a competitive response for the NFL. He persuaded NFL owners to pool their individual TV rights and negotiate a collective national deal, continuing the “league first” mentality [01:17:21].
In 1961, Roselle negotiated a two-year deal with CBS for $4.65 million per year, to be shared equally among all NFL teams [01:18:20]. This deal, significantly larger than the AFL’s, triggered antitrust concerns [01:18:55]. However, Roselle leveraged his political connections with the Kennedy family [01:19:57]. Both President John F. Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy supported the NFL, leading to the passage of the Sports Broadcasting Act in late 1961 [01:20:11]. This act specifically granted the NFL an antitrust exemption, allowing for league-wide television contracts [01:20:24].
[!INFO] This political intervention showcased the growing NFL’s Influence and Business Strategy and its ability to shape the law of the land to its advantage [02:04:08]. President Kennedy even hosted a party at the White House to celebrate the new exemption [02:00:31].
Following this, Roselle continued to build the NFL’s brand and reach:
- Expansion: He ratified an expansion plan, adding teams in Dallas (the Cowboys) and Houston (which later became the Minnesota Vikings) to directly compete with the AFL in new markets [01:11:24].
- Headquarters Move: He moved the league headquarters from Philadelphia to Midtown Manhattan, positioning the NFL closer to the media and advertising industries [01:13:08].
- Professional Statistics: He contracted the Elias Sports Bureau to provide professional statistics, making it easier for newspapers to cover the league [01:13:36].
- Cultivating Media Narratives: Roselle intentionally fostered relationships with publications like Sports Illustrated, helping to create human stories and mythology around the game [01:14:20]. He even famously had staff writers craft storylines for reporters to publish, controlling the narrative [01:15:42].
- NFL Films: He greenlit the creation of NFL Films in 1965, an in-house division dedicated to producing high-quality, cinematic sports content, complete with slow-motion, multiple camera angles, and dramatic voice-overs. This revolutionized sports broadcasting and created an unparalleled archive of the game [01:26:16].
- NFL Enterprises: Roselle centralized merchandise licensing under NFL Enterprises, standardizing product quality and sharing revenue equally, further embedding the “league first” mentality [01:28:53].
The “War” and the Merger Agreement
Despite the NFL’s growing success, the AFL was also thriving, largely due to its significant Impact of Television on the NFL deal with ABC [01:37:20]. In 1964, the AFL secured another major TV deal with NBC for $37.5 million over five years [01:39:43]. This allowed teams like the New York Jets to sign superstar players like Joe Namath to huge contracts, turning them into cultural celebrities [01:39:25].
The competition escalated, leading to a “babysitting program” where NFL agents would effectively “kidnap” top college prospects to prevent them from signing with AFL teams [01:45:39]. Rookie contracts began to skyrocket, causing financial strain for both leagues [01:46:38].
In 1966, influential NFL owners, recognizing the unsustainable nature of the “war,” directed Roselle to initiate secret merger negotiations with Lamar Hunt [01:48:48]. The negotiations were delicate, with no written notes, and initially excluded the newly appointed, aggressive AFL Commissioner, Al Davis [01:49:32]. Al Davis, known for his relentless and uncompromising approach, aimed to escalate the “war” to improve the AFL’s negotiating leverage [01:52:03].
When the NFL’s New York Giants broke a “gentlemen’s agreement” by poaching a kicker from the Buffalo Bills [01:53:07], Al Davis famously declared, “Well, we just got our merger” [01:54:11]. He unleashed an “all-out war,” instructing AFL teams to sign NFL quarterbacks, an economically destructive but strategically powerful move [01:56:02]. This intense pressure forced the NFL to the negotiating table.
On June 8, 1966, the merger agreement was publicly announced [02:00:01]. Key terms included:
- A true merger of all AFL and NFL teams [02:00:17].
- A promise to expand to at least four new cities, growing to 28 combined teams by 1970 [02:00:19].
- A fully combined season would begin in 1970 [02:00:23].
- A new “Pro Football World Championship game” would be played between the two league champions starting in the 1966 season [02:00:27]. This would famously become the Super Bowl [02:00:32].
- A single, common college draft would start immediately, ending the bidding wars for rookies [02:00:39].
- Pete Roselle would remain commissioner of the combined league [02:00:44].
- The AFL franchises collectively paid the NFL owners 50 million per team [02:00:54].
[!WARNING] The merger, which created a monopoly, required another antitrust exemption from Congress [02:04:03]. This was achieved through a quid pro quo orchestrated by House Majority Leader Hale Boggs, who secured the votes in exchange for an implicit promise that New Orleans would receive an NFL franchise (the New Orleans Saints) [02:05:01].
The Super Bowl and National TV Dominance
The newly created “AFL-NFL World Championship Game” was a groundbreaking television event, with rights sold to both CBS and NBC, who each paid 1 million for promotion [02:08:24]. Super Bowl I, played at the Los Angeles Coliseum, drew over 65 million viewers, an unprecedented audience for a single sporting event [02:09:05]. Despite this, the stadium was only two-thirds full, underscoring the growing importance of television viewership over gate revenue [02:09:41].
Roselle and the NFL meticulously crafted the Super Bowl as a media spectacle, inventing traditions like “Media Week” and the Commissioner’s press conference to generate widespread attention [02:10:28].
The NFL’s dominance was solidified through its new TV contracts. The combined NFL secured a four-year deal worth $156 million in 1970, with CBS airing NFC games and NBC airing AFC games [02:17:20]. Roselle then innovatively pitched ABC on a single prime-time game each week: Monday Night Football [02:20:05].
Monday Night Football revolutionized sports broadcasting, introducing:
- Cameras at field level, on players’ shoulders, and on the 20-yard lines for varied angles [02:26:41].
- A three-man commentary booth with action-oriented commentary, featuring figures like Howard Cosell [02:27:13].
- Increased camera usage (from 4 to 9, eventually 17) [02:28:12].
- Parabolic microphones to capture on-field sounds [02:28:18].
- Split-screen viewing [02:28:30].
- On-field interviews and shots of cheerleaders [02:28:35].
- The concept of pre-game theme music [02:29:50].
- Crucially, highlights played at halftime, produced by NFL Films, which laid the groundwork for future sports media outlets like ESPN’s SportsCenter [02:30:06].
The first Monday Night Football game in 1970 was watched by 60 million U.S. households, effectively creating a weekly national holiday [02:25:01]. This solidified the NFL’s position as a made-for-television entertainment product, rather than merely a sport [02:32:32].
The NFL’s growth trajectory continued with the development of “Sunday Ticket” (allowing fans to watch out-of-market games) and the legalization of sports betting, further embedding the league into American culture and driving massive revenues [02:50:19]. The NFL’s total annual revenue currently stands at 25 billion by 2027, making it arguably the largest single media business in the world [02:47:19].
The NFL’s business model is primarily driven by media rights, accounting for 61% of its revenue, followed by general and premium seating (10% each), and sponsorships (10%) [02:54:15]. This success is largely attributed to its “league first” mentality, which ensures competitive balance, and its effective monetization of live sports content [03:00:00].