THE AFL 1960–69: A RETROSPECTIVE
1966: Big TV Money Arrives, and Merger Talks go the Distance
With the AFL and NFL battling for players, a truce was finally worked out and the leagues laid the foundation for a bountiful future
When the AFL signed its landmark $36 million television deal with NBC which started in 1965, the NFL knew that this rival league wasn’t going away.
The AFL wasn’t like the previous three AFL iterations that had folded quickly, and it wasn’t like the All-America Football Conference that led a brief existence from 1946–49.
Like it or not, these guys were here to stay.
So Tex Schramm, president of the Dallas Cowboys, called Lamar Hunt, the owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, and set up a meeting to discuss a possible merger of the two leagues. At the same time, Al Davis had taken over as AFL commissioner, replacing Joe Foss, and the combative Davis — unaware of the behind-closed-doors dealing between Hunt and Schramm which had been encouraged by NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle — launched a full-scale war against the NFL in the procurement of players.
Pete Gogolak playing out his option with Buffalo and signing with the NFL’s New York Giants touched off…
