American Football has become the cornerstone of Sports in the United States, with The National Football League at the fore-front. However, the NFL was not always the Juggernaut we know it as today. The NFL has been opposed by many other leagues over the years. The XFL or Extreme Football league sought to put an original spin on football. The UFL or United Football league is the NFL’s most recent competitor. The USFL or United States Football league sought to take the National Football League down legally and almost did so in the late 80’s. Arena Football aimed to bring football to an indoor enviorment with extensive offense with the AFL. And Originally the American Football League gave it’s run at rivaling the “big brother of football in the 60’s.However before we understand how the NFL is so dominant we have to understand how it came to be.
The history of the National Football League has roots spanning as far back as 1892 when former Yale All-American guard William Heffelfinger was paid $500 by the Allegheny Athletic Association to play in a game against the Pittsburgh Athletic Club, making him the first ever professional football player, according to the book Pigskin: The Early Years of Pro Football. However it wasn't until 1920 that American football achieved a league of any true organization.
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The American Professional Football Association was formed on September 17, 1920 and included ten teams from four different states. However the APFA lasted only two seasons when it was reorganized on June 24, 1922 into the National Football League. The only two teams still in the NFL from the inaugural class, the Decatur Staleys (now the Chicago Bears) and the Chicago Cardinals (now the Arizona Cardinals), are founding members.
League membership gradually stabilized throughout the 1920s and 1930s as the league adopted progressively more formal organization. The first official championship game was held in 1933. The NFL stopped signing black players in 1927 but reintegrated in 1946 following World War II. Other changes followed after the war; the office of league President evolved into the more powerful Commissioner post, mirroring a similar move in Major League Baseball. Teams became more financially viable, the last team folding in 1952. By 1958, when that season's NFL championship game became known as "The Greatest Game Ever Played", the NFL was on its way to becoming one of the most popular sports leagues in the United States.

The National Football League had grown to become one of the most popular professional sports leagues in the United States. One franchise that did not share in the success of the league was the Chicago Cardinals, who were overshadowed by the more popular Chicago Bears. The team was reportedly for sale (with the intent of relocation), and one of the men who approached the Cardinals was Lamar Hunt. Bud Adams, Bob Howsam, and Max Winter were all men who made offers similar to that of Hunt’s. When the Chicago Cardinals turned down the offers, Hunt contacted Adams, Howsman and Winter. Hunt Slowly began traveling from city to city ranging Roussel, 3 from Seattle to New York City, and The American Football League was born with business man Joe Foss at the helm as commissioner.
On January 15, 1967, the first-ever World Championship Game between the champions of the two separate professional football leagues, the AFL-NFL Championship Game (retroactively referred to as Super Bowl I), was played in Los Angeles. After a close first half, the NFL champion Green Bay Packers overwhelmed the AFL champion Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10. The loss reinforced for many the notion that the AFL was an inferior league. Packers head coach Vince Lombardi stated after the game, "I do not think they are as good as the top teams in the National Football League."
In 1967, the rivalry between the AFL and NFL reached an all-time peak. On April 7, Joe Foss resigned as AFL commissioner. His successor was Oakland Raiders head coach and general manager Al Davis, who had been instrumental in turning around the fortunes of that franchise. No longer content with trying to outbid the NFL for college talent, the AFL under Davis started to recruit players already on NFL squads. Davis's strategy focused on quarterbacks in particular, and in two months he persuaded seven NFL quarterbacks to sign with the AFL, the book Remember the AFL: The Ultimate Fan's Guide to the American Football cites. Although Davis's intention was to help the AFL win the bidding war, some AFL and NFL owners saw the escalation as detrimental to both leagues.

The same month Davis was named commissioner, several NFL owners, along with Dallas Cowboys general manager Tex Schramm, secretly approached Lamar Hunt and other AFL
Roussel, 4 owners and asked the AFL to merge. They held a series of secret meetings in Dallas to discuss their concerns over rapidly increasing player salaries, as well as the practice of player poaching.
Hunt and Schramm completed the basic groundwork for a merger of the two leagues by the end of May, and on June 8, 1966, the merger was officially announced. After the 1970 season Cincinnati Bengals, Miami Dolphins, Boston Patriots, Buffalo Bills, Denver Broncos, Houston Oilers, Kansas City Chiefs, New York Jets, Oakland Raiders, and San Diego Chargers all joined the NFL and became members of the AFC or American Football Conference. The merger once again named the NFL as the supreme in American Football. The NFL had continued its dominance from the AFL merger for over a decade afterwards. However, the 80’s brought another challenger.

