Tag Archives: Cincinnati Bengals

Week 8 AFC North: Protecting the NFL Republic

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Bengals defense has been beastly the first half of the ’11 season.

With all this talk of wide open offenses in the NFL this year, there is a division where a more traditional game favors the defensive side of the football. The AFC North. Going into yesterday’s games, this division’s four teams ranked 1, 2, 3, & 4 in total defense. Surprisingly it was the Cincinnati Bengals who has led for most of the year before being overtaken by the Ravens. Baltimore luckily had a chance to pad their stats on Monday Night playing an inept Jacksonville team in a 12-7 upset loss.

Each team has the old mantra of running tough, milking the clock, and supplement that with timely passing. Yet the main ingredient is defense, defense, defense. For it was the swarming defense of  the Cincinnati Bengals that knocked the offensive minded Buffalo Bills from the ranks of the unbeaten earlier this year 23-20. This was one week after coming out on the short end of a 13-8 alley fight with the 49ers.

These are your Cincinnati Bengals. One year removed from a season that saw Pri-Madonnas Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco fail as Batman and Robin. Watched their franchise quarterback in Carson Palmer threaten to retire over returning to the team. No problem, Bengals draft TCU’s Andy Dalton and fed Cedric Benson the football. Such thinking has been rewarded with 458 yards and 2 TDs despite the fact he sat out yesterday’s 34-12 beat down of Seattle. Dalton has endured a rookie season baptism by fire where he’s finished the first half of the season with 1,479 yards, 9 TDs and 7 interceptions. He is this year’s Mark Sanchez where he’s not being asked to do to much, rely on his running game and his defense. After a 5-2 start, it’s safe to say that Marvin Lewis and his Bengals have an old tried and true winning NFL formula working for them.

As for the defense, Geno Atkins leads the way with 3 sacks with Jonathon Fanene following with 3. Safety Reggie Nelson leads the way with 45 tackles with Ray Maualuga cleaning up with a hard hitting 38. Were you looking for extremely high numbers?? Sorry you don’t understand the formula. Run the football and minimize how much your defense has to play. Been a staple for over 93 years in the NFL. Lets take a look at the standings as well.

AFC NORTH W L T PCT HOME ROAD DIV CONF PF PA DIFF STRK
Pittsburgh 6 2 0 .750 4-0-0 2-2-0 0-1-0 4-2-0 176 139 +37 Won 4
Cincinnati 5 2 0 .714 2-1-0 3-1-0 1-0-0 4-1-0 171 123 +48 Won 4
Baltimore 5 2 0 .714 4-0-0 1-2-0 1-0-0 3-2-0 185 110 +75 Won 1
Cleveland 3 4 0 .429 2-2-0 1-2-0 0-1-0 2-3-0 107 140 -33 Lost 1

Returning to the leader board after 4 straight wins are the defending AFC Champion Steelers who has seen it’s defense surrender more yards than in year’s past. In 2010 the Steelers were tremendous holding opponents to 62.5 yards per game rushing. This year they have had some struggles yet have bounced back to a respectable 8th allowing 99.1 and this week they get James Harrison back from injury. With a rubber match head knocker this week against division rival Baltimore, all hands need to be on deck. However it was the Ravens that bludgeoned the Steelers with 170 yards rushing in week one. In Harrison’s absence, LaMarr Woodley has picked up the slack and leads the team with 9 sacks. Two of which came in last week’s 25-17 win over decade long nemesis Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.

Woodley sacks rookie Blaine Gabbert

Yet there are points for concern. Do you realize the win over New England represents their only win over a winning team this season?? Also for all the hard hitting the Steelers have been known for they have only forced 3 turnovers and 2 of those are interceptions. http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/pit/2011.htm Right now their leading tacklers are safeties Ryan Clark (50) and Troy Palamalu (48) which shows teams are moving the Steelers off the line of scrimmage. Truth be told they have an easy schedule that may be masking the real Steelers. Right now Pittsburgh is #2 overall in defense yet if you take out the win over New England, their wins come over the Colts (30th in offense), Seattle (31st), Tennessee (25th), Jacksonville (32nd or last), and Arizona (20th).

