Gridiron Legends

AFL (American Football League, 1960-1969): This upstart league challenged NFL tradition with innovative rules and aggressive marketing, ultimately forcing a merger in 1970 that led to the creation of the modern NFL structure with two conferences.

But other American Football Leagues competed against the NFL before this 1960s rendition, and we covered them in this video.

Most casual football fans know that the Super Bowl era of the NFL stems from a merger between the NFL and the AFL in the late 1960s. Super Bowl 1 was originally called the AFL–NFL World Championship Game. But did you know that this American Football League was the fourth NFL rival league with that exact name?

The first AFL started in 1926 and is often called the Grange League because it was created because of a dispute of inequity pay for Red Grange in his second pro season with his original NFL employer, the Chicago Bears. One of Grange's promoters, C.C. Pyle, along with Grange and others, started the league to compete with the NFL for revenue as they questioned the NFL structure and consistency after multiple controversies in 1925 plagued the NFL. Grange's New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Quakers were at the top of the nine-team league. The league folded, and the Yankees and Grange joined the NFL in 1927.

AFL II 1936

In 1936, amidst the established power of the National Football League, a fledgling challenger took the field: the American Football League (AFL). Though short-lived, the AFL's two-year stint boasted audacious ambition and left its mark on the game's history.

Ignored by national media and relegated to "page filler" status, the AFL II served as a crucial springboard for several iconic franchises. Cleveland, pre-NFL glory, first donned its Rams jerseys under the AFL's lights. And on the West Coast, the Los Angeles Bulldogs made history as the first professional team to call it home - and to conquer their league with an undefeated season, a feat not repeated for decades.

But the AFL was more than just stepping stones. It was a laboratory for innovation, where gridiron dreams took flight with the hopes of eight eager cities: Boston, Cleveland, Jersey City, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Providence, and Syracuse.

AFL III 1940

The American Football League (AFL III) was a professional American football league from 1940 to 1941. It was the third major league to bear that name, but its existence was short-lived due to competition from the established National Football League (NFL).

The AFL III was formed in 1940 when three teams from the minor-league American Professional Football Association (APFA) - the Cincinnati Bengals, the Columbus Bullies, and the Milwaukee Chiefs - were lured away to join six new franchises in Boston, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Rochester, Syracuse, and New York City. After one season, this startup soon folded.