Sports What Ifs.
- Thread starter Dave
- Start date
One thought I had - Lamar Hunt applied for an expansion NFL team in the late 1950s, but the NFL didn’t want to expand because they feared they would “oversaturate” the product. He also tried to buy the Cardinals and they wouldn’t let him. Of course, he decided to tell the NFL to go fuck themselves, and he and a bunch of other rich dudes started the AFL, and the rest is history.
What if the NFL had decided, the hell with it, let’s give Lamar Hunt (and Bud Adams, whom Hunt roped in) teams in Dallas and Houston?
What if the NFL had decided, the hell with it, let’s give Lamar Hunt (and Bud Adams, whom Hunt roped in) teams in Dallas and Houston?
Well, no cowboys, Redskins keep their battle song without controversy,no Superbowl but Lamar might want to hype the NFLCG when expansion start to happen(as will come after the success in texas).
if anything Dallas Texans make more sense
It might be named the Super Bowl anyway since Hunt was the one who inspired it.
Also, it would be a matter of time before someone challenged the NFL, but would it work as well?
Maybe the USFL has a chance to battle the NFL if Trumpy Bear doesn't come along and ruin it. The World Football league was doomed from day 1, so that's out of the equation. The XFL (2001), um no, just no.
Now THAT would be fascinating. The NFL tooling around with 16-20 teams through the 70s and 80s until the USFL shows up, starts off as a competing fall league, and hits some bumps but ultimately forces a merger. Trump or no Trump, it could work if the NFL doesn’t have the same chokehold on 28 markets - LOTS of cities would have been itching for teams.
I could see that if the NFL still expands into the same markets it did IRL (the Cowboys and Vikings get replaced by Lamar Hunt's Dallas team and Houston). That would leave the NFL with just 18 teams in the 80s (pre-USFL). (again, assuming the Saints, Falcons, Bucs and Seahawks still get added).
New York would definitely get a second NFL team in that scenario even without the AFL's Titans/Jets, so add one more. I think Miami would also get a team seeing that it is starting to grow into a large city in the 60s and 70s
I could see an additional NFL expansion with second NY and Miami sometime in the late 60s/early 70s. Boston, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Buffalo, Denver, San Diego, Kansas City, Oakland and Cincinnati were AFL cities who could also get in to the NFL around that time or wait for the USFL to come for them.
There would be a lot of butterflies before it even got to that point because IIRC the success of the AFL inspired the ABA, which inspired the WHA, which inspired the WFL. So by the time you get to the mid-70’s if none of those leagues have started, you might actually get a competent group together to start a competing football league.
David Dixon, the founder, was inspired not by the AFL, but by the NFL's unwillingness to expand (before the AFL came along). In 1966, he was all set to start the USFL at that time, but the merger (and NO getting an NFL team) delayed his vision until the Reagan era.
Everyone laughs at the Browns Browning again. Garrett was the clear top rookie coming out of that class.
Outside trying to kill Mason Rudolph in 2019, Garrett has lived up the hype largely.
Who would draft Garrett, then? I could see San Francisco or Chicago doing so, IMO...
If the 49ers do so, and assuming the Chiefs still trade up to get Mahomes, this could have some...interesting consequences. For instance, without Watson, the Texans likely don't win the AFC South in 2018 and 2019--the Colts likely win both seasons (they were in second place in both seasons IOTL)...
If the 49ers do so, and assuming the Chiefs still trade up to get Mahomes, this could have some...interesting consequences. For instance, without Watson, the Texans likely don't win the AFC South in 2018 and 2019--the Colts likely win both seasons (they were in second place in both seasons IOTL)...
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Why? Would he do his less savory activities them? Plus reminder...browns could have drafted both OTL.
The trade happened before the browns drafted so could be san Francisco at #3 as Chicago was titty kisser no matter what.
So lets say in 1959 that Lamar Hunt is able to buy the Cardinals. He moves them in 1960 to Dallas Texas to the Cotton Bowl where they become the Dallas Texans. Meanwhile in 1961 the NFL decides to plan an expansion with the Minnesota Vikings (same as OTL) and playing in the Astrodome, the Houston Oilers owned by Bud Adams. Without Hunt and Adams, there is no real talk of a new league that gets anywhere. I feel like the league would probably be able to go until the mid 70's without a competitor at which time a 12 team league is formed and eventually it is merged with the NFL.
I think the reason he didn't get it is because a rename was forbidden so would be just Dallas Cardinals
Meme idea:
At some point in time during the Covid-19 pandemic, an amateur athlete comes up with a sport named "Coronaball": an indoor sport (because of course) whose teams are made up by three players (average family size), and in which players have to keep a distance of at least one meter from each other (WHO recommendation for social distancing). As for how it'd be played, I don't know.
At some point in time during the Covid-19 pandemic, an amateur athlete comes up with a sport named "Coronaball": an indoor sport (because of course) whose teams are made up by three players (average family size), and in which players have to keep a distance of at least one meter from each other (WHO recommendation for social distancing). As for how it'd be played, I don't know.