http://www.nfl.com/stats/categorystats?archive=false&conference=null&role=TM&offensiveStatisticCategory=TOTAL_YARDS&defensiveStatisticCategory=null&season=2011&seasonType=REG&tabSeq=2&qualified=true&Submit=Go

Just think it’s these anemic offenses that have passed for 10 TDs and only 2 interceptions?? This team is still deficient at defending the pass as they were in last February’s Super Bowl. Right now they are winning on the arm of Ben Roethlisberger. His 365 yards and 2TDs were the difference in the Steelers win on Sunday. Rashard Mendenhall has been solid (421 yds /3 TDs) however it’s come down to one frantic 3rd down scramble & throw after another to sustain drives. Can this formula keep?? If they can win this week at home against Baltimore they can sustain that they are in fact still the team to beat in the AFC North. A loss here and indeed the Ravens will have swept their nemesis and dropped them to 1-3 against teams with winning records. Which will really raise serious doubts on their ability to make it back to the AFC Championship Game.

Ready to try and sweep the Steelers are the up and down Baltimore Ravens. How is it the Ravens lost to the 2-6 Jaguars just two weeks ago 12-7 and to the Titans earlier in the season 26-13?? This team needs to quit overlooking it’s lessor opposition. Joe Flacco is coming under all kinds of heat for not showing much improvement over these last few seasons. He checks the football down too much and isn’t running the total offense when it comes to taking to the air. Yet the NFL’s #1 defense has led them to a 3-1 record against team’s with winning records. Ray Lewis (who else) leads the way with 55 tackles, 2 forced fumbles and 1 interception. As a unit they have 17 sacks, 7 interceptions and 6 fumble recoveries. Again it is up to this unit to carry this team as far as it can go.

The Ravens offense is too reliant on Ray Rice. He’s been super productive out of the backfield with 489 yards rushing, 5 TDs and 33 receptions for 373 yards and 2 more touchdowns. However his playing style takes too many hits and he may wear down by season’s end with this his 3rd season with such a heavy workload. It’s imperative that Flacco make better use of his receivers aside from Anquan Boldin (34 rec. 539 yds 2TDs) and TE Ed Dickson. Flacco is too predictable when you show him zone he won’t throw to the second level and just dumps it to Rice. He will be the reason this team doesn’t make it to the Super Bowl. In his 4th season he should have shown the growth to master more of the offense and learn the nuances of the quarterback position. Will he throw to the second level against the Steelers this week??

Cleveland’s D’Qwell Jackson is having a Pro Bowl season

Rounding out this defensive group are the “No Name” Cleveland Browns who are in the midst of shaping the same gameplan around a young QB in Colt McCoy while pounding the opposition with Peyton Hillis. Yet this season Hillis (211 yards / 2TDs) has been nicked with an assortment of injuries and has shared time with Montario Hardesty (244 yards). The Browns have been playing close to the vest games all year thanks to a defense filled with No Names that have roped teams into defensive struggles. Last Sunday they were out in San Francisco in another slugfest where they lost a close one 20-10. The 49ers jumped to an early17-3 lead and were nearly shut out from that point on. Again this defense was let down by an offense that couldn’t get out of it’s own way being held to 66 yards rushing. In their defense they were down to a second string running back with both Hillis and Hardesty out with injuries.

So how are the Browns just 3-4?? They have been able to best the weak teams in defensive struggles and can’t get over the hump when they require more offense. Their 5th ranked defense has been led by D’Qwell Jackson, a fifth year linebacker out of Maryland, who is having the best season of any MLB /ILB. He’s corralled 64 tackles, 2.5 sacks, 1 forced fumble and 2 fumble recoveries and looks like a young Ray Lewis. In fact this team has 17 sacks while forcing 8 turnovers. Four linemen have multiple sacks so far this season, their first under defensive co-ordinator Dick Jauron. Their a hodge podge group of veteran free agents and a few unheard of stars like Jackson. If they can get through the next three games relatively healthy, five of their final 6 games are against defensive brethren in cold weather. Their defense can only carry them so far. Otherwise they stand a chance to make some serious noise in the division if they can get some offensive help. Will they get it??

