The AFL and the NFL merged (officially on June 8, 1966). But it was a long process. The full merger was not complete until 1970. Why did they merge? It was money, of course. The NFL still felt they played better football, but their profit margins were shrinking because they had to compete financially with the AFL for players. Lamar Hunt was in the middle of the merge but before the merge could be finalized, the NFL had to go to the US Congress to get permission due to antitrust laws. The NFL had to promise to expand, and was required to have 50,000 seat stadiums. The owners, of course, wanted a common draft and a championship game. The owners generally agreed on things, but Al Davis the AFL Commissioner was outspoken against it. He thought the AFL was getting the short end of the stick. The original AFL teams were New York Titans/Jets, Boston Patriots, Buffalo Bills, Houston Oilers, Los Angeles Chargers, Denver Broncos, Oakland Raiders, and Dallas Texans/Chiefs. The AFL teams had to pay $50 million to play with the ‘big boys’. The NFL required that Pete Rozelle remain the commissioner. The hardest part of the merger was the “Alignment” of the teams in each conference, the AFC and the NFC. Different combinations were written down and put in a hat. The alignment they used came from a blind draw. Part of the alignment difficulties was the thinking that the old NFL teams were still considered better, in spite of Super Bowls III (Jets- Nameth) and IV (KC- Dawson) going to old AFL teams. The playoff formats were soon changed into divisions, etc.
Note: There have been many other pro football leagues, the USFL, XFL, etc. Of course, the CFL (Canadian Football League) has been in business since the 1880s and even tried to have some CFL teams in the US, (2009 -Baltimore). They did not last.
Other sports have had similar “growing pains”. Baseball expanded fast and change formats. The NBA had a similar merger in 1976 with the ABA and the NBA. In soccer, the MLS was established with a 10 team league in 1996, which included the KC Wiz/Sporting KC. The soccer league quickly grew to 28 teams. Lamar Hunt was one of the MLS founding fathers. Not to leave hockey out; the NHA (Association) started in 1909. It morphed into the NHL in 1917. They played with six teams until 1967 when they went to 12. The World Hockey League (WHL) operated from 1972-1979. They did not force a merger, but when they folded the NHL expanded. The NHL now has 32 teams. I do not see another league, in any sport, forcing another merger any time soon.
