4 of 25

Charles Aqua Viva/Getty Images

The early AFL was more like a playground pickup league than a true rival to the NFL. The league was populated by a handful of college superstars, but also lots of NFL has-beens and Canadian Football League expatriates. Most AFL offenses adopted a let-'er-rip philosophy to make their game more exciting than the run-oriented NFL, and the combination of nonstop passing and large talent disparities resulted in some absolutely bananas statistical totals.

George Blanda, a 34-year old journeyman who retired in frustration in 1958 after years as a Bears backup, threw for 3,330 yards and 36 touchdowns in 14 games for the 1961 Oilers. Billy Cannon (shown), a Heisman Trophy winner who signed with the AFL under the goal posts moments after the 1960 Sugar Bowl (denying the NFL the right to sign him and sparking an interleague war), led the AFL with 948 rushing yards and scored 15 rushing and receiving touchdowns.

Charlie Hennigan, a former LSU track star who was teaching high school biology before the AFL arrived, caught 82 passes for 1,746 yards and 12 touchdowns. Bill Groman, another science teacher and who played for tiny Heidelberg College in Ohio, caught 50 passes for 1,175 yards and 17 touchdowns.

By now, you must be wondering about the caliber of competition. Yes, Blanda is a legend (albeit as a backup quarterback, kicker and Oakland folk hero), and a Heisman running back is a Heisman running back. But a pair of science teachers putting up Odell Beckham Jr. numbers?

Many of those early AFL teams just weren't competitive. The 1961 Oilers beat the lowly Broncos by a combined score of 100-28 in two games. The Raiders, beaten by the 1961 Oilers by a two-game combined 102-16 score, were so bad that the AFL eventually dispatched an ambitious Chargers assistant to take over football operations and keep the team viable. That fella's name was Al Davis, but you figured that out.

So maybe the 1961 Oilers weren't really a match for the modern Patriots. But they won an AFL Championship and captured the imagination of fans with their go-for-broke offense. Their success helped keep the AFL financially solvent and capable of attracting college stars such as Joe Namath.

The 1961 Oilers pointed the way to the future of pro football. Not bad for a couple of science teachers, a college star who followed the money and a quarterback the Bears didn't know what to do with.