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NFL Week 2 AFC North: Season of Change Seems Like the Same Old Thing, or Is It??

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When we were putting our annual previews together this summer we stated this division was about to see some change. This was clearly the last year the Ravens and Steelers would be head and shoulders above the Bengals and Browns. Its been well chronicled about the age of the Steelers defense and we have to see which was more indicative of where they will play as a unit. Was it the 170 yards they gave up on the ground to the Baltimore Ravens in week 1 or the 31 yards last week to the Seahawks?? Speaking of the Ravens… What was that egg you guys laid in Adelphia Coliseum last week in losing to the Titans?? Are you serious?? Finally get that big early season win over the Steelers to put them in the rear view and then stub your toe the next week and catch you in the standings. You’re running out of time to get Ray Lewis another ring before he retires.

As for Marvin Lewis and his Cincinnati Bengals, who knew that he’d be only a few plays away from a 2-0 start after losing Chad Ochocinco and recovering from the Carson Palmer odyssey. With rookie QB Andy Dalton playing well these first couple of weeks and Bruce Gradkowski as insurance if there is a drop, time to unload Palmer. An in-season trade to help fortify the defense and get your team to totally rally around the quarterbacks that want to be there. Would go a long way in solidifying your locker room. Keep feeding the football to Cedric Benson. His 180 yards rushing in these first two games has been the difference between going 1-1 as opposed to 0-2 and resting your defense. Face it you stole one from the Browns who should have had that game. You get a win however you can though…

AFC NORTH W L T PCT HOME ROAD DIV CONF PF PA DIFF STRK
Cincinnati 1 1 0 .500 0-0-0 1-1-0 1-0-0 1-1-0 49 41 +8 Lost 1
Baltimore 1 1 0 .500 1-0-0 0-1-0 1-0-0 1-1-0 48 33 +15 Lost 1
Cleveland 1 1 0 .500 0-1-0 1-0-0 0-1-0 1-1-0 44 46 -2 Won 1
Pittsburgh 1 1 0 .500 1-0-0 0-1-0 0-1-0 0-1-0 31 35 -4 Won 1

As for the Browns, hopefully it’s the ties that bind that will bring the coaching carousel to a close. Coach Pat Shurmur is the nephew of the late Fritz Shurmur, who was the defensive co-ordinator for present Brown GM Mike Holmgren when he coached in Green Bay. The Shurmur/ Holmgren relationship was forged during the late 80s when Mike was the offensive co-ordinator for the World Champion 49ers and the hardest defense in their division year in and year out was the Los Angeles Rams defense under Fritz. That’s the coaching pedigree. Right now he doesn’t have to draw up any exotic blitzes, just has to have his defense not give up over 100 yards a game rushing on defense. They already have the perfect antidote in having Peyton Hillis pound at rival defenses to keep opposing teams off the field. He needs a little more help from Colt McCoy, who is completing only 56.3% of his passes. He has to show some growth in this season or Hillis could break down late in the season from overuse. They need him down the stretch where 3 of their last 4 are on the road. They absolutely need a receiver to emerge, to have Hillis as the leading receiver shows the ball is getting dumped off too much. Hillis isn’t Marshall Faulk running intricate routes. Come on Massaquoi and Josh Cribbs…

When it comes to the Steelers,. this team loves to run, but their defense is going to similar to every NFL team and see a defensive slip this year. That lack of conditioning and age will have the Steelers giving up points this year and placing the game in Roethlisberger’s hands. Face it he keeps plays alive and makes things happen and with his size never gets knocked out of the game. With Emanuel Sanders and Antonio Brown able to get deep, it should open up the intermediate routes for Hines Ward, Heath Miller, and Mike Wallace. So here we would suspect you’d ask why aren’t we saying Pittsburgh should run. We don’t because we know they’ll run yet the defense may put them in a few jams where they will have to come from behind or score late. Something they have not had to put up with in the Roethlisberger. The Steelers will be a passing and bubble screen team much like they were in 2003, its a transitional year. They get a break and take on the Manningless Colts this week so the stats won’t look bad on this defense.

