David Rosenthal

The AFL franchises did collectively pay the NFL owners $18 million to join the league.

Yes.

This, though, was an enormous victory for the AFL for two reasons.

One, the NFL obviously had the larger TV contracts, so that's just like found money right there.

B, they had all the apparatus.

They had NFL films, NFL enterprises, etc., everything.

So those are both in themselves huge reasons why paying only $18 million was a win for the AFL.

The even bigger reason, when the negotiation started between Schramm and Lamar, the NFL's initial asking price was $50 million per team from the AFL as franchise fees.

So to go from $50 million per team to $18 million total paid over 20 years...

All thanks to Al Davis.

The AFL owners owed Al Davis a big glass of champagne, shall we say.

Right.

It's actual monopoly versus collusion.

The first one was collusion, right?

This is creating a monopoly.

So, once this passes Congress and the merger is approved—remember, it won't actually happen until 1970—

There's this little matter of the World Championship game, this super matter.

There had never been anything like this before.

This is the wholesale invention of a new major sporting event for the first time within the TV era.

Nothing like this had ever happened.