Good Seats Still Available

Pro Football Researchers’ Association president Ken Crippen (The Original Buffalo Bills: A History of the All-America Football Conference Team; The All-America Football Conference: Players, Coaches, Records, Games & Awards) joins Tim Hanlon to discuss the upstart pro football circuit that gave the war-weary NFL a formidable challenge in the late 1940s.  Crippen describes: How a newspaper sportswriter from Chicago convinced big money investors spurned by the NFL to start a directly competitive alternative league;  The NFL’s public attempts to minimize the credibility, yet private efforts to contain the success of the AAFC;    The head-to-head battles between the leagues to dominate pro football in markets like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Cleveland; The immediate dominance and innovative approach of Paul Brown’s Cleveland Browns, who many felt were the best team across both leagues; Why the Browns, San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Colts were ultimately absorbed by the NFL, but the Buffalo Bills we