Pete Rozelle The NFL today consists of 32 teams, 2 conferences, and 4 divisions in each conference. In February, one team from each conference battle it out in the Super Bowl. But the NFL wasn’t always like this. In 1955, there were 12 teams. That was true until Pete Rozelle took over the league as commissioner in 1960. Pete Rozelle is a significant figure in American history because he constructed the merger, a catalyst for the popularity of the NFL. The 6th commissioner of the NFL was born on March 1, 1926. Rozelle grew up playing sports such as football, basketball, and baseball. He went to college at the University of San Francisco where he was a student publicist. After graduating, Rozelle was invited back to USF as the athletic news …show more content…
One season, you would see a team, and the next season you wouldn’t. For example, the 1950 season featured the Baltimore Colts in the National division. The 1951 season, however, didn’t have the Baltimore Colts on any schedule. The Boston Yanks were a team that lasted for a whopping 3 years, and there was a thing called ‘merging teams’ where two teams could combine their rosters. The NFL was chaos back then because no teams had much money since the league just wasn’t popular enough. Baseball was the most popular sport at this time, second being boxing, followed by golf and then football. Even college football was more popular than pro …show more content…
A way to do this was to get more teams in the league. There were two other pro football leagues at this team, the All American Football Conference (AAFC) and the American Football League (AFL). There was a small merger (combination of two things) between the AAFC and the NFL which brought three teams to the NFL, but had no impact to popularity. Pete Rozelle instigated the process of a merger between the lead rival, the AFL. The process of the merger began with the two rival leagues trying to beat each other in a popularity contest by acquiring the best players from the other league. No one won this, so Pete Rozelle and the AFL decided upon a merger, On June 8, 1966, the two leagues announced the merger and the creation of the new NFL. The merger of the leagues allowed for the ultimate championship game, the “AFL -NFL Championship Game,” renamed the Super Bowl. The merger started to take effect during the 1970 season. Now the league had 26 teams, but a new challenge faced Rozelle; how to broadcast the thriving