The sources of power in this case
The real sources of power, in this case, were the owners of the teams i.e. Dallas Cowboys (Tex Schramm) and the owner of L.A Rams in conjunction with Rozelle. The three influential persons were key in pressuring the feuding camps into coming to amicable agreements. The three persons also held the authority in discussions regarding the NFL and AFL merger.
How did power issues affect the NFL-AFL merger process?
Power issues affected both the NFL and AFL as both parties spent a lot of time and money trying to woo college players to play in their leagues. The power issues also affected the credibility of both leagues as the power wrangles continued. In order to woo the players, both leagues engaged in all sorts of tactics that even seemed unethical in order to get players to play in the leagues. Such tactics involved buying players expensive cars and babysitting them to the extent that they limited the communication between them and their parents and next of kin. All this continued to happen as profits from American football increased. The rivalry between the NFL and AFL leagues resulted in increase in players salaries in both leagues and which in turn affected the mentioned leagues financially.
The NFL viewed AFL league as an inferior one when it was formed, but the AFL teams started stealing college players from NFL and this grabbed headlines in various newspapers in the United States (Slack, 2008).
Examples of how personal and organizational power can assist or hurt goal achievement, in this case the NFL-AFL merger
Competition between the two leagues proved to be advantageous to players as their wages increased exponentially. An example of this is how both leagues reported spending 25 million dollars in signatures alone for college players and the starting salary for these players was reported to be more than 400 thousand dollars. This rivalry made AFL to lure more players with higher wages it even reported to have signed a deal with NBC in the year 1964 to a tune of 36 million dollar.
The disadvantages brought about by the rivalry resulted in exorbitant wages for these new players which proved to be too much for the teams in those leagues. This strained the teams financially and also in terms of credibility. The public perceived the feud could get out of control and result in physical harm of both players and managers involved as manifested in the physical altercation between the scouts (Slack, 2008).
Why did the merger’s conspirators choose to talk to Lamar Hunt instead of the AFL commissioner?
Lamar Hunt was respected by his peers and was the owner of Kansas City Chiefs. He was able to caught up with NFL conservatism by forming his own league i.e. AFL and this turn out to be successful as compared to it rival league, the NFL at that time.. Lamar was not only a visionary leader in the United State but was also modest. He had a track record of getting things done (Slack, 2008).
Reference
Slack, T. (2008). Power and Politics in Sport Organization. London: Oxford Publishers.