3. The American Football League changed the rival NFL when the leagues merged
Stiff competition from the AFL in the 1960s for college craft picks brought the older NFL to the negotiating table, which led to the merger of the leagues and the creation of the Super Bowl. The merger agreement called the annual matchup of the respective champions the World Championship Game. The actual merger of the leagues took place in 1970, meaning the first four Super Bowl games took place prior to the combined play between the leagues. Several new teams joined the league between the playing of the first Super Bowl (1967) and the merger. These included franchises in New Orleans, Cincinnati, Seattle, and Tampa Bay.
The AFL brought to professional American football the fourteen-game season, the display of players’ last names on their jerseys, and the two-point conversion Most importantly, it introduced sharing revenues from gate and television. The merger, agreed to between the leagues in 1966, required an act of Congress to exempt the new league from antitrust laws. By the time Congress passed the necessary legislation, the first World Championship Game had been scheduled. Few NFL fans believed the AFL teams were capable of competing with the NFL, and the first Super Bowl game, as well as the second, appeared to prove them correct. Both were blowout wins by the NFL’s Green Bay Packers. Before the merger took place in 1970, it was widely believed the AFL produced a watered-down version of American football, which would fail in weekly games against the traditional NFL establishment.