Well after last year’s playoff loss to the Steelers we called Joe Flacco a beta quarterback and not an alpha. We took a lot of flack for that yet it’s reared it’s head in just two weeks of this season. Lets face it, it was the 170 yards rushing on the Steelers defense as the  reason they won that game. Where Flacco has to become a more polished quarterback and more of a field general was in a game like last week. They’re losing to a team they should really be ahead of. It’s those games that you see the best quarterbacks put their team on their back if they have to and pass them to victory. Dating back to last year’s Monday Night loss in Atlanta to Matt Ryan and the Falcons we have had our eye on this. He has the chance to change our CEO’s mind in two weeks when he takes on the New York Jets then two weeks later the Houston Texans as well. He will at least be home for these games and has to come through. He’s the AFC’s version of Tony Romo, just without the big mistakes. It’s time for some absolute field generalship from him. He needs to channel his inner Unitas.

2011 AFC North Previews & Predictions

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The winds of change will blow across the AFC North this year starting at the midway point. The Pittsburgh Steelers are due to succumb to age and fatigue. Much like the Los Angeles Lakers in basketball, they’re forays into the NFL playoffs have equalled nearly a complete additional season of wear. Since 2004 the Steelers have participated in 13 post season games. Coming back with 7 projected defensive starters over 30, this should become an issue as it has shown with Troy Palamlu’s late season injuries. With a physical team, it doesn’t bode well for back to back seasons. Even when this team won the Super Bowl after the ’05 and ’08 seasons, they missed the playoffs the following year.

Standing at the gates of this slight dip in production stands the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens have to prove to themselves they can beat the Steelers at full strength. They have the first game of the season circled and must come through to build confidence. Many Raven fans have expressed disappointment for losing TE Todd Heap to free agency Yet this team needs more of a vertical presence.  Enter WR Lee Evans. If he can come in and free up the underneath routes for Boldin, Flacco can fully develop. He relied on the short throw to the tight end too much. If this happens…

2011 AFC NORTH PREDICTIONS

Baltimore Ravens 11-5 *

Pittsburgh Steelers 10-6

Cleveland Browns 7-9

Cincinnati Bengals 4-12

The Cincinnati Bengals have been on a strange odyssey over the last half decade. They have made the playoffs twice in the last 6 years, yet we had witnessed promise that should move them to the next level, and we’ve been disappointed. At time of this article, Carson Palmer is still in a self imposed exile, and Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco never  became the receiving threat as promised. All three are gone from the 2011 squad that is searching for an identity and leadership under coach Marvin Lewis. They signed scrappy quarterback Bruce Gradkowski, who looked really good against the Colts in the 3rd preseason game. Will he be able to channel that moxie into firing up his teammates?? Will they have the players to take advantage of it this year?? There is work to do in the Queen City.

Applause for the Cleveland Browns. They are returning to the 4-3 defense after a forgettable stretch in a 3-4.  They just don’t have the athletes to run that type of defense and this is a step in the right direction. Peyton Hillis should get the ball as a featured back this year and could wind up with a 350 carry season.  With the team slowly bringing Colt McCoy along at quarterback, they’re going to have to win some close to the vest affairs. Especially when they face the Steelers and Ravens. All four of these game happen between weeks 13 -17. So they have time to build some confidence and get ready for these cold weather games. Right now, new coach Pat Shurmur is out to find out who is ready to take the next step and lead the Browns back to prominence.  Shouldn’t be a factor until next year at the earliest.

