Since its formation in 1920, the National Football League (known as the American Professional Football Association in 1920 and 1921) has had several start-up leagues challenge its supremacy as the sport’s premier league. Here are a few of the contenders and pretenders that were wiped out or absorbed by the NFL:
All-America Football Conference (1946-49)
Coming out of a 1945 meeting with representatives of the still-embryonic AAFC, NFL commissioner Elmer Layden commented, “Let them get a football and play a game, and then maybe we’ll have something to talk about.”
Layden’s words proved prophetic – to a point – as the AAFC lasted just four seasons, long enough to witness six of its eight charter teams go belly up. What Layden could not foresee was the success of the Cleveland Browns, who would win all four AAFC championships. So dominant were the Browns that The Sporting News declared them “the best football team in the game, probably the best ever,” after the team won its third title.
That wasn’t hyperbole. The Browns of the AAFC had fabulous talent, including eventual Pro Football Hall of Famers Otto Graham, Lou Groza, Marion Motley, Dante Lavelli, Bill Willis and Frank Gatski, along with incomparable coach Paul Brown.
By December 1949, with the leagues embroiled in a costly bidding war for talent, the sides signed off on a merger of sorts that allowed the Browns, the Baltimore Colts and the San Francisco 49ers to join the NFL, and that was that for the AAFC. The 1950 NFL champions? Those would be the Cleveland Browns.
American Football League (1960-69)
The league that brought us Al Davis, Joe Namath and the Broncos sought to woo fans in its inaugural season with a wide-open brand of football, and it had the necessary power by being broadcast nationally on ABC.
In 1966, the AFL started to raid NFL players through lucrative contracts, helping to spur talks between the leagues that resulted in the merger that ultimately begat the Super Bowl.
The agreement was done before the 1967 season, but the leagues kept playing separately for a few more years. In 1967, the NFL and AFL teams began playing exhibition games against one another. The Broncos drew first blood for the new league by defeating the Detroit Lions 13-7 at the old University of Denver stadium. Before the game, Lions defensive tackle Alex Karras said he would walk back to Detroit if his team lost to an AFL team. He lost, but rode his blazing saddle back to Motown on the team plane.
The AFL was absorbed into the NFL for the 1970 season, but not before the Jets, with Namath guaranteeing a victory over the heavily favored Baltimore Colts, knocked pro football on its ear with a 16-7 victory in Super Bowl III. And before the AFL faded away, the Kansas City Chiefs accomplished a similar feat against the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV.
World Football League (1974-75)
Perhaps the “F” in WFL ultimately stood for “folly.” While touting innovations such as a 20-game regular season and flashier-than-NFL uniforms, the league also claimed some credibility by signing NFL star Larry Csonka.
Internally, however, the league always stood on shaky ground. The Jacksonville Sharks, for example, borrowed $27,000 from their head coach, only to fire him. Meanwhile, Florida Blazers players suffered through 10 weeks without pay, plus the added indignity of having their coach provide the clubhouse toilet paper.
After just 1 1/2 seasons, the 10-team WFL folded, losing an estimated $30 million in the process.
United States Football League (1983-86)
The upstart USFL kicked off in March 1983 with a spring schedule, a bona fide star in Herschel Walker – Jim Kelly, Steve Young, Reggie White and other future NFL stars also played in the USFL – and by placing a premium on innovation to make the game more entertaining.
The first USFL championship game was played at Denver’s Mile High Stadium, with the Michigan Panthers, led by the stellar passing combination of Bobby Hebert and Anthony Carter, defeating the Philadelphia Stars 24-22. At game’s end, the Michigan fans stormed the field – and the Denver police responded with tear gas.
The Denver Gold did well, attendance-wise, bolstered by some ex-Broncos connections, including the team’s first two head coaches, Red Miller and Craig Morton.
It all rolled along nicely through two seasons until inflated salaries and a lack of national television support caught up with the league. In the end, not even a billion-dollar antitrust suit against the NFL – which the USFL won but was awarded just $1, trebled to a final “award” of $3 – could stave off the league’s demise.
XFL (2001)
When professional wrestling mogul Vince McMahon announced the birth of the XFL in February 2000, he promised a league that would “take you places where the NFL is afraid to go.” Bolstered by a partnership with NBC, the league debuted in February 2001 to higher-than-expected ratings. The following week’s ratings tumbled 50 percent, and no amount of scantily clad cheerleaders, – former Mullen High School quarterback Ryan Clement got some TV face time with one of them – cheap hits or crass commentary could stop the hemorrhaging. The league folded in May, and McMahon’s World Wrestling Federation took a $35 million hit. But we’ll always have “He Hate Me,” the moniker player Rod Smart chose to have on his uniform.
The next big thing?
In May, a group of investors including Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban revealed they were exploring the formation of a Friday night football league.
“We think there is more demand for pro football than supply,” Cuban told The Associated Press.
Preliminary plans call for an eight-team league that would compete with the NFL for players drafted lower than the second round. Stay tuned.
Staff writer Barry Osborne can be reached at 303-954-1443 or bosborne@denverpost.com.
Staff writer Mike Judson can be reached at 303-954-1549 or mjudson@denverpost.com.
