Dec. 21, 1964 - According to Ralph Wilson (top row, third from left with other AFL owners), owner of the Buffalo Bills, the dove of peace is near at hand — although not too near — in the war between the rival pro football leagues, American and National.
Wilson, a Detroit insurance and trucking executive who owned shares in the Lions of the NFL before he became one of the AFL founders in 1960, told this story to the Associated Press last Sunday:
“About a year ago,” he said, “one of the top owners in the NFL approached our league with a proposition of a merger and common draft. We called a special meeting to consider it. Our attorneys warned that the Justice Department might jump down our throats on the anti‐trust laws. So we turned it down.
“What the NFL wanted was for us to drop two of our teams. They would take in six, making a 20‐team league. One of the teams they wanted us to drop was the New York Jets. It’s not likely that the Maras in New York would sit still for a merger with a second team in their city.”
Wilson touched upon two salient points. The first is that unrest does exist among certain NFL owners who don’t see the wisdom of continuing the war and giving college players like Dick Butkus of Illinois $200,000 long term, no‐cut bonus contracts.
Second, Wilson fingered the strongest place of resistance to peace, namely New York. This is the town of John V. and Wellington Mara, owners of the wealthy Giants, and of Pete Rozelle, the NFL commissioner who negotiates those multi-million-dollar television contracts.
Rozelle, told about Wilson’s statement, denied it. “No such proposal was ever approved by the NFL formally or informally, nor was it ever discussed,” he said. It is possible, of course, that one of the NFL club owners could have made the proposal on his own without consulting the rest of the league.
The Maras, inherently conservative, take the position that their team got here first. The Giants preceded Sonny Werblin’s Jets by 38 years. The fact that pro football has had tremendous growth in the last decade and that New York can possibly support two teams does not impress the Mara brothers. They are not giving away a piece of something that took 35 years, many of them unprofitable, to achieve.
Rozelle has done such an outstanding job in his four years as commissioner and has made so much money for all the NFL owners, that they cannot challenge — or even question out loud — his vast authority and stature. If Pete sees fit to continue to fight the AFL, then his owners have to go along.
Rozelle means to continue the fight, even at Toots Shor’s or “21.” At social events of the sports world, he turns his back on Werblin.
Rozelle’s only hope would seem to be that low television audience ratings in future years will discourage the NBC, the AFL’s sugar daddy, and reduce the junior league to permanent second‐class status.
Wilson doubts this, as do others. The Buffalo owner said: “Our T.V. contract was the turning point for our league. Television money will force us to have midweek games, probably sooner than most people believe. If you like football it doesn’t matter if it’s Wednesday night or Sunday afternoon.”
Wilson said he thought the two leagues were now equal with regard to playing strength.
“We'll be stronger,” he said. “We’re signing 40% of the new players and splitting them eight ways, whereas the NFL splits 14 ways.
“It used to be that in a given year an NFL team could come up with two good backs and two good linemen from the draft. Now, with the AFL in the picture, they get one of each.”
Wilson cited the Minnesota Vikings, who tied for second place in the Western division of the NFL in 1964. The Vikings began operations in 1961 when the Buffalo Bills were already one season old.
“It figures we’re as strong as the NFL,” Wilson said. “We’d like a playoff, and one should be held. But we’re not going to them again with our hat in our hand. There won’t be a title playoff between the two leagues unless some third party arranges it.”
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