Notes

Superbowl History
SUPER BOWL HISTORY

The year was 1966, and war was raging in professional football. It was antique dealer war for talent and yes it ended up going on since American Football League came on top of the scene in 1960 to challenge the National Football League, forty years its senior. At first, the battles were for college players, along with the AFL scored an early on victory every time a court ruled and only the Houston Oilers within the NFL's Los Angeles Rams after both clubs had signed Billy Cannon, the Heisman Trophy winning halfback at Louisiana State.

Although the leagues opted for a "no tampering" rule on existing player contracts, the stakes became high for college talent. click to find out more went sky-high. The AFL's New York Jets signed Alabama quarterback Joe Namath in 1965 to a $400,000 contract, the largest amount ever for any collegian. In 1966, the NFL's Atlanta Falcons gave Texas linebacker Tommy Nobis a $600,000 package along with the Green Bay Packers forked over $711,000 to Texas Tech running back Donny Anderson.

Meanwhile, veteran players were compromising for small raises on relatively small salaries. For example, John Brodie, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback, received $35,000 in 1965 and was asking to get a raise to $65,000 after leading the NFL in completions, completion percentage, yardage and touchdown passes. Then came a back-breaker. Buffalo placekicker Pete Gogolak, who had played out his option in 1965, signed while using NFL's New York Giants. The "no tampering" code have been broken. The conflict was at the open, also it was time to use it.

On April 7, 1966, peacemaker Joe Foss resigned as AFL commissioner along with the next day Al Davis, general manager in the Oakland Raiders, took over. Davis would have been a hawk in regard to the NFL, and that he stood a plan. Davis organized an AFL war chest and urged proprietors to start speaking with established NFL stars. The NFL had bragged of its superiority because from the caliber of its quarterbacks. Davis wished to sign those quarterbacks for your AFL.

The Raiders quickly signed Los Angeles quarterback Roman Gabriel to a commitment starting in '67. Houston offered the 49ers' Brodie $75,000, spread over decade, to sign a five-year deal with the Oilers. Reportedly, eight from the NFL's starting quarterbacks were dickering with all the AFL. The NFL had no choice. On June 8, 1966, two months after Davis took over as the AFL commissioner, a merger agreement was announced. There would certainly be a common draft starting in 1967, interleague preseason games starting in '67 and regular-season play combining the leagues in 1970. Territorial indemnification of $18 million ended up being to be paid on the 49ers and Giants more than a 20-year period. Most important, in the standpoint of football fans, was the immediate establishment of a championship game involving the leagues. This was the AFL-NFL World Championship Game -- which has been popularized because Super Bowl looking at the inception.

Gabriel never went on the Raiders and Brodie never left the 49ers, but Brodie collected a million dollars on the agreement he'd manufactured in his talks with Houston. Davis resigned as AFL commissioner 30 days following the merger. He clearly had won his battle.
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