Going Long: The Wild Ten-Year Saga of the Renegade American Football League in the Words of Those Who Lived It

In 1959 the NFL had just 12 teams, with only two - the Lost Angeles Rams and the San Francisco Forty Niners - west of the Mississippi River. A watershed turning point came in 1960, when the eight-team AFL kicked off a decade-long challenge with the NFL for professional football supremacy. "Going Long" presents a detailed account of the maverick American Football League in the words of the players, the coaches, the owners, league staff, beat writers, announcers and others. Each subject area, chapter and section includes introductory and explanatory commentary. From the contentious formation of the league, to pay-cheques bouncing as often as footballs, to improbable victories in Super Bowls III and IV, this book presents the colourful and sometimes bizarre tale of eight teams and a league that would not die. It is an oral history told by the players, the coaches, the owners, league staff, beat writers, announcers and others who were close to it.