Act of Congress on AFL-NFL merger helped give birth to Saints and Super Bowl

Act of Congress paved way for Saints, Super Bowl

WASHINGTON — More than four decades ago, Congress passed legislation that helped birth both the New Orleans Saints and the Super Bowl. Now the two are finally coming together.

In 1966, the National Football League announced plans to merge with its rival American Football League, as cutthroat competition for college players had led some teams to the brink of financial ruin. The leagues turned to Congress to exempt the merger from antitrust laws.

Thanks to deft maneuvering by two powerful Louisiana Democrats — Senate Democratic Whip Russell Long and House acting Majority Leader Hale Boggs — Congress gave its blessing to the union of the NFL and AFL. Within two weeks, the league awarded an expansion team to New Orleans. The Saints now are headed, finally, to the Super Bowl — to face the Indianapolis Colts on Feb. 7.

“There was definitely a quid pro quo,” said Boggs’ son, Thomas Boggs, a prominent Washington lobbyist. “He took credit for getting the team, so did Russell Long. They both deserved it.”

Coincidentally, the Saints are making their first Super Bowl appearance as the NFL seeks more protection from antitrust laws. The Supreme Court heard arguments in a case this month in which the league argued it should be considered a single entity when it comes to selling NFL-branded items.

The antitrust exemption for the league merger was not an easy sell in 1966. That fall, a House Judiciary Committee hearing was adjourned after barely a half-hour, before NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle got a chance to testify. Rozelle did distribute his opening statement, in which he said he’d recommend that owners scrap the merger plan unless Congress approved the exemption.

The reason: Without one, the league would open itself up to costly antitrust lawsuits.

“It is conceivable that the total sum of financial risks resulting from legal action,” Rozelle said, “could easily be larger than the total value and net assets of all the existing franchises.”

He also said that if Congress didn’t approve the merger before the following January, plans for expansion would probably die. And without a merger, warned AFL President Milt Woodard, “I would be vitally concerned about the financial stability of many of the AFL teams.”

The leagues had something to offer lawmakers — the promise of new teams in an increasingly football-hungry nation — and the Senate had already passed the legislation. New Orleans was considered one of the top choices for an expansion team.

The House was a tougher sell. The Judiciary Committee chairman, a feisty 78-year-old liberal Democrat from Brooklyn, N.Y., named Emanuel Celler, was a strong proponent of antitrust laws, and he resisted pressure to move the bill.

With Congress set to adjourn for the session in a few weeks, Long and Boggs hatched an end run around Celler, getting the bill attached to a larger piece of legislation that was out of his jurisdiction. Both Long and Boggs served on a Senate-House conference committee that preserved the merger legislation.

“They caught me bathing and sold my clothes,” Celler said after emerging from negotiations.

The bill got final congressional approval on Oct. 21, and on Nov. 1, Rozelle announced New Orleans would get a team, later dubbed the Saints. Boggs and Long were at his side at the ceremony.

Robert Mann, a former Long press secretary and author of “Legacy to Power: Senator Russell Long of Louisiana,” said that his former boss and Boggs saw the exchange as a quid pro quo.

“My impression in talking to Long was that was the only reason he cared about this issue,” Mann said. “He didn’t have any interest in doing this for the good of football. He wanted a team for New Orleans.”

Mann, a professor of mass communication at Louisiana State University, said that Long was always proud of his role in landing the Saints.

“He thought it demonstrated his legislative agility, his ability to use the Senate rules to get things done,” Mann said. “He felt that he did it so cleverly.”