The USFL was the idea of David Dixon, a New Orleans antiques dealer. Dixon had been instrumental in bringing the New Orleans Saints to town. In 1965, Dixon revolutionarily envisioned football as a possible spring and summer sport. Over the next 15 years, Dixon studied the last challenger to the NFL's dominance of pro football the AFL. In 1980, he commissioned a study by Frank Magid Associates that found promising results for a spring and summer football league. He'd also formed a blueprint for the prospective league's operations, which included early television exposure, heavy promotion in home markets, and owners willing to absorb years of losses, which he felt would be inevitable until the league found its feet.
In 1983 the United States Football League launched. The League burst onto the scene, with attendance levels far surpassing expectations and television ratings through the roof.
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Eventually, players were electing to play for the USFL instead of the all powerful NFL. Three straight NCAA Heisman trophy winners decided to sign with United States Football League teams over participating in the NFL’s college draft. Additionally, the USFL landed huge superstars and future hall of famers Steve Young and Reggie White.
After two extremely successful seasons, the USFL began to struggle. Attendance was down and payroll was up. The USFL had surmounted some $160 million in debt listed the award winning novel One Dollar League: Rise and Fall of the United States Football League.
In a controversial move the USFL filed an anti-trust lawsuit against the NFL in 1985, claiming it had established a monopoly with respect to television broadcasting rights, and in some cases, to access of stadium venues. The case went to trial in the spring of 1986 and lasted 42 days. On July 29, a six-person jury handed down a verdict that, while technically a victory for the USFL, in fact devastated the league. The jury declared the NFL a "duly adjudicated illegal monopoly," and found that the NFL had willfully acquired and maintained monopoly status through predatory tactics reported American Decades Primary Sources an anthology of court cases. The United States Football League killed itself with unrealistic contracts and goals. The court awarded the USFL only one dollar in nominal damages, which was tripled under antitrust law to three dollars. The lawsuit awarded the NFL peace for almost 2 more decades. In the fall of 1998 the Canadian Football League was struggling. The Toronto Argonauts were bankrupt and needed a capable owner. Vince McMahon, the president of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) was contacted about the opening. McMahon had no interest in owning a

Roussel, 6 team but rather pursued the purchase of the entire league according to "XFL: A Major Challenge to Stay Minor." After failing to purchase the Canadian league McMahon sought his own league. The XFL or Extreme Football League was meant to put a “professional wrestling edge on football” McMahon said in a television interview. The XFL's opening game took place on February 3, 2001, immediately following the NFL's Super Bowl. The first game was between the New York/New Jersey Hitmen and the Las Vegas Outlaws at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas. The game ended with a 19-0 victory for the Outlaws, and was watched on NBC by an estimated 14 million viewers. During the telecast, NBC switched over to the game between the Orlando Rage and the Chicago Enforcers, which was a closer contest than the blowout taking place in Las Vegas. The show had a 9.5 Nielsen rating. After the XFL’s inaugural game, the next week’s games dipped to a 4.6 rating. Criticism reigned down for the increasingly poor quality of play and sportsmanship. With continued poor television ratings the league generated little revenue. The league folded and had a net worth of $-88 million "XFL: A Major Challenge to Stay Minor." reports. The XFL was last seen ranked #3 on TV Guide's list of worst TV shows of all time in July 2002, as well as #2 on ESPN's list of biggest flops in sports.

Slowly and silently the Arena Football League gained popularity in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. The AFL was founded in 1987 by Jim Foster a former NFL and USFL executive. Arena Roussel, 7
Football is played only indoors and on turf. Additionally the field is only 50 yards long. The idea is to bring a faster more exciting and offensive game to the fans. The game grew quickly and soon the AFL had its own Developmental league called AF2.
In early 2009 it seemed the NFL had claimed another victim in its trail of superiority. The Arena Football League was projected to owe 14 million dollars. In August The Arena Football league filed for bankruptcy. However when all assets were put up for auction in December of that year, the owners and executives of the AF2 purchased the name and logo, causing arena ball to surface. In 2010 the Arena Football League signed a television deal with the NFL network causing all television revenue to go straight to “the big brother.” Rumors of the Arena Football League becoming a developmental league to the NFL have begun surfacing in early 2011.
Seemingly not to learn from its predecessors, a new league was formed in 2009. The United Football League or UFL began play in October. The league currently has four franchises playing in markets where the National Football League (NFL) has no current presence.
Some press articles had speculated that the UFL’s business plan was to be present if (and, as it turned out, when) the NFL and its players’ union reached the end of their collective bargaining agreement in March 2011, giving players who would be locked out an opportunity to play professional football outside the NFL. Unfortunately for the UFL and its executives, the NFL lockout was resolved in July 2011, which negated any benefits the UFL attempted to reap from the labor dispute. The league primarily consists of players who have at one time or another played for a National Football League team. While the league has no connection with the NFL, and does not intend to have such a relationship in the future, some have speculated that it could
Roussel, 8 become a minor or “developmental” league for the NFL. Other reports described the league as a “competitor” to the NFL, disregarding those of the past. Currently it is recognized as a “second-tier pro league.” In conclusion the NFL has remained dominant for decades. In the early 60’s the American Football League helped reshape professional football forever. Almost twenty years later the United States Football League beat the NFL in a anti-trust lawsuit…for one dollar. The XFL proved that professional wrestling has no place in football and lasted only 9 months. Arena Football survived a near collapse and is still trying to put the pieces back together. Finally the newly formed UFL thinks they have it figured out, but if the past is any indicator, the NFL will prevail.