When the American Football League first took the field in 1960, team and league officials alike were exploring any manner possible of promoting the new league. Television was, of course, a critical component in their plan to get the new game out to the fans. This excellent video illustrates how television helped to ensure the ultimate success of the AFL, and how, in turn, broadcasting AFL games helped change how professional sports were covered.
About Todd TobiasMy interest in the American Football League began in 1998, when I wrote my master's thesis about Sid Gillman. I created this blog to educate and entertain football fans with the stories of the American Football League, 1960-1969.
The AFL impacted football and the sporting public of the 60′s in many ways, but probably their biggest impact was television. First, they introduced equal tv revenue sharing, a concept introduced by baseball’s Branch Rickey and adopted by founder Lamar Hunt, which of course the NFL copied. 5 years later, the AFL signed a landmark deal with NBC which ensured the AFL’s survival. That was and still is the most important sports-tv deal in history and allowed profootball to flourish and surpass baseball as America’s favorite sport. Unfortunately, that contract was the impetus for the AFL-NFL merger….War over….
It was not only television’s impact on the AFL that was important, it was the AFL’s impact on television. Much is made of the NBC contract, but the AFL’s original contract with ABC was the FIRST nationwide league television contract for Professional Football. Having that contract encouraged ABC to innovate: the first miked up players; Friday and Monday night games; moving sideline cameras where the NFL had a stationary camera at midfield, and a Color comentator in the booth, wher ethe NFL used one announcer.