AHC/WI: The AAFC forces a full merger with the NFL?

How can the AAFC manage to get the NFL to take all of its teams, and what would be the ramifications of the Super Bowl starting 20 years or so early?
 
How can the AAFC manage to get the NFL to take all of its teams, and what would be the ramifications of the Super Bowl starting 20 years or so early?

The AAFC would have had to have lasted @
least one, probably about three, years
longer than it did IOTL. The NFL suffered
heavy financial losses in the war with the
AAFC, & if they saw, unlike IOTL, that its
rival wasn't slowly bleeding to death, they
might have run up the white flag & agreed to
take in all that league's teams just to end
their losses. (Though I could see the NFL
demanding certain AAFC franchises- like
the one in Chicago- relocate). I doubt there
would have been an earlier version of the
Super Bowl ITTL. In 1949 IOTL the AAFC
had only 7 teams, the NFL, 10. This comes
out to 17 teams total- about half the size of
today's NFL! So there just would have been
one league, perhaps called- as another thread on this board suggested- "NFL/AAFC"
(more likely just NFL)& the teams split into
three divisions. In the postseason there
would have been playoffs of course but
within one league, not between two.
 
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The AAFC had a huge problem with parity. The Browns only lost four games in four years in the league, and the 49ers only lost four games to non-Browns opponents in the last three years of the league. Those were probably the only two viable teams to join the NFL, the others likely would have folded as the Baltimore Colts (no relation to the current day Colts) did after their 1950 season in the NFL.
 
49ers, I think.

The Browns, the 49ers, & the Baltimore Colts
who went belly-up a year later(the present
IOTL Indianapolis Colts got their start in
Baltimore in 1953, when Baltimore business-
man Carroll Rosenbloom bought the NFL's
bankrupt Dallas Texans & moved them to the
land of the crab cakes)
 
The AAFC had a huge problem with parity. The Browns only lost four games in four years in the league, and the 49ers only lost four games to non-Browns opponents in the last three years of the league. Those were probably the only two viable teams to join the NFL, the others likely would have folded as the Baltimore Colts (no relation to the current day Colts) did after their 1950 season in the NFL.

Parity was a major reason(the other was the
presence of TV $ to pay the bills)that the
AFL made it & the AAFC didn't. Of that league's original 8 teams, 6 won the cham-
pionship @ least once, whereas in the AAFC,
as you pointed out packmanwiscy, the
Browns won the title every year of the AAFC's existence.
 
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If the NFL absorbs the AAFC teams in full, they have to worry about these teams:

Baltimore Colts
Buffalo Bills
Cleveland Browns
Chicago Hornets
Los Angeles Dons
New York Yankees
San Francisco 49ers

The NFL in 1949 was as follows:

NY Bulldogs
NY Giants
Philadelphia Eagles
Pittsburgh Steelers
Washington Redskins

Chicago Bears
Chicago Cardinals
Detroit Lions
Green Bay Packers
Los Angeles Rams

Part of the merger agreement will almost certainly include the Yankees and Hornets moving; the Dons can probably stay. So one team moves to Dallas to become the Texans and the other...Boston to become the Patriots? And the Bulldogs still probably collapse in a couple of years, so the league ends up at 16 teams.

So with that in mind, the NFL looks like this after the merger:

EASTERN CONFERENCE
Capital Division
Boston Patriots
New York Giants
Philadelphia Eagles
Washington Redskins

Century Division
Baltimore Colts
Buffalo Bills
Cleveland Browns
Pittsburgh Steelers

WESTERN CONFERENCE
Central Division
Chicago Bears
Chicago Cardinals
Detroit Lions
Green Bay Packers

Coastal Division
Dallas Texans
Los Angeles Dons
Los Angeles Rams
San Francisco 49ers

I have my doubts that LA could hang onto both teams, just as Chicago would lose the Cardinals to St. Louis. I'm not sure where the Dons would move; San Diego is a possibility.
 
Now the Situation by 1960, Dons may move to San Diego, Cardinals will still relocate IOTL to St. Louis, The End Result

Eastern Conference
Capital: Boston Patriots, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins
Century: Baltimore Colts, Buffalo Bills, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers

Western Conference
Central: Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, St. Louis Cardinals (relocated from Chicago)
Coastal: Dallas Texans, Los Angeles Rams, San Diego Dons (relocated from Los Angeles), San Francisco 49ers

As for Expansion: Probably during the 60's, Atlanta, Denver, Kansas City, Miami, Minneapolis and Seattle will be among the possibilities so the league will expand to 20 teams by 1965 or 1966.
 