Back to Pittsburgh. The Steelers have developed some young talent at receiver and running back and could have one of the their best offenses in many years. Antonio Brown looks like a legitimate deep threat and kick returner. He gives the Steelers an explosive element not seen since the heyday of Antwan Randle El. Roethlisberger is still in his prime and will have to bail out the Steelers late in many games this year. The one player who should be at his best should be James Harrison, he shows no signs of slowing down and is the enforcer on that defense. He is the one player Pittsburgh can’t afford to lose on defense. Do you realize he is coming up on the all time record for most fumbles forced for a career even though he’s been a starter for only 6 seasons. He’s a wrecking machine and a former defensive player of the year.  For the Steelers to retain their AFC North mantle, it’s he and Woodley who have to make all the plays. The problem is they can only mask a deficient secondary so long. See Super Bowl XLV game footage…yet we digress. The Steelers, just like the Ravens will ultimately be undone by their secondaries. However when it comes to the AFC North, the Ravens win it….barely.

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Next Up The AFC East

’88 Cincinnati Bengals: What Is A Champion?? What Does One Look Like??

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1988 AFC Championship Ring: Bengals 21-10 over Buffalo

Are you a champion only because you won the championship over your competition? Can there be another definition for one?? Are you to tell me that before 1985, Walter Payton wasn’t a champion? I remember Aeneas Williams firing up his Arizona Cardinals sometime around 1999, when he gathered his team and said “Champions aren’t born in the ring, they’re (only) recognized there”.  Why do I ask these questions, I think there are other definitions of a champion.  To show a champion’s will to win.  To not concede to the onslaught of another team even when you’re hopelessly behind. The greatest efforts of championship teams gone by weren’t games they won they were games that they lost.

On multiple occasions I heard Michael Irvin, Troy Aikman, and Emmitt Smith speak with the most pride on how they handled the ’94 NFC Championship Game.  They fell behind 21-0 in the last game before trying for the elusive Super Bowl 3-peat. Against the 1993 Pro Bowl defense (6 defensive signees) geared to stop them they fought on and came within a controversial call of coming back in that game, losing 38-28.

Jack Lambert and the Late Art Rooney Sr. spoke reverently of their beloved 1976 Steelers who did not win the Super Bowl.  This defense was the reason that the rule changes of ’78 took place to open the passing game. In an 8 game stretch to finish the ’76 season, the Steelers gave up only 28 points and shut out 5 of their last 8 opponents to catch the Bengals and make the playoffs. They lost in the AFC Championship Game to the Oakland Raiders 24-7 because BOTH Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier, who each rushed for 1,000 yards in ’76, missed the championship game. Many including the Steelers themselves hold this team with a greater degree of pride than the 4 teams that did win it.

What are we getting at here? A champion is defined by the magnificence of their effort no matter the odds.  Our society loses sight of this from time to time.  Please don’t misunderstand this as though winning it all isn’t the ultimate, just saying that there are even greater stories of those who put in a monumental effort only to come up a tad short.  Yet they maximized all they could give…which is what we all teach to kids all over. Give all you can and that is all you can do… so without further adieu we bring you a story of one of those great champions in the 1988 Cincinnati Bengals.

SUPER BOWL XXIII RUNNER UP 1988 CINCINNATI BENGALS <————-CLICK LINK (Word 2007 Document)

This story is from an upcoming book.

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**TOMORROW’S ARTICLE: 2011 Minnesota Vikings preview**

The AFL: A True American Success Story

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Unlike other leagues that popped up and died, the American Football League lives on in the American Football Conference of the modern NFL.  With a burgeoning economy after World War II, Americans turned their attention to a life of leisure during the 1950s. Sports became the outlet for most of America.

There was a clamor by many who felt slighted when it came to big league sports.  The furthest point west on the map where major professional sports was played, was Wisconsin & St Louis Missouri. Then something happened to change the landscape.  The AAFC football league folded and the San Francisco 49ers joined the NFL in 1950, along with the champion Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Colts.

This event helped propel the Cleveland Rams west to Los Angeles, where they joined San Francisco to be the first pro teams in California. Now other western cities wanted in on the action and all the other sports started to broaden their minds toward relocation.  Soon moves were made by an L.A. Councilwoman who massaged the beginnings of what came to be the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants move to California in 1957.  Expansion was on soon with the Lakers in 1960 moving from Minneapolis.  Now Texans wanted an NFL team and had the money to gain an NFL franchise or so Lamar Hunt thought.

