The Patterns Take Shape

Almost the whole story in the American Football League is San Diego, a club which outclasses its league as much as did the Cleveland Browns in the days of the old All-America Conference. San Diego, which has yet to lose a game, might have been brought somewhat nearer to its AFL competition if Quarterback Jack Kemp had had to go on duty with the Army reserve. But Kemp has been given a six-month deferment, and the only question in the AFL is which of the Eastern Division teams will be forced to meet the Chargers in the championship game.

The four teams struggling for that rather frightening assignment are the New York Titans, the Boston Patriots, the Buffalo Bills and the Houston Oilers, last year's AFL champion. Although the Oilers, after an inept beginning under Head Coach Lou Rymkus, are at present in third place, they seem, still, to have the best players of the four teams. They have two good quarterbacks in George Blanda and Jacky Lee; they also have as good running backs as any other club—excepting San Diego—in Billy Cannon and Chuck Tolar. By making Wally Lemm the new head coach, the Oilers may have solved their problems of morale, the only real problem the club had.

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