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The
American Football League, established in 1959, played a total of
ten fourteen-game seasons, 1960 through 1969. Only twenty
players were on AFL rosters for each of those ten years.
Three, Tom Flores (1962) Paul Lowe (1962), and Jack Kemp (1968), missed one season
for various reasons, but were in the league for all ten years.
Other sources recognize Kemp and Lowe, but leave Flores out, and
report the number of ten-year AFL players as nineteen.
There were seventeen men who played in all ten
seasons, and twenty who were in the league all ten
years. I prefer to honor all twenty.
The number in parentheses after each name below indicates the
number of regular season AFL games played by that man.
At a variety of positions, and with varying skills, many became
AFL All-Stars, All-Time AFL players, and Hall of Famers. |
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#16
George
Blanda, QB
(140) |
#33
Billy
Cannon, RB
(127) |
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#20
Gino Cappelletti, WR, PK
(140) |
#16
Tom Flores QB
(106) |
|
#60
Larry Grantham, LB
(136) |
#65
Wayne Hawkins, OG
(136) |
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#79
Jim Hunt, DT
(128) |
#64
Harry Jacobs, MLB
(128) |
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#15
Jack Kemp, QB
(117) |
#23
Paul Lowe, RB
(101) |
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#15
Jacky Lee, QB
(104) |
#55
Paul Maguire, LB, P
(137) |
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#31
Bill Mathis, RB
(137) |
#13
Don Maynard, WR
(132) |
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#74
Ron Mix, OT
(130) |
#00
Jim Otto, C
(140) |
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#15
Babe Parilli, QB
(136) |
#42
Johnny Robinson, SS
(136) |
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#72
Paul
Rochester, DT (128) |
#75
Ernie Wright, OT
(139) |
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Three
men played every game their teams played in the AFL:
Blanda did it with the Houston Oilers and Oakland
Raiders. Otto and Cappelletti each played every
game with a single team, Otto with the Raiders, and
Cappelletti with the Boston Patriots.
Nine men were with a single franchise
for the entire ten years of the AFL. Seven of them
remained in one city: Cappelletti, Grantham, Hawkins,
Hunt, Mathis, Maynard and Otto. The other two each
played ten years for the same franchise, but in two
cities: Robinson in Dallas and Kansas City with the
Texans and Chiefs; and Mix in Los Angeles and San Diego
with the Chargers.
This is another list that puts the
lie to the NFL apologists' claim that the early AFL was
'not competitive' with the other league: all these men
were with the AFL from its inception. Blanda,
Maynard, Mix and Otto are in the Pro Football Hall of
Fame. Others, like Cappelletti, Grantham, Kemp,
Parilli and Robinson have records that would most likely
get them into an unbiased Hall of Fame.
Seven were on World
Championship teams: Grantham, Mathis, Maynard, Lee,
Parilli, Robinson and Rochester.
Not
bad for a 'non-competitive' league. |
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