My friend, have you heard about the NFL and AFL leages? Growing up, I remember hearing plenty of chatter about how the two leages might merge – especially amongst football fanatics. Since I am a true football fan, I am forever intrigued by the thought.
Right off the bat, I want to throw in a few caveats – the NFL and AFL leages merged way back in the day. To be more precise, the merger happened in 1970. As a result of this merger, 26 teams from the AFL and NFL were joined to form the National Football Conference (NFC). They operated as the National Football Conference until 2002, when the official title changed to the National Football League (NFL).
In order to understand why the NFC and NFL merged in 1970, you first have to go back in history to the origin of the two leages. The American Football League (AFL) was created in 1960 as a rival to the NFL. After a decade of competition between the two leages, the AFL and NFL reached an agreement to unite their squads, and so the merger happened in 1970. It was a historical moment for American football.
Despite their past tense merger, there is still on-going speculation as to whether the NFL and AFL leages will unite again in the future. You can imagine how contentious the issue is – no other leage has attempted the feat, so nobody can predict what the outcome would be.
Naturally I have my own opinion on the matter and my sentiment boils down to the fact that I’m totally down for another merger if it could somehow benefit all of the teams in the leage. My general opinion is that leages who merge have even more chances of success and financial stability. Provided that player’s safety, rules and regulations remain the same, I am absolutely for it.
I think the first and foremost priority should be addressing the corrupt aspects of the NFL and AFL and eliminating them from the leage. Because if both leages combine then the sanctioning body should definitely keep in mind the ethics and serve justice across the board.
Considering the way that the two major leages operate, I can imagine another potential argument against the merger. The league’s merger could increase the ticket prices for fans and also damage players’ rights in the league. This could be a burden on teams financially, which could then task them to make difficult decisions in regards to the other line-ups.
I believe the aftermath of the post-merger leage would look very different to what it is today. Changes to rules and regulations would have to be made in order to create a unified “football culture” for all teams. Going beyond that, the most fitting and amazing consequence of the NFC and AFL merge could be an unceasing flow of talent into America’s football leagues, and who knows what kinds of marvels it would lead to.
Coming face to face with something so grand yet so delicate has me thinking, do you think the NFL and AFL leages would be able to merge successfully? What kind of impacts could it have on the sport? How would it influence the gameplay and the teams? What positive and negative implications could it bring?