Miami Seahawks The Miami Seahawks were a professional American football team based in Miami , Florida . They played in the All - America Football Conference for one season , 1946 , before folding . They are notable as the first major league sports franchise in Miami and the state of Florida ' s first professional football team . The Seahawks were a charter franchise in the All - America Football Conference , a league that formed in 1946 and competed with the National Football League until folding in 1949 . They were coached initially by Jack Meagher and then by Hamp Pool . The team faced a difficult schedule filled with many early road games , and finished the fourteen - game regular season with only three wins . The franchise , which by that time had accrued $ 350 , 000 in debt , was confiscated by the AAFC after the end of the season , and its assets were purchased by a group of entrepreneurs who reorganized it as the original incarnation of the Baltimore Colts . Florida would not have another major league - level football team until the American Football League added the Miami Dolphins in 1966 . History . The Miami Seahawks were the last of the original All - America Football Conference teams to be established . They were formed to replace an aborted Baltimore franchise , which was to have been owned by retired boxer George Tunney but was unable to secure a stadium deal . Miami football boosters seized on the opportunity to bring a professional team to their city , and a franchise was awarded to owner Harvey Hester . The Seahawks thus became the first major league sports team to be based in Miami . Home games were played at the Miami Orange Bowl . The Seahawks stood out from the other AAFC franchises in a several ways . First , they were based in a substantially smaller market , one that had about half the population of other metropolitan areas with professional football teams . The other cities that received AAFC teams were among the 15 largest in the United States , while Miami , though growing quickly , was only 42nd largest in the 1940s . Additionally , owner Harvey Hester was substantially less wealthy than the other team owners , and was the only one among them who was not a millionaire . Cleveland Browns coach Paul Brown remarked that Hester seemed out of his league around the other owners , to the point that he was uncomfortable even playing poker among them . The Seahawks hired Iowa Pre - Flight Seahawks coach Jack Meagher as head coach . Their schedule was quite difficult from the beginning . Miami opened with three straight road games , had a single home game , and then played another four road games . By the time of their first home game they had a record of 0 - 3 - 0 , leading local papers to describe them as " woefully inept " . Meagher quit abruptly on October 22 , after the sixth game , having led his team to just one win . Hamp Pool , a former captain of the 1940 and 1941 Chicago Bears NFL championship teams , then took over as head coach . After a 1 - 7 - 0 start , the team returned home to host their final six games , a difficult sell to the general public . While an average 28 , 000 people came to the Seahawks first two home games , fans quickly lost interest in the flagging team , and fewer than around 9000 came to each of the last three games . Brooklyn , Cleveland , and San Francisco had completed their 14 - game regular seasons before the Seahawks hosted their final two home games . The team also played all of its November games on Monday night , the first time in major professional football that such a move had ever been attempted more than once in a year . This would later prove to be an inspiration for " Monday Night Football " , which would not debut for another 24 years . At the end of the season the team was up to $ 350 , 000 in debt , including $ 80 , 000 in travel and payroll costs , and Hester could not afford to repay it . Football boosters in Miami attempted to buy the team , though they were unwilling to square the substantial debt Hester had accumulated , and decided to wait a year to make the bid . Before this could happen , however , Hester declared bankruptcy and league commissioner Jim Crowley expropriated the team . Before the Miami boosters could make an offer the league approved a bid by Washington , D . C . attorney Robert D . Rodenburg and four other businessmen . The group reformed the team in Baltimore and renamed it , and the original incarnation of the Baltimore Colts was born . Miami was without a professional football team until the 1960s . Ralph Wilson briefly considered putting his American Football League ( AFL ) franchise in Miami , but city officials turned him down . Then in 1965 the AFL awarded an expansion team to lawyer Joe Robbie and actor Danny Thomas , and the Miami Dolphins were established . | -