The Super Bowl is the final game of the season between the winners of two conferences – the AFC and the NFC. In the NFL, unlike the NBA or NHL, teams are divided into two groups not because of geography, but because of history.
While hockey and basketball have a clear division into East and West, American football does not.
The modern NFL is a symbiosis of two leagues that competed with each other in the mid-60s of the last century. At that time, the US had, in fact, the National Football League, but the American Football League (AFL) also appeared. It was created by several businessmen led by Lamar Hunt, who wanted to get fast-growing franchises.
Even then, American football was terribly commercialized. Businessmen were not given the opportunity to buy teams in the NFL? They created their own league. The hockey WHA appeared in the last century on the same principle. But if the NHL killed its competitor, taking the four best teams as a result, the NFL could not do the same.
The owners of the AFL clubs had no problems with money. And the competition between the two leagues only worsened the situation, because the players’ salaries and club expenses grew, and the income from sponsors and TV fell. Therefore, in 1966, the bosses of the franchises and both leagues agreed to merge.
The merger of the NFL (where there were 16 teams) and the AFL (10 teams) finally took place only in 1970. But four years before that, the leagues agreed to hold a super final game, where the strongest team in the USA would be determined. Or, as the Americans modestly called it, the World Champions. It was this game that eventually received the name “Super Bowl”.
The AFL did not disappear completely – it turned into the American Football Conference (AFC). The Super Bowl isn’t necessarily a game between the two best teams in the entire NFL. It’s a decisive matchup between the best teams in each conference. This year, the Kansas City Chiefs (AFC) and the Philadelphia Eagles (NFC) will meet in New Orleans.
