Notes

Superbowl History
SUPER BOWL HISTORY

The year was 1966, and war was raging in professional football. It was a bidding war for talent and it had been taking place considering that the American Football League came on the scene in 1960 to challenge the National Football League, 4 decades its senior. At first, the battles were for college players, and the AFL scored an earlier victory whenever a court ruled for the Houston Oilers on the NFL's Los Angeles Rams after both clubs had signed Billy Cannon, the Heisman Trophy winning halfback at Louisiana State.

Although the leagues decided 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 greatest amount ever for the collegian. In 1966, the NFL's Atlanta Falcons gave Texas linebacker Tommy Nobis a $600,000 package as well as the Green Bay Packers forked over $711,000 to Texas Tech running back Donny Anderson.

Meanwhile, veteran players were staying in 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 ended up broken. dig this was at outdoors, and it was time doing his thing.

On April 7, 1966, peacemaker Joe Foss resigned as AFL commissioner along with the next day Al Davis, general manager with the Oakland Raiders, took over. Davis would be a hawk in regard to the NFL, and he had a plan. Davis organized an AFL war chest and urged owners to start conversing with established NFL stars. The NFL had bragged of their superiority because with the caliber of their quarterbacks. Davis desired to sign those quarterbacks for your 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 using the Oilers. Reportedly, eight in the NFL's starting quarterbacks were dickering while using AFL. The NFL had no choice. On June 8, 1966, 8 weeks after Davis took over as the AFL commissioner, a merger agreement was announced. There would be described as 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 would have been to be paid to the 49ers and Giants on the 20-year period. Most important, in the standpoint of football fans, was the immediate establishment of the championship game between your leagues. This was the AFL-NFL World Championship Game -- that was popularized because the Super Bowl from the inception.

Gabriel never went for the Raiders and Brodie never left the 49ers, but Brodie collected one million dollars on the agreement he stated 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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