AFL and Kansas City Chief founder Lamar Hunt holding a platter of AFL footballs.

AFL and Kansas City Chief founder Lamar Hunt holding a platter of AFL footballs.

Then the NFL had the landmark 1958 NFL Championship overtime game between the New York Giants and Baltimore Colts that transformed the spark of interest into a flame. Hunt and principles moved quickly to form the American Football League since the NFL had thwarted their attempts to bring football to Texas. Now you have to understand who we’re talking about here for a second.  Lamar Hunt was son of H.L. Hunt of Hunt Brothers Oil! We’re talking seriously deep pockets here. The NFL in its arrogance thought they would outlast a fledgling league like the AAFC just a decade before….damn were they wrong.

Once the idea of the AFL gained momentum, the NFL turned to espionage and tricky double dealing to sink the new league.  The eight cities that Hunt and the other AFL owners decided on were Dallas, Houston, Denver, Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Buffalo. However the NFL bent the ear of the Minnesota ownership group, and told them they would give them an NFL franchise if they would decieve their brethren, by defecting to the NFL at the last minute. It almost worked but the AFL scrambled to move the eighth team to its new home in Oakland. Meanwhile the NFL put a team in Dallas to compete with Hunt’s Dallas Texans, they were called the Cowboys.

The AFL had some seriously rich men that wanted to see it succeed in Bud Adams, Ralph Wilson, Lamar Hunt, and Barron Hilton yet there were other ownership groups that struggled to make ends meet as the league got off the ground in 1960. Many teams were losing money at record rates, some to the tune of a million dollars or more.

It was former Boston Patriot owner Billy Sullivan who coined the phrase “The Foolish Club” when listening to his colleagues joke about revenues lost.  However John Madden recalled a reporter asking Lamar’s father H.L. Hunt “What did he think of his son losing $1 million  a year??” Hunt’s answer was cryptic to the NFL and the sporting establishment’s ears when he replied “Well, he’ll be ok. At that rate he’ll only be able to go on for another 150 years.” Damn!!  On 1960’s dollars??  Yikes!!

Although the NFL had been around forever, for the first time they were up against wealthy men who gained their fortunes as titans of industry outside of football. NFL owners George Halas, Carroll Rosenbloom, Tim and Wellington Mara, George Preston Marshall, and Art Modell were primarily football men and knew their asses were in trouble.  If it came down to the AFL’s pockets they would be in for a battle they couldn’t win.

The first few years had the established sporting press scoffing at the league’s style of play, uniforms, retread players and coaches, you name it. This is an era where if you went against the establishment, you had more than an uphill battle just for acceptance….I mean the radical 60’s were not yet underway. Yet here they were continuing the plan on expanding professional football to more points within the United States.

One of the first items the AFL did was secure a television contract to assist the teams that had financial problems like the Titans and Raiders.  The Raiders had also come to a point of folding when they contacted their fellow teams and said they couldn’t sustain operation financially.  Buffalo’s Ralph Wilson stepped in and lent the Raiders $450,000 to stay afloat because the league couldn’t operate with only 7 teams. As for the Titans and Harry Wismer, the Jets needed an ownership group that had the pockets and vision to rival that of the New York Giants. Enter Sonny Werblin.

Werblin spearheaded a group that purchased the bankrupt New York Titans, renamed them the Jets and helped negotiate the most lucrative television contract to date with NBC.  Over $1.8 million dollars went to each team in 1965 and with all of their teams solvent for future operation, new stadiums went up in San Diego (Los Angeles), Oakland, & Denver. Now the next move Werblin spearheaded was to draft Joe Namath and pay him a ridiculous $427,000 contract to be the star in New York. Uh oh…this single shot turned the draft into a who is going to pay the most for a players services between the two leagues.  Talk about impact.

