The Road to the Merger Part 4: An Agreement

Such a move was clearly proof — although unsaid as yet in words — that the NFL had some respect for the quality of player the younger league was turning out.

The signing by the NFL’s New York Giants of Buffalo Bills’ kicker Pete Gogolak threatened to break off negotiations, especially when the Oakland Raiders countered by attempting to sign Los Angeles Rams’ quarterback Roman Gabriel.

Al Davis, who had only recently been named the AFL’s new commissioner, believed the response to the NFL’s move would strengthen Hunt’s hand as the talks began to heat up. Hunt held a different opinion. Davis, soon to be out of a job he had just taken, was unhappy he had been left out of the negotiations; Jets’ owner Sonny Werblin was not pleased on what an agreement might do to his growing season ticket base in a city that had an NFL franchise.

But, over time, both Schramm and Hunt tempered emotions from within their respective sides. By May, a deal had been reached that owners from both leagues could live with, although a few AFL owners griped at paying the NFL an initiation fee to join.

Throughout the negotiations, Hunt made clear that all AFL teams (Miami would join in 1966 and Cincinnati in 1968) were to be included in a now expanded NFL, or there would be no deal.

The planned merger between the AFL and NFL was announced in a joint press conference on June 8, 1966. Hunt, Schramm and NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle were in attendance.

Football remained Hunt’s greatest joy throughout his life and only strengthened his connection to an America that continues to embrace the game as part of its ethos.