The Other League
The short-lived American Football League, merged into the NFL after Super Bowl IV, invented the modern media spectacle that is pro football. And three Jews invented the show that was the AFL.
This Sunday, you will watch Super Bowl XLV <SUP>[2]</SUP>. You will watch because the Super Bowl is among the American religion's biggest holidays. You will watch because professional football is the national pastime (last Halloween, more viewers watched <SUP>[3]</SUP> a regular-season National Football League game than a simultaneous Game 4 of the World Series). You will watch because at some point during the game, Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers or Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers will hike the ball, drop back to give his receivers precious seconds to zoom down the field, maintain focus even as the pocket collapses, pat the ball once and chuck it 40 yards as one of the fastest men alive runs to meet it. For a little under three seconds, the ball will travel through the air, hovering onscreen against the backdrop of the blurred masses, and more than 100 million Americans will hold their breath, waiting to see what happens.
None of this would existâ€"pro football's astounding popularity and financial success <SUP>[4]</SUP>, the Super Bowl, the Hollywood-like narratives and Hollywood-like stars, and even the glorious deep bombâ€"if it were not for the American Football League, or AFL, which disappeared more than 40 years ago, only 10 years after its birth. The AFL's story is a quintessentially American tale of a group of outmanned, outcast insurgents working on the margins, forced to break with the old way of doing things and in the process creating a brasher, more exciting version of the mainstreamâ€"a mainstream that then remade itself in the insurgents' image.
And Sid Gillman, Sonny Werblin, and Al Davisâ€"three Jewish menâ€"were among the AFL's boldest and most creative innovators, and through the AFL had among the greatest impacts on the shape, success, and direction of the game you will watch on Sunday night.
Full article: http://www.tabletmag.com/news-and-politics/57887/the-other-league/print/
The short-lived American Football League, merged into the NFL after Super Bowl IV, invented the modern media spectacle that is pro football. And three Jews invented the show that was the AFL.
This Sunday, you will watch Super Bowl XLV <SUP>[2]</SUP>. You will watch because the Super Bowl is among the American religion's biggest holidays. You will watch because professional football is the national pastime (last Halloween, more viewers watched <SUP>[3]</SUP> a regular-season National Football League game than a simultaneous Game 4 of the World Series). You will watch because at some point during the game, Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers or Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers will hike the ball, drop back to give his receivers precious seconds to zoom down the field, maintain focus even as the pocket collapses, pat the ball once and chuck it 40 yards as one of the fastest men alive runs to meet it. For a little under three seconds, the ball will travel through the air, hovering onscreen against the backdrop of the blurred masses, and more than 100 million Americans will hold their breath, waiting to see what happens.
None of this would existâ€"pro football's astounding popularity and financial success <SUP>[4]</SUP>, the Super Bowl, the Hollywood-like narratives and Hollywood-like stars, and even the glorious deep bombâ€"if it were not for the American Football League, or AFL, which disappeared more than 40 years ago, only 10 years after its birth. The AFL's story is a quintessentially American tale of a group of outmanned, outcast insurgents working on the margins, forced to break with the old way of doing things and in the process creating a brasher, more exciting version of the mainstreamâ€"a mainstream that then remade itself in the insurgents' image.
And Sid Gillman, Sonny Werblin, and Al Davisâ€"three Jewish menâ€"were among the AFL's boldest and most creative innovators, and through the AFL had among the greatest impacts on the shape, success, and direction of the game you will watch on Sunday night.
Full article: http://www.tabletmag.com/news-and-politics/57887/the-other-league/print/