| Sport | American football |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1940 |
| First season | 1940 |
| Ceased | 1941 |
| Claim to fame | 3rd competitor of National Football League |
| No. of teams | 6 (1940), 5 (1941) |
| Country | United States |
| Last champion(s) | Columbus Bullies |
The American Football League, also known retrospectively as the AFL III to distinguish it from earlier organizations of that name,[1] was a professional American football league that operated from 1940 to 1941. It was created when three teams, the original Cincinnati Bengals, the Columbus Bullies, and the Milwaukee Chiefs, were lured away from the minor-league American Professional Football Association and joined three new franchises in Boston, Buffalo, and New York City in a new league. It competed against the National Football League (NFL), the oldest existing professional football league, which had been established in 1920 and reorganized in 1922.
The organization was the third major league to bear the name American Football League. Its establishment resulted in the dissolution of the American Professional Football Association, which had just announced its intentions to compete with the NFL as a major league organization. In 1941, the American Football League became the first football league to play a double round robin schedule (five home games and five away games). However, it folded after the end of the 1941 season.