Professional football in the 1960s Imagine professional football without a super bowl. Without professional football in the 1960s, the super bowl would not exist. In the 1960s football was still gaining popularity with 21 teams. Like many sports at any time, football had a couple of really great teams and players with many other things going on. Different elements of professional football in the 1960s were great players, the first super bowl, and many great teams. The American Football League (AFL) creation greatly helped professional football in the 1960s and shaped what professional football looks like today. The AFL was created in order to compete with the already existing National Football League (NFL). This is because the owner of the …show more content…
Len Dawson and Joe Namath were these two players above the rest. Len Dawson was an all-around great quarterback. Rather, Joe Namath was a huge confidence booster while being a great quarterback. While Joe Namath’s 13-year football career he was one of the most publicized, exciting, and proficient players in professional football (Joe Namath). While Joe Namath was getting famous from the media, Len Dawson led the league in many categories. According to the article “Len Dawson, “He was selected to play in six AFL All-Star games and the 1972 AFC-NFC Pro Bowl. An All-AFL selection in both 1962 and 1966, he was named the AFL Player of the Year in 1962. During his career, he completed 2,136 of 3,741 passes for 28,711 yards and 239 touchdowns. He also rushed for 1,293 yards before retiring after the 1975 season.” As the information show’s Joe Namath was more of a publicized celebrity, while Len Dawson was a stunning quarterback with stunning stats. Joe Namath bring the AFL into a household name and Len Dawson showed everyone with his stats that the AFL could compete proving that they were the best two AFL players in the 1960s. As you can see, Joe Namath and Len Dawson were the two best players in the course of the 1960s …show more content…
These two players were Jim Brown and Johnny Unitas who were not only the best on their teams they were the two top players in the NFL. While Jim Brown was leading the league in rushing, Johnny Unitas was one of the best clutch situation passers in the league. During the years Jim Brown was in the NFL he led the league in rushing every year except one (Jim Brown). According to Brian Wright, “Not only is he the greatest running back of all time, he may very well be the best player ever.” On the other hand, Johnny Unitas was one the best quarterbacks during the two-minute drill (Brian, Wright). This information shows that both Jim Brown and Johnny Unitas were both special players at each of their positions. They were both leading the league in their special categories making them the two best players in the NFL during the 1960s. To conclude, Jim Brown and Johnny Unitas were the two top players in the NFL during the