When Missouri Got an NFL Team
Aside from the growth and development of baseball and basketball, football was another American sport that was expanding. The National Football League was formed in 1920 and only four teams established in the 1920s still exist today: the Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, Arizona Cardinals, and New York Giants. Several other teams had been formed into the league over the next 40 years, and an NFL championship game would be played every year beginning in 1921.
But in 1959, the NFL initiated an expansion draft for the 1960 season, and in the effort, a new league was formed called the American Football League.
The AFL consisted of an eastern and a western division, and welcomed eight new teams: the Boston Patriots, New York Titans, Buffalo Bills, and Houston Oilers representing the east, and the Los Angeles Chargers, Denver Broncos, Oakland Raiders, and Dallas Texans. Concerns arose though that teams representing the AFL could not compete with those of the NFL.
The NFL owners were irate at the idea of a new league coming in and competing against them. As it started, the AFL and NFL were still two different leagues and instead of shopping between the two leagues for players, the NFL owners decided to eliminate the pensions if any player dared cross over to the AFL.
Then, several of the players who were going to be affected by that took court action against the owners of the NFL, and the court ruled in the player’s favor, even bettering their pensions and benefits with the league.
Furthermore, the NFL owners began calling the AFL ‘The Foolish league’ but the new league was not going to go away.
The American Football League revitalized an aggressive and fast-paced style of play and quickly drew large crowds. Instead of focusing primarily on running-game tactics like the NFL did, the AFL wanted to emphasize the passing game on offense. The AFL also added a two-point conversion option to use after each touchdown was scored.
The new league was becoming more fast-paced, trendy, and innovative, and the fans around the country were about to get a treat with professional football.
One of the teams from the AFL that proved to be one of the more successful teams were the Dallas Texans. Their founder was a man named Lamar Hunt.
Born on August 2, 1932, in El Dorado, Arkansas, Hunt was born the son of an oil tycoon and was raised in Dallas. He inherited a great deal of wealth from his father and used that to his benefit.
Then in 1959, at the age of 26, Hunt was a sports-minded and civic-minded individual and his goal was to develop a new league that could compete with those of the NFL, especially after being turned down in a couple of failed attempts to purchase NFL franchises.
Hunt collaborated with several other businessmen whose same attempts were turned down. In the end, the American Football League was formed with its eight owners, and although American citizens along with the NFL remained skeptical, Lamar didn’t care.
He was able to bring a professional football team to the state of Texas where he grew up. However, that same year in 1960, the NFL awarded their first expansion team in the modern era, the Dallas Cowboys, in an effort not to cede the AFL to the state of Texas.
With Hunt’s Texans, they struggled to keep up with the popularity and revenue that the Cowboys of the NFL were getting, and he made the decision to move his AFL franchise up to Kansas City, Missouri where they would soon be called the Kansas City Chiefs.
Over the course of the next 10 years, the AFL would show that they could indeed compete with the National Football League, and the team that Lamar Hunt owned was going to play a big part in it.
Missouri, you’ve got a football team!
The Kansas City Chiefs have become one of the most unique franchises in football history.
