American Football League ( 1926 ) The first American Football League ( AFL ) , sometimes called AFL I , AFLG , or the Grange League , was a professional American football league that operated in 1926 . It was the first major competitor to the National Football League . Founded by C . C . Pyle and starring Hall of Fame halfback Red Grange , the short - lived league with nine teams competed against the more established NFL both for players and for fans . While Pyle ’ s and Grange ’ s New York Yankees team became a reliable draw , the lack of star power and the uncertain financial conditions of the other eight teams led to the league ’ s dissolution after one season . Origin of League . The controversial ending of the National Football League ’ s 1925 season led to the founding of the first AFL by Red Grange ’ s agent , C . C . Pyle . In an era in which no professional football team had a prearranged schedule ( each team was responsible for booking its own games , with virtually no limitations as to the number of games ) , the Pottsville Maroons were hailed as the NFL champions by several newspapers after Pottsville defeated the Chicago Cardinals on December 6 , even though there were still two weeks left in the season . Cardinals owner Chris O ’ Brien hastily arranged for two more games – one against the Milwaukee Badgers the following Thursday , another against the Hammond Pros two days later , even though both teams had already disbanded for the season . Two shutouts ( 59 - 0 and 13 - 0 ) later , the Cardinals claimed the top spot with a 11 - 2 - 1 record . Simultaneous with the Cardinals - Pros game was an exhibition game between Pottsville and an all - star team consisting of former Notre Dame players at Shibe Park , near the home of the Frankford Yellow Jackets , who protested the invasion of territorial rights by the Maroons . Despite an order from NFL commissioner Joe Carr to cancel the exhibition , the Maroons proceeded to defeat the Notre Dame all - stars 9 - 7 , scoring a field goal in the last minute . Carr immediately canceled the Maroons ' scheduled game against the Providence Steam Roller and suspended the franchise . In the league meeting in January 1926 , O ’ Brien refused to accept the championship , but the league record book remained unchanged , showing the Cardinals with a 11 - 2 - 1 record to the Maroons ’ 10 - 2 - 0 . While NFL management was contemplating the penalties for the suspended Pottsville franchise ( which was eventually reinstated with the payment of a moderate fine ) in December , C . C . “ Cash and Carry ” Pyle surprised the league by requesting a franchise in New York City for himself and star back Red Grange and secured a five year lease for Yankee Stadium , in direct competition to Tim Mara ' s year - old New York Giants . When Carr announced a ruling in favor of Mara ' s objection to Pyle ' s application for NFL membership , Pyle announced the formation of the first American Football League , featuring Grange and the New York Yankees . The NFL charter member Rock Island Independents left the seven - year - old league to join the AFL , and , and the upstart league matched the NFL in having a road team representing Los Angeles . The new league chose former Princeton athlete , former New York City deputy of street cleaning , and former Newark , New Jersey chief of waste disposal Bill Edwards as its league president and prepared to compete against the older league for its talent and spectators . The AFL and NFL were head - to - head in New York ( Yankees and Giants ) , Brooklyn ( Horsemen and Lions ) , Chicago ( Bulls vs Bears and Cardinals ) , and Philadelphia ( Quakers and Yellow Jackets ) . The AFL ’ s Cleveland Panthers , previously independent , were also prepared to go face - to - face with the Cleveland Bulldogs , the NFL champions of 1924 , when Bulldogs owner Sam Deutsch decided to suspend the operations for 1926 . Teams . Boston Bulldogs . Coached by Herb Treat , Boston ’ s first professional football team had been in financial difficulty from the beginning , having played only six games before folding in November 1926 . Its lack of stars and lack of offense ( only three points per game ) doomed the franchise as the team failed to score a point in either of its two home games in a nearly empty stadium . Boston would wait until 1932 before it received a professional football franchise ( the Boston Braves , now the Washington Redskins ) . Brooklyn Horsemen . Coached by Eddie McNeeley , the Horsemen featured Notre Dame Four Horsemen Harry Stuhldreher and Elmer Layden . Unlike the other New York AFL team , Brooklyn suffered at the turnstiles . After only four games , the team was forced to merge with its NFL counterpart ( the Lions ) , played three games in the NFL as the Brooklyn Lions ( all shutouts ) , and winked out of existence at the end of the season . Chicago Bulls . Owned and coached by Joey Sternaman ( brother of Chicago Bears owner Dutch Sternaman ) , the Bulls also featured the younger Sternaman as quarterback . While the Bulls ' owner created havoc within the Chicago Cardinals by securing a lease for Comiskey Park ( forcing the Cardinals into a much smaller Normal Field ) and attempting to sign their star halfback Paddy Driscoll ( who wound up on the Bears as a result of a trade ) , the Bulls quarterback provided the bulk of the team ’ s offense , scoring 52 of the Bulls ’ 88 points in 14 games . The Bulls were one of only four AFL teams still playing at the end of the season . Cleveland Panthers . The Panthers had existed as an independent team since 1919 , mostly playing teams from upstate New York . Coached by Roy Watts , the Panthers featured six players who played for the NFL ’ s Cleveland Bulldogs in the 1925 season : Al Michaels , Al Nesser , Dick Wolf , Dave Noble , Ralph Vince , and Doc Elliott . Despite having a potent offense and a winning record , the Panthers drew poorly at home aside from the league - opening game . The team left the AFL hours after losing to the Los Angeles Wildcats road team on October 31 ; they would return to independent status until folding in 1933 . Los Angeles Wildcats ( some news sources referred to the team as the " L . A . Wilson Wildcats " ) . Named after former University of Washington star halfback Wildcat Wilson and owned by C . C . Pyle and Red Grange , the Wildcats were strictly a traveling team based in Rock Island , Illinois . With only one exception , the entire roster consisted of players who competed for colleges located Rocky Mountains . One of its 14 games was played in Toronto , Canada ( December 8 : New York won , 28 - 0 ) . Jim Clark was the head coach . Newark Bears . Owned by the New Jersey Athletic Association ( William Coughlin , president ) and coached by Hal Hansen , featured a backfield consisting of people who attended college in Georgia ( Georgia Tech and Oglethorpe College ) . The Bears scored a touchdown in its first game , a 7 - 7 tie with Chicago – and then did not score again in its remaining four games . Newark was the first AFL to fold , calling it quits after playing Rock Island to a scoreless tie in front of 400 fans on October 24 , 1926 . For its final game , Newark changed its nickname to the Demons . New York Yankees . Coached by Ralph Scott , the Yankees showcased Red Grange , quarterback George Pease , and wingback Eddie Tryon , a backfield who dominated the league in all offensive categories as the team finished in second place with a 10 - 5 record . While the rest of the league was starving at the turnstiles , the Yankees were a consistent draw . The Yankees were the only AFL team to outlast the league itself : the league dissolved as the Yankees were on a barnstorming tour of the South and West , and the Yankees entered the NFL as a continuation of the just - defunct Brooklyn franchise for the 1927 season . While New York Giants owner Tim Mara was officially the owner of the “ new NFL franchise ” , he leased it to C . C . Pyle and Red Grange to compete as the Yankees . Philadelphia Quakers . The Quakers were a revival of an independent team which played one season in 1921 as an independent ( and before that , as the Union Athletic Association of Phoenixville from 1907 to 1920 ) . Owned by L . S . Conway and coached by Bob Folwell , the Quakers were the AFL ’ s only league champion , finishing with a 8 - 2 record and possessing a formidable line anchored by tackles Bull Boehman and Century Milstead . On December 12 , 1926 , the Quakers played an exhibition game in a snowstorm against the New York Giants in front of 5000 windblown fans , and lost 31 - 0 . Like Chicago and the traveling Wildcats , the Quakers were still alive at the end of the sole AFL season but folded along with the league at the end of the year . Rock Island Independents . A charter member of the NFL , the Independents left the established league to make the unique accomplishment of being a charter member of a second professional football league , the AFL . Coached by Johnny Armstrong , the Independents played their first three games at Rock Island and then played the rest of their games as a traveling team before entering oblivion on November 21 , 1926 . 