NFL Empires: 1966

This is a continuation of my "empire" maps (where victors take the territory of the losers) of the NFL. Different than most such imperialism sports maps, instead of gaining all the loser's land from a victory home or away, the victor only gets territory for an away victory, and just two-thirds of it (or one-third for an away tie).

In 1966, the NFL officially merged with the AFL. The two leagues kept their names and independent schedules, but met at the end of the season in the AFL-NFL World Championship Game, later dubbed the Super Bowl. Thus Oakland, San Diego, Denver, Kansas City, Houston, Miami, Buffalo, the New York Jets, and Boston entered the league. Also joining the league, but on the NFL side, was Atlanta. As new teams in the greater NFL, all the teams were given the land within 100 miles of their capitals, except for land controlled by a nearer capital.

Since the AFL-NFL World Championship Game was played at a neutral site, the winner gains one third of the territory of the loser (splitting the difference between a home game and an away game).

My data was from Pro Football Reference and most of the logos from SportsLogos.net and Sports Ecyclopedia.

Here then is the map of the NFL empires after the 1966 season:

Green Bay (kelly green) beat Kansas City (light violet) in the AFL-NFL World Championship Game. Since the AFL didn't have much land to start with, Green Bay only gained minimal land from the game, around Kansas City and Houston. In the preceding NFL championship game, Green Bay beat Dallas (gray green) in Dallas, but not much land changed hands that game either. Dallas had lost to Eastern fifth-place Washington (gold) in the next-to-last game of the season, and Washington lost to third-place Philadelphia (dark green) in the last week, so the land Dallas had amassed during the season got divvied up by the end. In the AFL championship game, Kansas City beat Buffalo (denim blue) in Buffalo, which is where Green Bay's new Houston lands came from.

Meanwhile, NFL Western second-place Baltimore (royal blue) expanded their empire nicely, although Eastern second-place Cleveland (brown) didn't. Surprisingly, Western last-place Minnesota (dark violet) managed to hold onto a decent empire, thanks to a mid-season victory at Green Bay and a late win at Detroit (gray purple).

Here is the map before the season started:

100 miles doesn't go very far in southern California, does it?