The tension between the NFL and AFL during the 1960s was great, but it reached its fever pitch when the Oakland Raiders signed Roman Gabriel in 1967. The Raiders originally drafted Gabriel in the 1962 AFL Draft, but he instead signed with the Los Angeles Rams. The Raiders, however, were able to seize on Gabriel’s dissatisfaction with his use in Los Angeles and he signed with the Raiders. While some players had opted to sign with the AFL out of college instead of the NFL (like Joe Namath), Gabriel was widely considered one of the first NFL stars to be lured away by the upstart league according to AP reports at the time. The AFL was believed to have attempted […]
#ThrowbackThursday – Roman Gabriel