The 1948 AAFC season was the third season of the All-America Football Conference. As was the case with the previous two seasons, the league included eight teams, broken up into Eastern and Western divisions, which played a 14-game official schedule that would culminate in a league Championship Game.
In an interesting wrinkle, a tie in the Eastern standings necessitated the first tiebreaker playoff game played by the league. The Buffalo Bills played the Baltimore Colts in Baltimore for the right to play in the AAFC Championship game.
The league's second collegiate draft was held on December 17, 1947 in New York. Tony Minisi was the first overall selection.
Season
The AAFC season began on August 27 with two games: New York played Brooklyn at home that resulted in a 21-3 victory for the Yankees while Los Angeles played Chicago at home that saw the Dons win 7-0. Two days later, Week 1 ended with the San Francisco 49ers pummeling the Buffalo Bills 35-14.[1] All eight teams played in Week 2 that saw the Cleveland Browns (who had ended the previous season with eight straight games of wins or ties) win their home opener 19-14 over the Los Angeles Dons.[2]
In an attempt to drive up interest, the Browns were scheduled for three games in the span of a week. They began the stretch with a 34-21 defeat of the Yankees in front of over 50,000 on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Four days later on Thanksgiving Day, the Browns were in Los Angeles to play the Dons at the Coliseum and pulled away with a 31-14 victory. Three days later, with an ailing Otto Graham, the Browns rallied with 21 points in the third quarter to overcome a tight deficit and defeat the San Francisco 49ers to achieve the feat of winning three games in the span of a week.[3]
The 49ers finished second place in the Western Division at 12–2. The quarterbacks of the two outstanding teams, Cleveland's Otto Graham and San Francisco's Frankie Albert, shared the MVP. In the East, Buffalo and Baltimore were both tied at 7–7, just ahead of 6–8 New York. Buffalo won the playoff game held in Baltimore. The Browns then won the championship by a score of 49–7 to complete an undefeated season.[4]
1948 AAFC final standings
W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pct. = Winning Percentage PF = Points Scored For, PA = Point Scored Against
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