It was the best-kept secret in sport outside of, possibly, Sandy Koufax's unlisted phone number. For twelve weeks, behind a continuing barrage of public name-calling, the U.S.'s two warring pro-football leagues had been quietly negotiating a peace. Last week came the announcement: the National and American leagues had agreed to 1) kiss and make up, 2) hold a common player draft, 3) stage an annual "world-championship" play-off game starting next winter, and 4) merge in 1970 into a single, 28-team league.
The pax porcidermis was inevitable. It had been ever since 1964, when the struggling, six-year-old A.F.L. suddenly became...
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