Talk:American Football League

message: A point of minor correction: the 1940-1941 AFL also played in 1939. Given time, I will post its standings and team roster.
-- Mark, 8 September 2006
*Actually the AFL/APFA of 1938-39 split in 1940 as the Los Angeles Bulldogs left to become a charter member of the Pacific Coast League and three AFL/APFA teams were lured away to become charter members of a new AFL in the coming season. The AFL/APFA (which evolved from the Midwest League, not AFL II) gave up the ghost shortly afterward. 147.70.242.40 (talk) 14:50, 14 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  The 1939 AFL 

message: I am making the following changes to this paragraph in the "Legacy" section:
Four Three NFL franchises were awarded as a direct result of the AFL's competition with the older league: the Cowboys, who were established solely to drive the AFL Texans out of Dallas; the Vikings, who were awarded to Max Winter in exchange for dropping his bid to join the AFL; the Falcons, whose franchise went to Rankin Smith to dissuade him from purchasing the AFL's Miami Dolphins; and the Saints, because of successful anti-trust legislation supported by several Louisiana politicians, which let the two leagues merge.
The assertion doesn't make any sense.  First of all, there's the unsupportable "solely," which is absurd on its face.  The NFL had successfully fought off challenges from other leagues before, and at the dawn of the AFL there was no reason for them to believe that this new league would be any more of a threat than the others.  Second of all, the Cowboys were awarded an NFL franchise in January, 1960.  The franchise was in the works for at least some time before that, since the owner of the Redskins had tried to prevent it.  That Hunt was not able to secure a franchise in Dallas and another group was does not mean that the NFL was so threatened by this new league before it even started playing that they wanted to "drive" a club out of anywhere.  --Chancemichaels 17:18, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: The line was put back in by anonymous user 67.20.25.45 without comment.  I have deleted it again, if anyone can support its inclusion please cite it here before changing the original article again.  --Chancemichaels 17:18, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: It's better now, but still implies that the Cowboys were placed in Dallas to stave off the Texans, which doesn't seem to match up with the timeline above.  I'm going to remove the reference.  SixFourThree (talk) 16:28, 21 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Except that that's exactly what happened. There's a new book coming out from Houghton-Mifflin, summer of 2012: John Eisenberg, Ten-Gallon War: The NFL's Cowboys, the AFL's Texans, and the Feud for Dallas's Pro Football Future. I'm involved in its production, so I've read it already. Can't quote from it yet, though. Editors following this page should take a look at it when it comes out. (And no, this is not a commercial hype. I recommend you get it from your local library!) --Michael K SmithTalk  23:47, 7 May 2012 (UTC)
thread_title: Dallas Cowboys rivalry

message: "The American Football League", by Ed Gruver, "Going Long", by Jeff Miller, If You Can't Join'em, Beat'em", by Sal Maiorana, and other histories and contemporary media accounts are all clear that in 1959, Lamar Hunt wanted an NFL team in Dallas, either by relocation or expansion, and that he was roundly rebuffed by the NFL owners.  Many NFL owners were quoted as saying that the NFL was not interested in expansion at that time.  After the absorption of the AAFC in 1950, the NFL had 13 teams, including the New York Yanks and the Baltimore Colts.  In 1951, the league dropped the Colts to become a 12-team league.  In 1952, it dropped the Colts and added a team in Dallas.  After one year, it dropped Dallas and added a Baltimore team once more.  From then through 1959, the NFL was a 12-team league, actually smaller than it had been ten seasons earlier.  Then the AFL showed that it was for real, and after ten years of avoiding expansion, the NFL suddenly decided to place a team in Dallas.  Its purpose WAS solely to drive the AFL's Texans out, and it succeeded.  I was on this earth to actually see AAFC and AFL games, and to follow and analyze Pro Football as it was happening, first hand.  I don't know if any of my Wikipedia critics can say the same.  The NFL was dragged kicking and screaming into the era of modern Professional Football.  The "dragee" was the NFL.  The "dragger" was the American Football League.  If it had just "copied" the NFL game, the field, the stripes, the hash-marks, etc., I admit, the AFL would have simply been a duplicate of the other league.  The point is that it introduced innovations in on-field play, uniforms, scoring, time-keeping, TV coverage, revenue sharing, and even playing field markings, not to mention adding two of its own expansion teams and being the root cause of four NFL expansion teams.  I believe it is not unreasonable to state that none of that would have happened as soon, if at all, if the NFL had just sat there by itself in 1960, fat and happy and hidebound with its 12 "old-line" teams. SugnuSicilianu (talk) 23:01, 17 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Read History

message: I was always told that the AFL was a pass happy league with wild scores (35-28, for example) while the NFL was a conservative, run the ball, play good defense type a league. There is no mention of this in this article. It would be interesting if someone would expound on this in the article.
Read the new "Style of Play" section SugnuSicilianu (talk) 23:01, 17 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Style of play vesus the NFL

message: I don't think this is an A-class article. I'm not sure if this would pass WP:GA. The page has images that violate copyright and no free images. There are some sections that could use citations like "legacy" and "black players". The end seems very listy with the standings which shouldn't be in the main article.++aviper2k7++ 03:53, 29 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Class

