NFL Network: Full Color Football: Part 2 (2010)

Source:NFL Network- Full Color Football from 2009/2010.

"Episode 2: "Times They Are A Changin'" (original air date: 9/23/2009) highlights how the San Diego Chargers (powered by coach Sid Gillman's offensive schemes) and the Buffalo Bills (and their dominating defense) became the AFL's premier teams. Societal effects on the AFL are also examined, from the John F. Kennedy assassination to the relocation of the league's January 1965 All-Star Game from New Orleans to Houston after several black players were refused service in the former city." 

From The AFL History

What we learned in the 1960s as a country and as pro football fans, is there simply wasn't enough pro football clubs and I mean major league pro football clubs and there weren't enough players either. Not because there weren't enough cities and markets that couldn't support a major league pro football franchise, or there weren't enough major league pro football players to go around to make either the NFL or AFL as good as it could be. 

The NFL in the 1950s and 60s saw itself as a small club and organization and didn't want to risk expanding to non-traditional NFL markets like Miami, Florida, or Kansas City, Missouri, Houston, Texas, San Diego, California, Oakland, California, etc, and other markets that the American Football League went into. 

Also because as they talk about in this documentary, the NFL had an unofficial quota as far as how many African-American players that they would allow to play in their league. Which meant there was a lot of great pro football talent in America that wasn't allowed to play pro football in the 50s and 60s simply because of their race. Which is how we get the American Football League in the 1960s, because you had cities and markets that the NFL was ignoring. As well a lot of great players simply because of their race.