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The AFL benefited from having been formed just at a time when professional football was beginning to catch up with (and eventually, in the 1960s, overtake) baseball as the most popular spectator team sport in the United States. It took advantage of this burgeoning popularity 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 ABCPaul Rand in 1962. ABC network re-directs here; an alternate meaning is Australian Broadcasting Corporation The American Broadcasting Company or ABC is a television and radio network in the United States, owned by The Walt Disney Company. History In 1940 and later with NBCSteff Geissbuhler. The feathers are said to represent the network's six divisions. NBC Universal Television is an American television network based in New York's Rockefeller Center. As of May 2004, it became part of NBC Universal. NBC supplies programming). It featured many outstanding games, such as the classic 1962 double-overtime American Football League championship game between the Dallas TexansThe Kansas City Chiefs are a National Football League team based in Kansas City, Missouri. Franchise Founded 1959 First Season 1960 (charter American Football League member; joined NFL in 1970 league merger) Formerly known as Dallas Texans, 1960-62, then and the defending champion Houston OilersThe Tennessee Titans are a National Football League team based in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded: 1960 As the Houston Oilers charter members and first Champions of the American Football League. Joined NFL in 1970 merger) :Formerly known as: Houston Oilers. At the time it was the longest, and it is still one of the best professional football championship gamesAmerican football Below is a list of professional football championship games in the United States, involving: the American Professional Football Association/ National Football League, the first professional football league; the All-America Football Confe ever played.

The American Football League also began recruiting from small colleges, which the NFL had avoided. Drawing on this previously mainly untapped resource, it signed such stars as Elbert DubenionElbert Dubenion (sometimes called "Duby" or "Golden Wheels") was a football player, born in 1933. He played college ball for Bluffton College in northwest Ohio. Dubenion had tremendous speed, great hands and excellent running skills. As a rookie for the A (Bluffton), Lionel TaylorFor the first six years of existence of the American Football League, one man led the league in receptions each year: Lionel Taylor (born 1935) from New Mexico Highlands University, where he had starred in basketball and track, and made all-conference wid (New Mexico Highlands), Tom SestakTom Sestak ( 1932- 1986), was an American Football player. In 1962, the Buffalo Bills drafted Tom Sestak as a tight end in the 17th round from McNeese State. It was one of the Bills' best draft picks ever. Sestak never played end for the Bills, but became (McNeese State), Charlie Tolar (Northwestern State of Louisiana), Abner Haynes (North Texas State), and a host of others. For black players, the AFL's recruitment from small colleges opened a door that the NFL had cracked only grudgingly. Meanwhile, the AFL also successfully engaged the NFL in competition for talented players from major schools: LSU's Billy Cannon, Notre Dame's Daryle Lamonica, Kansas' John Hadl, Alabama's Joe Namath, and many more.

The bidding war, which was financially draining both leagues, and the rapidly rising popularity of the AFL were factors that eventually led to the merger.

The AFL appealed to fans by offering a flashier alternative to the more conservative NFL. Team uniforms were bright and colorful. Long passes ("bombs") were commonplace in AFL offenses, led by such talented quarterbacks as John Hadl, Daryle Lamonica, and Len Dawson. Some innovative rules changes were also put into place, such as the two-point conversion (later adopted by the NFL in 1990s); the use of the scoreboard clock as the official game clock (adopted by the NFL when the leagues merged—prior to this time, the NFL's official game clock was maintained by an official on the sidelines, and often did not match the scoreboard clock very closely); the use of player names on jerseys (also adopted by the NFL); the sharing of gate and television revenues between home and visiting teams (also adopted by the NFL); and in 1960, the first network television coverage of all games, by ABC-TV (adopted two years later by the NFL with CBS-TV).

Another attractive feature of the American Football League was its competitive balance. In the original eight-team league, in a fourteen game schedule, each team played every other team twice. Every team had the same "strength of schedule", so the division champions were clearly the best teams in each division. Further, the league championships were evenly divided: five were won by Western Division teams, five by the Eastern Division; and of the original eight teams, all but two won at least one AFL title, and only one did not make the playoffs at some time during the league's ten-year existence.

The AFL achieved its success in spite of sparse coverage by the print and electronic media. CBS-TV, which then carried NFL games, refused to give AFL game scores on its football broadcasts. Sports Illustrated ridiculed the new league, and even after the AFL was established, SI gave full-page color action shots of the NFL, while it used black and white photos in its AFL coverage. In turn, each of the NFL teams in the first four Super Bowls, the Packers, the Colts, and the Vikings were heralded as "the greatest football team in history" by the "establishment media". Yet, two out of three of those teams were defeated by their American Football League opponents.

The AFL clearly matched or outshone the elder league in some specific cases. Examples abound: Lance Alworth of the Chargers was by far the best receiver of the 1960s; Johnny Robinson of the Chiefs, although he has been ignored by the "pro football" hall of fame, was the equal of any NFL defensive back of the era; the term "Fearsome Foursome" was coined to describe not an NFL defensive line, but the Chargers' formidable unit, anchored by Ernie Ladd and Earl Faison; and the 1964 Buffalo Bills defense allowed their opponents only 300 rushing attempts and held them to a pro football record 913 yards rushing.

In 1966, the two leagues paved the way for a merger by agreeing to operate a common draft, and to carry out a championship game between the two league champions. The title game has come to be known officially as the Super Bowl, but originally this was just a nickname (coined by AFL founder Lamar Hunt, whose daughter had a toy called a "super ball"); the game was, at first, officially called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game. The NFL champions in both 1966 and 1967, the Green Bay Packers, decisively defeated the AFL champions in the first two Super Bowls, temporarily confirming the view of many NFL supporters that the NFL was the superior league. However, the AFL champions won the last two Super Bowls before the merger was completed in 1970. The first of these two victories was carried out by the New York Jets over the heavily favored Baltimore Colts, and was one of the most heralded upsets in sports history. Likewise, the following year the Minnesota Vikings were favored over the Kansas City Chiefs, who defeated the NFL product 23 to 7, even more resoundingly than the Jets had beaten the Colts.

When the two leagues merged, the AFL had 10 teams, the NFL 16. These formed the basis for the National and American Football Conferences of the newly merged NFL. Three teams from the NFL (the Baltimore Colts, Cleveland Browns, and the Pittsburgh Steelers), joined the ten AFL teams in the American Football Conference so that both conferences would have the same number of teams. In order to produce an eight-team playoff tournament with six divisions, the NFL once again copied an AFL innovation, the wild card playoff concept, where the best second-place finishers in each conference qualified. This innovation was later imitated by Major League Baseball.

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