message: Each of the first three AFLs deserves its own article, particularly the first one (1926) as its champion, the Philadelphia Quakers actually competed against the New York Giants that year. Red Grange's New York Yankees team, runner-ups in the AFL's only season, joined the NFL the following year. Eddie Tryon was a star in his own right that year. 
The 1936-1937 AFL also had its noteworthiness. While the NFL and the earlier AFL had teams nominally in Los Angeles (they were traveling teams), the Los Angeles Bulldogs (1937 AFL champions) were the first major league professional football team to play their home games there and were the first pro football team to win its league championship with a perfect season (9-0). The Cleveland Rams competed for one year in the AFL (1936) before jumping to the NFL. The same year, the AFL also had a New York Yankees franchise; one named the Cincinnati Bengals joined the league in 1937. The league disbanded in 1938.
In 1940, another American Football League formed from the ashes of a short-lived minor league of the same name. A survivor of the minor league, the Columbus Bullies presaged the dominance of the (later) AAFC by the Cleveland Browns by winning titles in both years of the AFL's existence, losing only two games in the process. Tom Harmon was the league's primary star, with John Kimbrough having his share of headlines. As with the previous two AFLs, the NFL, and the (later) All-America Football Conference, the third AFL had standings listing the New York Yankees (in 1940; they became the New York Americans in 1941). Unfortunately, the onset of World War II killed the league.
I hope this helps... 147.70.242.40 (talk) 00:55, 2 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I also agree - the various leagues should be split into their own articles, having nothing in common but a name.  Maybe we need a disambig page to help keep them all straight, as well.  SixFourThree (talk) 16:21, 21 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Redlinks for the second and third AFL have been added to the Professional Football Leagues in North America template (American Football League (1926) is a redirect). So all that's needed is some movement and filling out... well-referenced, of course. 147.70.242.40 (talk) 02:31, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

text: Count me in as well. Although I am now semiretired (this is my first edit in about 2 months), I might be able to come up with something as a decent start. Working on the beginning of a American Football League (1926) article now, but with only two sources (where's my 1956 Encyclopedia of Sports by Menke?), it will definitely need "beefing up" and additional resources. Also, once I get it posted, I'll need someone to get the citation set up to the current method as I know only a couple of methods that are apparently obsolete. B.Wind (talk) 07:17, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: First one's up. It shows an IP in the history, but I'm the guilty party as my computer is having problems hanging onto cookies. Will someone please double-check for typos and see if we can add a few online citations. I found a couple in Google books, but I'll have to get back to it at another time. B.Wind (talk) 11:21, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

text: Second one's up, but not nearly enough information about the players, teams, or records. Again, it's a start, and I've noticed that the materials that satisfy WP:V and WP:RS are much harder to come by for the latter two AFLs. B.Wind (talk) 04:05, 25 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Okay, I added the 1940s version.  As above, it's skimpy now but we should be able to flesh it out.  That's the last one, so I'm going to delete the information from this article.  SixFourThree (talk) 21:26, 29 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  The first three AFLs 

message: This article still seems to have a decided pro-AFL bias.  I think it needs some re-working to eliminate.  SixFourThree (talk) 20:47, 22 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: NPOV?

message: Error.  The Oakland Raiders appear in the wrong ("Eastern Division") color on the 1969 line.  That final AFL championship involved crossover playoffs, and indeed featured two Westerm Division teams. WHPratt (talk) 18:48, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  AFL Championship Games 

message: I have restored the infobox that was deleted and substed way way back. Please check the contents. Ideally migrate to a better infobox. Rich Farmbrough, 22:38, 29 August 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Infobox

message: :File:AmericanFootballLeague.png is currently tagged as non-free and has been identified as possibly not being in compliance with the non-free content policy. For specific information on the problems with the file and how they can be fixed, please check the message at :File:AmericanFootballLeague.png. For further questions and comments, please use the non-free content review page. -- Toshio Yamaguchi 08:30, 15 February 2013 (UTC)
thread_title: Non-free file problems with [[:File:AmericanFootballLeague.png]]

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Using the citation hunt tool we identified that the section needed a citation regarding the exhibition game between the AFL and CFL game on August 8, 1961. We decided to locate a newspaper article that documented the event. We discovered a Globe and Mail article published on Oct. 27, 2007, entitled "Touch down in T.O." I suggest editing the statement to include the number of spectators, and including a link to the citation. 
Here is a link to the citation http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/touch-down-in-to/article18147971/?page=all  — Preceding unsigned comment added by M.Patitucci (talk • contribs) 20:13, 19 January 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Missing citation in Crisis and success section 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: So, all of the former AFL teams are still in the modern AFC, is that right? Has any former AFL team ever been in the NFC? --Khajidha (talk) 00:54, 21 October 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: All of the former AFL teams remained, and still remain, in the AFC. However, two former AFC teams, the Seattle Seahawks (1977-2002) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1976), are currently in the NFC. - BilCat (talk) 01:12, 21 October 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: Thank you. I think this is interesting enough to be mentioned in the article. --Khajidha (talk) 01:30, 21 October 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Just wondering 

message: :AFL has an RFC for possible consensus. A discussion is taking place. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments on the discussion page. Thank you. echidnaLives - talk - edits 11:24, 5 November 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[:AFL]] has an [[WP:RFC|RFC]]