1926 AFL standings . President of the New Jersey Athletic Association , the organization to whom the franchise was assigned League leaders . The first AFL did not maintain individual statistics ( the same was true of the NFL until 1934 ) . In recent decades , researchers of the history of American football have compiled them from contemporaneous newspaper accounts . The following is reported by David S . Neft , Richard M . Cohen , and Rick Korch in " The Football Encyclopedia : The Complete History of Professional Football , From 1892 to the Present " . Scoring . " 8 tied with 12 points each " Touchdown Passes . " 8 tied with one touchdown pass each " Touchdown Receptions . " 19 tied with one touchdown catch each " Rushing Touchdowns . " 15 tied with one touchdown run each " Demise of the first AFL . While a new nine - team AFL was competing against a National Football League that expanded to 26 teams for the 1926 season , optimism yielded to economic reality for both leagues as most professional football franchises were on financially shaky ground . The war for talent and audience had a disastrous effect on all but the strongest teams . Of the 31 teams that were in existence in 1926 , only 12 survived to play in 1927 . While the Yankees and the Quakers were consistently drawing large crowds , the rest of the AFL were not , and one by one AFL franchises were going out of business , even with the financial assistance of C . C . Pyle . The first sign of trouble occurred in mid - October , when Rock Island played its last home game ( of three consecutive ) and started wandering like the Wildcats . The following week , Brooklyn played its third ( and last ) home game in the AFL , in front of mainly empty stands . On October 24 , 1926 , the Newark Bears changed its nickname to the Demons , played a scoreless tie with Rock Island , and disbanded hours after the end of the game . The following week saw the end of the Cleveland franchise . November 1926 wasn ' t much brighter for the house of cards that was the American Football League . The Brooklyn Horsemen left the league when it merged with its NFL cousins , the Lions , and played the last three games of its existence ( three shutout losses ) as the Horsemen . By the middle of the month , the Boston Bulldogs called it quits , as did Rock Island a week later . By Thanksgiving of 1926 , there were only four teams operating in the AFL ( New York , Chicago , the Wildcats , and Philadelphia ) , with only the Quakers making a profit for the year and Pyle was spending money to keep the other three teams afloat . As the Yankees went on a barnstorming tour and the Quakers repeatedly tried to arrange for a game between champions of the two leagues , the Wildcats officially became inactive ( in reality , they were touring with the Yankees as the " designated opponent " ) . The New York Giants ( seventh place ) accepted the Quakers ' challenge , opting for a game in the Polo Grounds on December 12 , 1926 . The Quakers hopes for both football credibility and a financial windfall evaporated in a blustery snowstorm as only 5000 witnessed complete domination of the AFL champs by the Giants . The final score was 31 - 0 . The same day , the Chicago Bulls and the New York Yankees met for the last American Football League game in Comiskey Park . The Yankees won , 7 - 3 . The league was no more . After the AFL . While the bulk of the AFL disappeared at the demise of the league , three members had an official existence after the Giants - Quakers game . Although the Brooklyn Horsemen disbanded after its last NFL game , the team ' s franchise was never withdrawn or canceled by the league . Tim Mara purchased the franchise and proceeded to lease it to C . C . Pyle for his New York Yankees team . The agreement between the two rivals limited the number of home games that the Yankees were permitted to play in its namesake stadium ( four in 1927 ) and forced Pyle ' s squad to be primarily a road team displaying the talents of Red Grange . This arrangement lasted for two years : the Yankees were no more after the 1928 season . The Cleveland Panthers , on the other hand , reverted to independent status , and played until 1933 .