Two potential POD's. One is when Al Davis is commissioner of the AFL and instead of being undercut by the secret negotiations done by Tex Schramm and Lamar Hunt he is left to fight the war.
The 2nd would be in the aftermath of the Jets win in SB III where the AFL is feeling flush with success and the NFL is having trouble getting teams to flip.
In OTL the merger was saved because 1. Paul Brown was going to sue if there was no merger because as he put it, 'I did not pay ten million dollars for an AFL team' 2. Carroll Rosenbloom was enticed by a $3m bonus for flipping and 3. The Browns and Steelers were talking into flipping to form a division with the Bengals.
Have at it people.
The 2nd would be in the aftermath of the Jets win in SB III where the AFL is feeling flush with success and the NFL is having trouble getting teams to flip.
In OTL the merger was saved because 1. Paul Brown was going to sue if there was no merger because as he put it, 'I did not pay ten million dollars for an AFL team' 2. Carroll Rosenbloom was enticed by a $3m bonus for flipping and 3. The Browns and Steelers were talking into flipping to form a division with the Bengals.
Have at it people.