1967 Common NFL–AFL Draft

The 1967 common NFL–AFL draft was a joint player-selection process in which National Football League (NFL) and American Football League (AFL) teams aligned their drafting of football players in the years immediately preceding the later NFL–AFL merger. The agreement reflected a broader effort to reduce direct competition for prospects and to standardize the drafts as the leagues moved toward closer coordination, including the establishment of a unified draft order.

The common draft followed a series of negotiations that built on the leagues’ earlier relationship, including the 1966 NFL–AFL agreement on player rights. It is often referenced as a key step in the path toward the eventual merger and the consolidation of professional football in the United States.

Background and context

In the mid-1960s, the NFL and the rival AFL competed aggressively for collegiate talent. This competition included bidding wars for star prospects and direct clashes in team needs, producing escalating costs and uncertainty about recruiting outcomes. League leadership began exploring mechanisms to reduce the overlap in player acquisition and to bring the drafts into closer alignment.

A major milestone in this process was the 1966 NFL–AFL agreement addressing draft selection and player rights, which helped set the stage for a more coordinated approach. The move toward a common draft is closely associated with the broader pre-merger alignment of operations across the leagues, culminating in the eventual NFL–AFL merger. The common draft concept also reflected a growing recognition that coordinated player selection could stabilize roster-building strategies for both leagues.

Structure of the common draft

The 1967 common draft was arranged so that both NFL and AFL teams participated in a shared pool of prospects, rather than running fully separate processes. Each team selected in a defined order, allowing the two leagues to draw from the same college talent each round. This approach limited the ability of one league to secure a player solely by outbidding the other during the drafting window.

Common drafts are generally understood as part of a gradual shift from separate, league-specific procedures toward a unified framework. While the NFL and AFL remained distinct at the time, the shared selection process served as a practical mechanism for harmonizing competition and simplifying negotiations over player eligibility and claims.

Draft order and team selection

Draft order in the common format was designed to balance selection opportunities across the participating franchises, with the order determined by team performance and other league-specific rules in place at the time. As a result, teams from both leagues made selections of the same set of eligible players within the same rounds.

Because NFL and AFL rosters differed in makeup and scheme at the time, team needs could diverge even as they selected from the same prospect pool. The combined nature of the draft required front offices to scout effectively across both leagues’ expectations and to consider how a player’s development might translate to their particular offensive and defensive systems.

Players and impact on the leagues

The 1967 common draft contributed to a more predictable pipeline of talent for both leagues, reducing some of the most direct forms of bidding competition. Over time, this predictability supported roster planning and helped align the leagues’ approaches to player acquisition in the lead-up to merger discussions.

In historical accounts of the merger era, the common draft is frequently cited as an intermediate step toward greater consolidation. The 1967 process sits alongside other merger-related milestones, including the eventual agreement to unify professional football operations under the merged NFL structure that began later. As a result, the common draft is regarded not only as a specific event in draft history but also as a marker of the leagues’ shifting relationship during the 1960s.

See also

• 1966 NFL–AFL draft
• 1968 NFL–AFL common draft
• NFL Draft
• American Football League (AFL)
• National Football League (NFL)

Categories: NFL Draft, American Football League, National Football League, 1967 in American football, NFL–AFL merger