The American Football Conference – Eastern Division or AFC East is a division of the National Football League's American Football Conference. There are currently four teams that reside in the conference: Buffalo Bills of Buffalo, Miami Dolphins of Miami, New England Patriots of Foxborough, and New York Jets of Florham Park.
Since the division's enfranchisement in 1960, with the creation of the American Football League, the division has represented in 16 Super Bowls and won 7 of them, with the most recent during the 2004 National Football League season by the New England Patriots.
[edit] AFL Eastern Division
The American Football League Eastern Division was formed during the inaugural season of the American Football League in 1960, as a counterpart to the AFL Western Division. The divisional alignment consisted of the Buffalo Bills, Boston Patriots, New York Titans and Houston Oilers.
[edit] AFC East
Locale of the current 4 AFC East teams
The division was absorbed nearly intact with the AFL–NFL Merger in 1970, but Houston was moved to the AFC Central (formerly the NFL Century Division, now the AFC North) and replaced by the closer Baltimore Colts (from the NFL Coastal Division, which became the NFC West). Despite relocating to Indianapolis, Indiana in 1984, the Colts continued to play in the AFC East until NFL expansion from 31 to 32 teams with the addition of the Houston Texans and 2002 re-alignment when they were moved to the AFC South (the successor franchise to the Oilers, the Tennessee Titans, is also in the AFC South).
Although Miami is farther south than the home cities of the other three teams, all of which are in the Northeast, all four AFC East teams have historical rivalries among them, dating from their years in the AFL during the 1960s.
None of the AFC East teams currently plays within the central city of their metropolitan area:
All of the teams are or were coached by a first or second generation member of the Bill Parcells Coaching Tree: the Patriots have Bill Belichick; the Dolphins had Tony Sparano; the Jets had Eric Mangini (who served as an assistant with both Belichick and Parcells); and the Bills had Dick Jauron (fired on November 17, 2009), who served as an assistant with former Parcells assistant Tom Coughlin. The Jets are now coached by Rex Ryan and the Bills are now coached by Chan Gailey. Parcells himself coached the Patriots (1993–6) and the Jets (1997–9) and was Vice President of Football Operations for the Dolphins until summer, 2010.
ESPN's Chris Berman often calls this division the "AFC Adams" due to its geographical similarity to the old Adams Division of the NHL, now known as the Northeast Division.
Along with the AFC (formerly AFL) West, the AFC East is the oldest NFL division in terms of creation date (1960).
[edit] Division lineups
- A Boston Patriots relocate team to Foxborough, Massachusetts subsequently renamed New England Patriots (1971 season)
- B Houston Oilers move to newly created AFC North division (1970 season) and later are renamed the Tennessee Oilers (1997 season), then Tennessee Titans (1999 season)
- C New York Titans renamed to New York Jets (1963 season)
- D Miami Dolphins enfranchised (1966 season)
- E Baltimore Colts merge from AFL's Western Division to AFC East (1970 Season)
- F Baltmore Colts relocate team to Indianapolis, Indiana subsequently renamed Indianapolis Colts (1984 Season)
- G Indianapolis Colts move to AFC South division (2002 Season)
[edit] Division champions
- ! – The Patriots and Bills each finished with identical 7–6–1 records in the regular season. The Patriots would win the ensuing playoff game for the right to represent the East in the AFL Championship Game.
- + – A players' strike in 1982 reduced the regular season to nine games. Thus, the league used a special 16-team playoff tournament just for this year. Division standings were ignored, Miami had the best record of the division teams.
[edit] Wild Card qualifiers
- Since 1969
* – A players' strike in 1982 reduced the regular season to nine games. Thus, the league used a special 16-team playoff tournament just for this year. Division standings were ignored.
[edit] See also
[edit] Total playoff berths
1 The Bills tied the Patriots for their 1963 regular season division title, but lost the ensuing playoff game.
2 Known as the Baltimore Colts before 1984. Realigned into the AFC South beginning with the 2002 NFL season.
3 Won Super Bowl V as member of AFC East.
4 Realigned into the AFC Central in 1970, and into the AFC South in 2002. Known as Tennessee Oilers from 1997–98, and Tennessee Titans since 1999.
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Buffalo Bills
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Simpson, Kemp, McGroder, Sestak, Shaw, Wilson, 12th Man, Dubenion, Stratton, Ferguson, Levy, DeLamielleure, James, Abramoski, Kalsu, Saimes, Kelly, Smerlas, Hull, Talley, Ritcher, Thomas, Reed, Tasker, Smith, Edgerson, Hansen
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1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1992, 1994, 2000, 2008
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New England Patriots
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Formerly the Boston Patriots and briefly the Bay State Patriots • Founded in 1959 • Based in Foxborough, Massachusetts |
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