Personnel wise, the NFL at that time was very conservative and had some racist tendencies. Davis and the AFL gave black players more opportunities to flourish, as they were the first to raid the talent pool of black schools.
The NFL was also conservative from a pure football standpoint with three yards and a cloud of dust as the main strategy. Davis and the AFL would bring in a more wide open offense, increasing the excitement and quality of the game.
The NFL had only one camera at the 50 yard line while the AFL brought in multiple cameras and mic'd up players. This made the AFL more marketable and led to the AFL to be the first to share television revenue.
It also threatened the NFL like no other league ever could.
This led to the NFL wanting to merge with the AFL, and then Lamarr Hunt led the other AFL owners to merge behind Davis' back. He then bought a portion of the Raiders, gained managing control, and the war would continue.
In the '80s, Davis moved the Raiders to Los Angeles without the consent of the rest of the league. To this day, I have to wonder if that took years off of then NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle's or Davis' life.
Now we are in the 21st century, and Roger Goodell has since replaced Rozelle. The Attitude of Davis has to be the same thinking, "How are you going to tell me what to do when I can run a league better than you can. I am the one that made the NFL want to merge and step its game up, leading to the NFL we have today."
Now we have the conservative ole owners trying to keep a salary cap and and hold down players' salaries....
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Oakland Raiders
