1969 American Football League season

Last updated

1969 AFL season
Regular season
DurationSeptember 14 –
December 14, 1969
Playoffs
DateDecember 20, 1969
Eastern champion Kansas City Chiefs
Western champion Oakland Raiders
Site Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum, Oakland, California
Champion Kansas City Chiefs
Usa edcp relief location map.png
Green pog.svg
Oilers
Green pog.svg
Jets
Green pog.svg
Bills
Green pog.svg
Patriots
Green pog.svg
Dolphins
Yellow ffff00 pog.svg
Chargers
Yellow ffff00 pog.svg
Chiefs
Yellow ffff00 pog.svg
Raiders
Yellow ffff00 pog.svg
Broncos
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Bengals
AFL teams: Yellow ffff00 pog.svg West, Green pog.svg East
The Chiefs topped the Raiders in the 1969 AFL championship game. 1986 Jeno's Pizza - 49 - Robert Holmes.jpg
The Chiefs topped the Raiders in the 1969 AFL championship game.

The 1969 AFL season was the tenth and final regular season of the American Football League. To honor the AFL's tenth season, a special anniversary logo was designed and each Kansas City Chiefs player wore a patch on his jersey with the logo during Super Bowl IV, the final AFL-NFL World Championship Game prior to the AFL–NFL merger.

Contents

The Chiefs defeated the Oakland Raiders in the final AFL Championship Game, then soundly defeated the National Football League's Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV.

Division races

In its final two years of existence, the AFL had ten teams, grouped into two divisions. Each team played a home-and-away game against the other four teams in its division, a home-and-away series against one of the five teams in opposite division, and one game each against the remaining four teams from the opposite division. Using that format, the defending World Champion New York Jets went 10–0 against the five teams they played twice, but were 0–4 against the top four teams in the West.

For the 1969 season, a provision was made for a four-team playoff to determine the AFL champion, the league's representative in the Super Bowl, with the #1 team in the division hosting the #2 team in the opposite division. The NFL also had a four-team playoff, introduced in 1967, matching the winners of the Capitol and Century divisions, and the Coastal and Central divisions.

The 1970 merger placed the ten AFL teams (along with three teams from the pre-1970 NFL) into the 13-team AFC. The other NFL teams went into the 13-team NFC.

WeekEastern #1Eastern #2Western #1Western #2
1N.Y. Jets1–0–0Hou, Bos, Buf, Mia0–1–0Oak, KC, Den, Cin1–0–0Oak, KC, Den, Cin1–0–0
2Hou, NY1–1–0Hou, NY1–1–0Oak, KC, Den, Cin2–0–0Oak, KC, Den, Cin2–0–0
3Houston2–1–0NY, Buf1–2–0Oak, Cin3–0–0Oak, Cin3–0–0
4Houston3–1–0N.Y. Jets2–2–0Oakland3–0–1Kansas City3–1–0
5NY, Hou3–2–0NY, Hou3–2–0Oakland4–0–1Kansas City4–1–0
6N.Y. Jets4–2–0Houston3–3–0Oakland5–0–1Kansas City5–1–0
7N.Y. Jets5–2–0Houston4–3–0Oakland6–0–1Kansas City6–1–0
8N.Y. Jets6–2–0Houston4–4–0Kansas City7–1–0Oakland6–1–1
9N.Y. Jets7–2–0Houston4–4–1Kansas City8–1–0Oakland7–1–1
10N.Y. Jets7–3–0Houston4–4–2Kansas City9–1–0Oakland8–1–1
11N.Y. Jets8–3–0Houston5–4–2Oakland9–1–1Kansas City9–2–0
12N.Y. Jets8–4–0Houston5–5–2Oakland10–1–1Kansas City10–2–0
13N.Y. Jets9–4–0Houston5–6–2Oakland11–1–1Kansas City11–2–0
14 N.Y. Jets 10–4–0 Houston 6–6–2 Oakland 12–1–1 Kansas City 11–3–0

Regular season

Results

Home/RoadEastern DivisionWestern Division
BOS BUF HOU MIA NY CIN DEN KC OAK SD
Eastern Boston Patriots 35–2124–016–1714–230–3123–3810–13
Buffalo Bills 23–163–1728–319–3316–1341–287–29
Houston Oilers 27–2328–1422–1026–3431–3124–2117–21
Miami Dolphins 23–3824–67–329–2727–2420–2014–21
New York Jets 23–1716–626–1734–3140–716–3414–27
Western Cincinnati Bengals 14–2527–217–2123–3024–1931–1734–20
Denver Broncos 35–720–2021–1927–1613–2614–2413–0
Kansas City Chiefs 22–1924–017–1042–2231–1724–2727–3
Oakland Raiders 50–2121–1720–1737–1741–1010–621–16
San Diego Chargers 28–1845–634–2721–1445–249–2712–24

Standings

For its tenth and final season before merging with the NFL, the AFL instituted a four team playoff tournament with the second place teams in each division also participating.

Playoffs

 
Divisional Playoff Games AFL Championship Game
 
      
 
December 20, 1969 – Shea Stadium
 
 
Kansas City Chiefs 13
 
January 4, 1970 –
Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum
 
New York Jets 6
 
Kansas City Chiefs 17
 
December 21, 1969 –
Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum
 
Oakland Raiders 7
 
Houston Oilers 7
 
 
Oakland Raiders 56
 

Super Bowl

The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Minnesota Vikings 23–7 at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, Louisiana, on January 11, 1970. The Super Bowl Most Valuable Player Award was given to Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson [1]

Stadium changes

Coaching changes

Offseason

In-season

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References

  1. Minnesota Vikings vs. Kansas City Chiefs 7 to 23, Pro-Football-Reference.com. Accessed January 31, 2024. "The Chiefs played the Vikings in Super Bowl IV on Sunday, January 11, 1970. The Chiefs entered the game with a record of 11-3-0, while the Vikings entered the game with a record of 12-2-0. The Chiefs won 23-7 to win Super Bowl IV, finishing their championship season with a record of 11-3-0 in the regular season, 3-0 in the playoffs."
  2. "A Team’s Ragtag Roots", The New York Times , January 28, 2012. Accessed January 31, 2024. "In 1963, the Patriots moved to Fenway Park. They walked into the Red Sox locker room and gaped at what had been Ted Williams’s locker.... By 1969, the Patriots had moved to Boston College’s Alumni Stadium, and a year later, at the end of a preseason game against the Washington Redskins, a fire erupted in the grandstand."
  3. via Associated Press. "Former Patriots coach dead at 88", Worcester Telegram , January 27, 2008. Accessed January 31, 2024. "The Patriots didn’t return to the playoffs before Holovak was replaced after the 1968 season by Clive Rush."
  4. via Associated Press. "Raiders Raid Own Ranks; Madden Youngest Pro Boss", The Orlando Sentinel , February 5, 1969. Accessed January 31, 2024, via Newspapers.com. "The Oakland Raiders once 'again dipped into their own ranks for a head coach Tuesday, naming assistant John Madden to do the job. Madden, who at 33 becomes professional football's youngest coach, replaces John Rauch at the helm of the American Football League club which won the championship in 1967 and the Western Division title in '68."