AFL–NFL merger

The agreement that united the American Football League and National Football League into one professional league, completed in 1970. It preserved the two leagues as separate conferences within the NFL.

American Football League: A professional American football league that operated from 1960 through 1969 before joining the NFL. The AFL brought a competing league, teams, players, and a television audience into merger negotiations.
AFL–NFL agreement: The 1966 agreement to merge the American Football League and NFL under a common structure. It established the merger's framework, including a shared championship and eventual league integration.
American Football Conference: One of the NFL's two conferences, formed in 1970 largely from former AFL teams. The AFC institutionalized the AFL's place in the unified league.
All-America Football Conference: A professional football league that competed with the NFL from 1946 to 1949 before three teams joined the NFL. Its earlier absorption by the NFL contrasts with the AFL's survival as a full partner in a merger.
National Football League: The major professional American football league founded in 1920 and operating across the United States. The NFL negotiated the agreement and became the continuing league after the merger.
1966 AFL–NFL merger announcement: The public announcement on June 8, 1966, that the AFL and NFL had agreed to merge. The announcement marked the public start of the merger process, years before integration was complete.
National Football Conference: One of the NFL's two conferences, formed in 1970 largely from former NFL teams. The NFC preserved the former NFL's conference identity alongside the AFC.
United States Football League: A professional football league that played three spring seasons from 1983 to 1985 and later won an antitrust judgment against the NFL. The USFL's failed challenge shows a rival league that did not secure a merger.
Lamar Hunt: An American sports entrepreneur who founded the AFL and the Kansas City Chiefs. Hunt helped organize the rival league whose success made an agreement with the NFL possible.
AFL–NFL merger legislation: The 1966 federal legislation that exempted the AFL–NFL merger from antitrust challenges under specified conditions. Congressional action helped clear a legal obstacle to the leagues' agreement.

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Al DavisRelated: The merger made the Raiders an NFL franchise and changed the scale of Davis’s influence.