1969 American Football League season

1969 American Football League season
Regular season
Duration	September 14 – December 14, 1969
Playoffs
Date	December 20, 1969
Eastern Champion	New York Jets
Western Champion	Oakland Raiders
Site	Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum,; Oakland, California
Champion	Kansas City Chiefs

The Chiefs topped the Raiders in the 1969 AFL championship game.

The 1969 American Football League season was the tenth and final regular season of the American Football League (AFL). To honor the AFL's tenth season, a special anniversary logo was designed and each Kansas City Chiefs player wore a patch on his jersey with the logo during Super Bowl IV, the final AFL-NFL World Championship Game prior to the merger of the two leagues.

The Chiefs defeated the Oakland Raiders in the final AFL Championship Game, then soundly defeated the National Football League's Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV.

Division races

In its final two years of existence the AFL had ten teams, grouped into two divisions. Each team played a home-and-away game against the other four teams in its division, a home-and-away series against one of the five teams in opposite division, and one game each against the remaining four teams from the opposite division. Using that format, the defending World Champion New York Jets went 10–0 against the five teams they played twice (i.e., their four weak divisional rivals plus last-place second-year Cincinnati) while going 0–4 against the top four teams in the West.

For the 1969 season, a provision was made for a four team playoff to determine the AFL Champion, the league's representative in the Super Bowl, with the #1 team in the division to play against the #2 team in the opposite division. The NFL also had a four team playoff, introduced in 1967, matching the winners of the Capitol and Century divisions, and the Coastal and Central divisions.

The 1970 merger placed the 10 AFL teams (along with 3 teams from the pre-1970 NFL) into the 13-team AFC. (The other NFL teams went into the 13-team NFC.)

Week	Eastern #1		Eastern #2		Western #1		Western #2
1	N.Y. Jets	1–0–0	Hou, Bos, Buf, Mia	0–1–0	Oak, KC, Den, Cin	1–0–0	Oak, KC, Den, Cin	1–0–0
2	Hou, NY	1–1–0	Hou, NY	1–1–0	Oak, KC, Den, Cin	2–0–0	Oak, KC, Den, Cin	2–0–0
3	Houston	2–1–0	NY, Buf	1–2–0	Oak, Cin	3–0–0	Oak, Cin	3–0–0
4	Houston	3–1–0	N.Y. Jets	2–2–0	Oakland	3–0–1	Kansas City	3–1–0
5	NY, Hou	3–2–0	NY, Hou	3–2–0	Oakland	4–0–1	Kansas City	4–1–0
6	N.Y. Jets	4–2–0	Houston	3–3–0	Oakland	5–0–1	Kansas City	5–1–0
7	N.Y. Jets	5–2–0	Houston	4–3–0	Oakland	6–0–1	Kansas City	6–1–0
8	N.Y. Jets	6–2–0	Houston	4–4–0	Kansas City	7–1–0	Oakland	6–1–1
9	N.Y. Jets	7–2–0	Houston	4–4–1	Kansas City	8–1–0	Oakland	7–1–1
10	N.Y. Jets	7–3–0	Houston	4–4–2	Kansas City	9–1–0	Oakland	8–1–1
11	N.Y. Jets	8–3–0	Houston	5–4–2	Oakland	9–1–1	Kansas City	9–2–0
12	N.Y. Jets	8–4–0	Houston	5–5–2	Oakland	10–1–1	Kansas City	10–2–0
13	N.Y. Jets	9–4–0	Houston	5–6–2	Oakland	11–1–1	Kansas City	11–2–0
14	N.Y. Jets	10–4–0	Houston	6–6–2	Oakland	12–1–1	Kansas City	11–3–0

Regular season

Results

Home/Road		Eastern Division					Western Division
Home/Road		BOS	BUF	HOU	MIA	NY	CIN	DEN	KC	OAK	SD
Eastern	Boston Patriots		35–21	24–0	16–17	14–23			0–31	23–38	10–13
	Buffalo Bills	23–16		3–17	28–3	19–33	16–13	41–28	7–29
	Houston Oilers	27–23	28–14		22–10	26–34	31–31	24–21			17–21
	Miami Dolphins	23–38	24–6	7–32		9–27		27–24		20–20	14–21
	New York Jets	23–17	16–6	26–17	34–31		40–7		16–34	14–27
Western	Cincinnati Bengals	14–25			27–21	7–21		23–30	24–19	31–17	34–20
	Denver Broncos	35–7		20–20		21–19	27–16		13–26	14–24	13–0
	Kansas City Chiefs		22–19	24–0	17–10		42–22	31–17		24–27	27–3
	Oakland Raiders		50–21	21–17	20–17		37–17	41–10	10–6		21–16
	San Diego Chargers	28–18	45–6			34–27	21–14	45–24	9–27	12–24

Standings

For its tenth and final season before merging with the NFL, the AFL instituted a four team playoff tournament with the second place teams in each division also participating.

AFL Eastern Division
	W	L	T	PCT	DIV	PF	PA	STK
New York Jets	10	4	0	.714	8–0	353	269	W2
Houston Oilers	6	6	2	.500	5–3	278	279	W1
Boston Patriots	4	10	0	.286	3–5	266	316	L2
Buffalo Bills	4	10	0	.286	2–6	230	359	L2
Miami Dolphins	3	10	1	.231	2–6	233	332	L1

Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.

AFL Western Division
	W	L	T	PCT	DIV	PF	PA	STK
Oakland Raiders	12	1	1	.923	7–1	377	242	W6
Kansas City Chiefs	11	3	0	.786	5–3	359	177	L1
San Diego Chargers	8	6	0	.571	2–6	288	276	W4
Denver Broncos	5	8	1	.385	3–5	297	344	W1
Cincinnati Bengals	4	9	1	.308	3–5	280	367	L5

Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.

Playoffs

Divisional Playoff Games		AFL Championship Game

December 20, 1969 – Shea Stadium

Kansas City Chiefs	13
		January 4, 1970 – Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum
New York Jets	6
		Kansas City Chiefs	17
December 21, 1969 – Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum
		Oakland Raiders	7
Houston Oilers	7

Oakland Raiders	56

Coaches

AFL Eastern Division

AFL Western Division

External links

Football Database

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