Which of these doesn't belong?
A. The 1946 All-America Football Conference
B. The 1960 American Football League
C. The 1974 World Football League
D. The 1983 United States Football League
E. The 2001 X Football League.
The answer is B, the American Football League (AFL). Unlike the other four upstart football leagues that challenged the established NFL and were defeated (and sometimes crushed), the AFL competed with the established National Football League until the NFL was forced to recognize it as an equal in 1966 and merge with it as full-fledged partners in 1970.
There was a similar struggle going on in sports cards. Older but smaller Fleer Gum Corporation of Philadelphia was doing battle with mighty Topps and its exclusive agreements with the NFL and MLB. Fleer and the AFL, it seems, were made for each other and they wasted no time reaching an agreement.
The AFL secured an early source of revenue and a means of marketing and advertising to young fans. Fleer, whose main product in late 1959 was its Three Stooges issue, achieved entry into the sports card
