Celebrating the AFL in the NFC

It is interesting that this coming weekend's National Football Conference Divisional Playoff games involve four teams that all have close connections to the formation of the American Football League (AFL), whose 50th anniversary is being celebrated this year. First, the Sunday match up between the Dallas Cowboys and the Minnesota Vikings features the two expansion teams from 1960 and 1961, respectively, whose existence resulted directly from the creation of the AFL in 1959. The NFL had no plans to expand when Lamar Hunt originally asked for an NFL expansion franchise in 1958, but changed its mind when Hunt's brainchild, the AFL, got off the ground a year later.

The other game this weekend features the Arizona Cardinals against the New Orleans Saints, who also both figured in AFL history. Back in 1958-1959, when the NFL first told Lamar Hunt there would be no expansion, Hunt then met with the ownership of the Chicago Cardinals, who were threatening to leave Chicago where they were losing the battle of the Windy City to the crosstown Bears. The Cardinals owners told Hunt they were not interested in selling, and that he was one of several people who had expressed an interest in purchasing the Cardinals. After this, Hunt realized that if so many people were interested in owning a professional football team, why not start his own league? Hence, the creation of the AFL.

The Saints figured into the AFL equation a bit later in the 1960s. After the AFL became firmly established by the mid 1960s and a bidding war for both college and pro stars ensued with the NFL, the two leagues realized that they had to reach a peace or they would price each other out of existence. The AFL and NFL agreed on a merger, but to implement this they needed an exemption from Congress from the anti-trust legislation. The solution lay in obtaining the support of a Congressman from Louisiana who would make the exemption happen in return for an NFL franchise. Hence, the birth of the New Orleans Saints.

So, as we watch the Saints and Cardinals shoot it out on Saturday and the Cowboys and Vikings battle in the Metrodome, remember to celebrate the existence of the other conference, the AFC, who is tracing its lineage back 50 years to the formation of the AFL. Without the Cardinals, there probably wouldn't have been an AFL in 1960 and without the AFL there probably wouldn't have been the Cowboys in 1960 and the Vikings in 1961. And without the AFL, there probably wouldn't have been the New Orleans Saints in 1967. Conversely, without the Saints in 1967, there probably wouldn't have been a successful merger of the two leagues into the great NFL as we know it today.