Hunt formed the American Football League
It was 65 years ago when a 26-year-old Dallas, Texas oilman named Lamar Hunt decided to take on the National Football League. The NFL of 1959 resembles today’s National Football League in name only. The NFL was a mom-and-pop operation that was in business from July through December as the players and coaches were part time employees of owners like George Halas of the Chicago Bears franchise whose main business was running a sporting goods company in Chicago. Hunt wanted to buy the Chicago Cardinals franchise which the league decided for TV purposes to get out of Chicago from the Bidwill family. Hunt was rejected. Bud Adams, a Houston businessman, wanted to buy the Cardinals franchise but was rejected. Hunt and Adams proposed the 12-team NFL expand with Hunt having a team in Dallas and Adams in Houston but the NFL owners, hardly an enlightened group about business, led by Halas said no.
Hunt and Adams teamed up and found six other investors and formed the American Football League. Hunt would have a team in Dallas, Adams’ team would be in Houston. Investors in Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Buffalo, Boston, Denver and New York signed up with a 1960 start up date. The Minneapolis-St. Paul investors led by Max Winter dropped out and decided to eventually join the NFL and that group was replaced by a group in Oakland. Hunt’s decision to form the American Football League changed football. The AFL had a TV deal with the American Broadcasting Company and the owners shared that TV revenue. The NFL acted as if it didn’t care about the new league publicly but the NFL’s new Commissioner Pete Rozelle knew better. The NFL wanted the same type of TV deal with all teams sharing revenue and got it through an act of Congress. Today’s NFL owes a big debt to Lamar Hunt.
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