CalBear

Moderator
Donor
Monthly Donor
Parity was a major reason(the other was the
presence of TV $ to pay the bills)that the
AFL made it & the AAFC didn't. Of that league's original 8 teams, 6 won the cham-
pionship @ least once, whereas in the AAFC,
as you pointed out packmanwiscy, the
Browns won the title every year of the AAFC's existence.
The AFL also made some really good business decisions ith the goal of forcing the NFL to the table. They started bidding wars over quarterbacks and other big name players (John Brodie from San Francisco, Roman Gabriel for the LA Rams, and Mike Ditka, from Chicago all signed AFL contracts in the period of a few weeks ) along with the on-going competition for College players. The AFL teams were paying out what, at the time, was seen as insane (Brodie led the NFL in passing yards and TD's in 1965, made $35K, the AFL Oilers offered him to a contract that was worth between $650K and $1 MILLION for three seasons).
 
Now the Situation by 1960, Dons may move to San Diego, Cardinals will still relocate IOTL to St. Louis, The End Result

Eastern Conference
Capital: Boston Patriots, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins
Century: Baltimore Colts, Buffalo Bills, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers

Western Conference
Central: Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, St. Louis Cardinals (relocated from Chicago)
Coastal: Dallas Texans, Los Angeles Rams, San Diego Dons (relocated from Los Angeles), San Francisco 49ers

As for Expansion: Probably during the 60's, Atlanta, Denver, Kansas City, Miami, Minneapolis and Seattle will be among the possibilities so the league will expand to 20 teams by 1965 or 1966.

The wrinkle here is what the AFL will do in a situation like this. I still think the NFL claims Minnesota as they did OTL but certain AFL cities will be shut out TTL (Boston and Buffalo come to mind.) Assuming the AFL goes straight to KC rather than Dallas, there are a few possibilities - OTL expansion for the AFL was Miami and Cincinnati so both of them are possible, along with Seattle and maybe replacing the second Chicago franchise (and 1960 AFL is a now-or-never for the South Side of Chicago.)

So by the time the AFL and NFL merge, we're looking at the leagues like this:

AMERICAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE
Eastern Division
Chicago Legions
Cincinnati Bengals
Miami Dolphins
New York Jets
Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Western Division
Denver Broncos
Houston Oilers
Kansas City Chiefs
Los Angeles Chargers
Oakland Raiders

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE
Eastern Conference
Capital Division
Baltimore Colts
Boston Patriots
New York Giants
Philadelphia Eagles
Washington Redskins

Century Division

Atlanta Falcons
Buffalo Bills
Cleveland Browns
New Orleans Saints
Pittsburgh Steelers

Western Conference

Central Division
Chicago Bears
Detroit Lions
Green Bay Packers
Minnesota Vikings
St. Louis Cardinals

Coastal Division

Dallas Texans
Los Angeles Rams
San Diego Dons
San Francisco 49ers
Seattle Seahawks
 

Wimble Toot

Banned
Nobody outside the USA gives a toss?

Not many in the US do, either.

That's probably what would happen. Not exactly Earth-shatteringly eventful in its ramifications.
 
The AFL also came along at the right moment in terms of the growth of TV and they were able to capitalize on it.
 

CalBear

Moderator
Donor
Monthly Donor
True, so the AAFC would need something to bolster them. Radio, perhaps.
More like Divine Intervention.

The AAFC had too many teams trying to go head-to-head with established NFL teams. It isn't a coincidence that the only two teams that survived were several hours drive from any NFL city.
 
True, so the AAFC would need something to bolster them. Radio, perhaps.

Probably the best way the AAFC could bolster itself would be to take a page out of the book of a contemporary league that was in a remarkably similar position to it, the Basketball Association of America. That being, cannibalize teams from the NFL to replace the weaker teams in the league that couldn't keep up with Cleveland and San Francisco. They succeeded in luring one because of its owner's desire to use Yankee Stadium, but if they could have gotten more they potentially could have forced a merger on their terms like the BAA did to the NBL.
 
More like Divine Intervention.

The AAFC had too many teams trying to go head-to-head with established NFL teams. It isn't a coincidence that the only two teams that survived were several hours drive from any NFL city.

Cleveland was an NFL city, the Browns chased the Rams to LA.
 
Probably the best way the AAFC could bolster itself would be to take a page out of the book of a contemporary league that was in a remarkably similar position to it, the Basketball Association of America. That being, cannibalize teams from the NFL to replace the weaker teams in the league that couldn't keep up with Cleveland and San Francisco. They succeeded in luring one because of its owner's desire to use Yankee Stadium, but if they could have gotten more they potentially could have forced a merger on their terms like the BAA did to the NBL.

There were mergers; the Buffalo Bills merged into the Browns and the Yankees merged into the NY Bulldogs and became the Yanks. It may not be possible to save all seven AAFC franchises but more than the ones who survives could stay in theory.
 
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