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1968 American Football League season

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Eastern Champion
  
New York Jets

Champion
  
New York Jets

Start date
  
1968

Site
  
Shea Stadium

1968 American Football League season

Duration
  
September 6 – December 15, 1968

Western Champion
  
Oakland Raiders   (playoff)

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1969 American Football League season

The 1968 American Football League season was the ninth regular season of the American Football League, and its penultimate season prior to the AFL-NFL Merger.

Contents

The season ended when the New York Jets (11–3) defeated the Oakland Raiders (12–2) in the AFL championship game on December 29 at Shea Stadium in New York City. Two weeks later, the Jets defeated the National Football League's Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III in one of the biggest sports upsets in history. Because the AFL lost the first two Super Bowl games, the planned merger between the NFL and the AFL was in jeopardy. The Jets win helped keep the merger alive.

Division races

With the addition of the Cincinnati Bengals, the AFL's ten teams were split equally into two divisions. Each played a home-and-away game against the other four teams in its division, one game against each of the five teams in the opposite division, and a second game against one of the other division's teams.

As with the previous eight seasons, the best record in the Eastern Division played the best in the Western Division in the AFL championship game, with the site alternating between the divisions; the Eastern division hosted in even-numbered years. If there was tie within the division standings (as happened when Oakland and Kansas City both finished at 12–2), a tiebreaker playoff was held to determine the division winner. The Jets, with the third-best record in the league in 1968, had a week off and hosted the title game.

Regular season

The Cincinnati Bengals joined the league as an expansion team.

Results

(*) Played at Legion Field, Birmingham since Boston Red Sox refused to rent Fenway Park to Patriots.

Playoffs

  • Western Division playoff
  • Oakland Raiders 41, Kansas City Chiefs 6, December 22, 1968, Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, Oakland, California
  • AFL Championship Game
  • New York Jets 27, Oakland Raiders 23, December 29, 1968, Shea Stadium, New York City
  • Super Bowl III
  • N.Y. Jets (AFL) 16, Baltimore Colts (NFL) 7, at Orange Bowl, Miami, Florida
  • References

    1968 American Football League season Wikipedia