Notes

Superbowl History
SUPER BOWL HISTORY

The year was 1966, and war was raging in professional football. It was a bidding war for talent plus it was taking place considering that the 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, as well as the AFL scored an earlier victory when a court ruled and only the Houston Oilers in the NFL's Los Angeles Rams after both clubs had signed Billy Cannon, the Heisman Trophy winning halfback at Louisiana State.

Although the leagues agreed to a "no tampering" rule on existing player contracts, the stakes became high for college talent. Bonuses went sky-high. The AFL's New York Jets signed Alabama quarterback Joe Namath in 1965 to your $400,000 contract, the biggest amount ever to get a 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 accepting small raises on relatively small salaries. For go to this site , John Brodie, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback, received $35,000 in 1965 and was asking for the 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 doing his thing.

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

The Raiders quickly signed Los Angeles quarterback Roman Gabriel with a commitment starting in '67. Houston offered the 49ers' Brodie $75,000, spread over 10 years, to sign a five-year deal with all the Oilers. Reportedly, eight with the NFL's starting quarterbacks were dickering while using AFL. The NFL had no choice. On June 8, 1966, two months after Davis became the AFL commissioner, a merger agreement was announced. There would be considered 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 be paid for the 49ers and Giants more than a 20-year period. Most important, through the standpoint of football fans, was the immediate establishment of your championship game between your leagues. This was the AFL-NFL World Championship Game -- that was popularized because Super Bowl from the inception.

Gabriel never went towards the Raiders and Brodie never left the 49ers, but Brodie collected millions of dollars around the agreement he 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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