Super Bowl I trophy with both logos (Katie Marie Packers Hall of Fame)

An unwritten agreement existed between the two leagues to not sign each others current players.  Yet the NFL went underhanded, yet again, when the New York Giants signed kicker Pete Gogolak from the two time AFL Champion Buffalo Bills.  The AFL retaliated big time. It was recounted by Lamar Hunt, the founder of the Texans who had moved his team to Kansas City and renamed them the Chiefs, to meet Tex Schramm and discuss a possible merger. Hunt still lived in Dallas. They met at Love Field under the Texas Ranger statue and when the meeting was over, Hunt flew to Houston to elect Al Davis AFL Commissioner.  Joe Foss had been a good commissioner but now they needed a “war time President”.  Al Davis quickly helped teams realize they could bring the NFL to its knees if they created a bidding war by signing away their superstars.

The moves of signing away San Francisco quarterback John Brodie, Los Angeles’ Roman Gabriel, and Chicago’s Mike Ditka were the straw that broke the camel’s back.  The bidding for player’s talents had driven contracts up dramatically and the NFL grudgingly came to the table.  Al Davis was away about to sign another player when Hunt told him that they were going to meet the next day about a merger and they didn’t need the headlines. *Pay attention because this is the birthplace of the Chiefs / Raiders rivalry and the Al Davis against the world mentality takes place*  Davis signs the player which angers Hunt.

In the subsequent negotiations, the leagues agree to a merger with the two league’s champions playing in a new championship game, the Super Bowl, for the first four years and realignment into one all inclusive league in 1970.  Pete Rozelle remained commissioner over all of football, there was a common draft starting in 1966… and Al Davis….?? They left him out in the cold sort of..

al-davis-bustThis is where he received his dubious ownership distinction and awkward title President of the Managing General Partner for the Raiders.  He had only been a coach before, yet one of the  items that seemed spineless is the NFL made the AFL’s teams pay $3 million in reparation damages each and had Al Davis been there would never have acquiesced to such a demand.  Not when they had the NFL crawling to the table.  It was this animosity toward Pete Rozelle, Bud Adams and especially the Kansas City Chiefs and Lamar Hunt that raged on for many years. *This is where the animosity between Davis and Rozelle fostered…remember the court battles of the 1980s between the Oakland Raiders v the NFL??*

The patch worn by the Kansas City Chiefs on January 11, 1970 for Super Bowl IV. The final game of the AFL

In the first two Super Bowls Green Bay bested Kansas City and Oakland respectively.  The landmark win came when the Jets upset Baltimore to show that the AFL was on a par in Super Bowl III.  Then with a twist of fate, the ownership group who traitorously tried to sink the AFL by defecting, came into Super Bowl IV against the Kansas City Chiefs and AFL founder Lamar Hunt.  In the last game ever for the AFL, Kansas City buried the Minnesota Vikings 23-7 to bring not only the Super Bowl record to 2-2 between the two leagues, but able to have the satisfaction of kicking Judas’ ass in the process.

In conclusion: It was wrong to not include Davis and to me is the one of the few black eyes in this success story.  The AFL was swallowed into the monolith that is the NFL after expanding the AFL to 10 teams with Cincinnati, and Miami emerging.  These 10 teams were joined by the Pittsburgh Steelers, Cleveland Browns, and Baltimore Colts, yes the Baltimore Colts who gave the NFL a black eye with that first loss. They didn’t go empty handed, each club was paid $3 million to move to the new AFC.  Yet AFL loyalists such as Davis wished the two leagues stay separate, and he truly believed they would have eventually folded the NFL.

This is the ring for the Raiders triumph in Super Bowl XI. Look at the middle pic of the side of the ring. There you’ll see the AFL Block “A” along with the AFL logo and not the bold modified AFC “A”.

In fact in the 3 Super Bowls the Raiders won in the post merger NFL, Davis always used the Block “A” of the AFL and not the bold modified block “A” of the AFC on their Super Bowl rings.  He didn’t relent until the 2002 AFC championship ring where he finally used the AFC “A”.

hof-lamar-huntThere you have it…how the AFL changed the sporting landscape after the first shot was fired by the folding of their predecessors, the AAFC.  San Francisco’s entering the NFL doesn’t get the impact that it should because so much focus was on champion Cleveland coming over.  The western expansion of American Football owes a debt of gratitude to the 49ers yet even more to those original owners.

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