Question: In 1982 the New York Jets defeated the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Raiders to advance to a playoff game in which league ?
Context: The AFC Championship Game (also unofficially referred to as the AFC Title Game) is one of the two semi-final playoff games of the National Football League (NFL), the largest professional American football league in the United States.  The game is played on the penultimate Sunday in January and determines the champion of the American Football Conference (AFC).  The winner then advances to face the winner of the National Football Conference (NFC) Championship Game in the Super Bowl. The history of the New York Jets American football team began in 1959 with the founding of the Titans of New York, an original member of the American Football League (AFL); they began actual play the following year.  The team had little success in its early years.  After playing three seasons at the Polo Grounds, the team changed its name to the New York Jets, and moved into newly built Shea Stadium in 1964.  In January 1965, the Jets signed University of Alabama quarterback Joe Namath to a then-record contract.  The team showed gradual improvement in the late 1960s, posting its first winning record in 1967 and winning its only American Football League championship in 1968.  By winning the title, New York earned the right to play in Super Bowl III against the champions of the National Football League (NFL), the Baltimore Colts.  The Jets defeated the Colts in the game; in the aftermath of the upset, the AFL was deemed a worthy partner to the NFL as the two leagues merged. The 1968 New York Jets season was the ninth season for the team in the American Football League (AFL).  The team had the most successful season in franchise history.  Trying to improve upon their 8–5–1 record of 1967, they won the AFL Eastern Division with an 11–3 record.  They defeated the defending champion Oakland Raiders in the AFL championship game, and earned the right to play in Super Bowl III against the NFL champion Baltimore Colts.  In a stunning upset, marked by fourth-year quarterback Joe Namath's famous "guarantee" of victory, the Jets defeated the heavily favored Colts 16–7.  The Jets have yet to return to the Super Bowl and makes them along with the New Orleans Saints and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the only teams to have been to just one Super Bowl and win it. The 1987 season Houston Oilers season was the team's 28th overall and the 18th in the National Football League (NFL).  The Oilers came into the season looking to improve on their 5-11 record from 1986, and make the playoffs for the first time since 1980.  The 1987 NFL season was affected by a players strike that took place in week 3 of the season, which cancelled all week 3 games.  As a result, the Oilers cancelled their was-to-be week 3 game against the Los Angeles Raiders.  The Oilers began the season 3-1, their best start to a season since 1980.  After the Oilers lost at home to the Patriots 21-7 in week 5, the Oilers defeated the Atlanta Falcons and Cincinnati Bengals to give them a 5-2 start to the season.  After the Oilers lost to the 49ers on the road, they beat the Pittsburgh Steelers on the road, 23-3, for their first win in Pittsburgh since 1978.  The Oilers would then play 2 disastrous games against the Browns and the Colts, as they allowed 40+ points in each game, losing 40-7 to Cleveland at home and losing 51-27 to the Colts in Indianapolis.  The Oilers would defeat the Chargers the next week, rebounding from those 2 bad losses.  The Oilers would clinch a playoff spot in the seasons final week with a 21-17 win over Cincinnati, thus ending their 6-year playoff drought.  In the playoffs, they defeated the Seattle Seahawks 23-20 in overtime on a Tony Zendejas field goal.  However, the next week, they lost to the Broncos 34-10 in the Divisional Round, ending their season. The 1982 New York Jets season was the 23rd season for the team and the 13th in the National Football League.  It began with the team trying to improve upon its 10–5–1 record from 1981 and return to the playoffs under head coach Walt Michaels.  The season was marred by an eight-week players' strike, cancelling eight scheduled games (one game was made up at the end of the season), and eliminating divisional play for the season; the top eight teams from each conference advanced to the playoffs.  The Jets finished the season with a record of 6–3 in sixth place in the American Football Conference.  They defeated the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Raiders in the first two rounds of the playoffs to advance to their first AFC Championship Game.  There, they fell to their division rivals, the Miami Dolphins, 14–0. The 1970 Cincinnati Bengals season was the team's third year in professional football and the first with the National Football League (NFL).  The NFL-AFL merger took place before the season and the Bengals, who were placed in the same division as the "old-guard NFL" Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers, were not expected to be playoff contenders.  Nevertheless, the Bengals made their first NFL campaign a memorable one.  After winning their first ever game as a member of the NFL — their inaugural game in the brand new Riverfront Stadium — they would lose six games in a row.  After the 1–6 start, however, the Bengals would win the rest of their games, rallying to an 8–6 finish and champions of the newly formed AFC Central division.  In their first playoff game, they lost, 17–0, to eventual Super Bowl-champion the Baltimore Colts.  Cincinnati quarterback Greg Cook was forced to the Injured Reserve list in training camp with a shoulder injury that would ultimately end his career; Virgil Carter took over as the starter.  In just their third season, the 1970 Bengals set a league mark by being the first NFL expansion team to qualify for the playoffs within their first three seasons of existence.  The team is one of only 2 teams since the 1970 merger to start the season 1-5 or worse and qualify for the playoffs.  The other is the 2015 Kansas City Chiefs. Michael Anthony D'Amato (born March 3, 1943) is a former American football defensive back.  A safety, he played college football at Hofstra University, and played professionally in the American Football League for the New York Jets in the 1968 season.  That season, the Jets defeated the Oakland Raiders in the AFL Championship game, and went on to humble the heavily favored NFL champion Baltimore Colts in the third AFL-NFL World Championship game.  He followed Jets center John Schmitt as the second Hofstra alumnus to play for the team.  D'Amato is now Hofstra's Special Assistant to the President for Alumni Affairs. John Thomas Neidert (born June 18, 1946) is a former American football linebacker who played three seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals,  New York Jets and Chicago Bears.  He was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in the sixth round of the 1968 NFL Draft.  Neidert played college football at University of Louisville and attended Archbishop Hoban High School in Akron, Ohio.  He was a member of the New York Jets team that won Super Bowl III. Randall Lee Rasmussen (born May 10, 1945) was an American football guard for fifteen seasons for the New York Jets, beginning with the 1967 American Football League season.  He played for the Jets in their AFL Championship game victory over the AFL's Oakland Raiders in 1968, and started in the third AFL-NFL Championship Game (Super Bowl III), in which the Jets defeated the NFL's Baltimore Colts. The 1985 New England Patriots season was the 16th season for the team in the National Football League and 26th season overall.  The Patriots had a record of eleven wins and five losses, and finished tied for second in the AFC East Division.  They then became the first team in NFL history ever to advance to the Super Bowl by winning 3 playoff games on the road, defeating the New York Jets 26–14, the Los Angeles Raiders, 27–20, and then they went on to stun the football world and did the impossible as they pulled out a massive and stunning upset over the Miami Dolphins 31–14, in the AFC Championship game.  The Patriots' win in Miami was their first victory in that stadium since 1969.  The win over the Dolphins in the game has gone down as one of the greatest upsets in NFL history, as the Dolphins were heavily favored.
Answer: the National Football League (NFL)