The American Football League (AFL) (1960 - 1969) achieved tremendous success in spite of bias by sports reporters in the print and electronic media. This bias, evidently fed by loyalty to the rival National Football League (NFL), was expressed in many ways: CBS-TV refusing to give AFL scores on its broadcasts of NFL games; Sports Illustrated giving AFL games short shrift and black-and-white photos, if any, while it covered NFL games with feature stories and lush color pictures.
Perhaps the most damning claim was the one by newspaper, radio and TV reporters from NFL cities, calling AFL players "NFL Rejects", implying that if a player had spent time in the NFL and then played with an AFL team, he was "washed up" and not good enough to play in the "superior" league.
To refute that propaganda, one has only to consider the following "NFL Rejects": Jack Kemp. Babe Parilli. Ron McDole. Art Powell. John Tracey. George Blanda. Bob Dee. Don Maynard. Len Dawson. They all started their careers in the NFL. They all set standards at their respective positions, in the American Football League. At the peaks of their careers, all would have gladly been "taken back" by the NFL teams that "rejected" them. What they and dozens of others showed was that the inferiority may have been not in the AFL players, but in the evaluation skills of the NFL teams that let them go.
American Football League Players, Coaches, and Contributors
Remember that NFL teams hold its players rights once they draft them, meaning players like Spencer, Trumaine Johnson, etc., will still be drafted by NFL clubs, but later in the selection process, hoping theyll be available in a few years down the road when their contracts expire.
Given the NFL's tendency to have come out losers in the courts back then, the USFL was banking on the NFL coming to terms with them rather than battling the antitrust suit in the courts or waiting for the USFL to die a death attributable to dollar anemia.
The NFL claims that those losses were self-inflicted, brought about by the USFLs failure to adhere to its original concept: namely, a league of competitive though lesser (and lesser-priced) talents which would provide an exciting game to those fans for whom, apparently, five months of football was inadequate.
MINNEAPOLIS -- The NFL on Wednesday rejected Minnesota defensive end Kenny Mixon's appeal of a two-game suspension for violating the league's substance abuse policy.
In-season coaching changes in the NFL do virtually nothing to reverse the fortunes of franchises.
Miami had little choice but to bring back Ricky Williams, who hasn't played in the NFL since '05.
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