"Look, that league's going to fold anyway, so we'll see you next year."Those were the words uttered by then-Colts owner to Carroll Rosenbloom to Ron Mix in the spring of 1960. A standout offensive lineman at USC, Mix had been drafted by both the 's and the brand new American Football League's Boston . Mix was offered more money to play for the AFL, so he asked Rosenbloom if there was any wiggle room in regards to his po sible salary if he chose to play for the two-time defending NFL champions. Rosenbloom, in so many words, dismi sed Mix's request while banking on Mix being available when the new Steve Larmer Jersey pro football league inevitably closed shop the following spring."That was the opinion of the National Football League and the teams at the time, that the new upstart league would fold," said Mix who currently serves as president of the .To the surprise of many, the AFL never folded. In fact, each of the AFL's 10 teams currently play in the NFL: the , , , , Patriots, , , , , and . On Monday night, millions will watch as the Chargers and the undefeated Raiders square off in an AFC West showdown. While the AFL technically ceased to exist following the league merge in 1970, the impact of the AFL is very much alive and well.Mix, who went on to enjoy a Hall of Fame career with the Chargers before spending his final season with the Raiders, recently spoke with CBS Sports about the AFL's enduring legacy. With Denis Savard Jersey Mix's experience serving as our compa s, we created a list of the five things fans should know about the AFL heading into Monday night's game between the Raiders and Chargers. Created in 1960, the AFL aspired to be a hipper, fresher alternative to the NFL. Teams had flashy names and wore bright-colored uniforms. The AFL product was also more exciting in that it featured significantly more pa sing than their counterpart league.The AFL had several household names at the quarterback position that included "Broadway" Joe Namath, pro football's first 4,000-yard pa ser. Other notable AFL pa sers included Chargers quarterback John Hadl, Kansas City's Len Dawson, Buffalo's Jack Kemp, Oakland's Daryle Lamonica, and Miami's Bob Griese. Hadl, who was drafted by both the NFL's and AFL's Chargers in 1962, led the Chargers to consecutive AFL title game appearances in 1964 and '65. Both years, the Chargers fell to Kemp and the Bills."John was an outstanding player," Mix said of his former teammate. "You ask who he reminds me of today, I would say Patrick Mahomes in that John could run. He was an excellent athlete. He was also an immediate leader." Hadl replaced Tobin Rote as the Chargers' starting quarterback after Rote helped lead the franchise to its first and only championship in 1963. Similar to today's offenses, the Chargers' offense featured two running backs in Paul Lowe and Keith Lincoln. Lowe ran for 1,010 yards and eight touchdowns while averaging 6.5 yards per carry during the Chargers' championship season. Lincoln ran for 826 yards and five scores while averaging 5.7 yards per carry.No skill position player took more advantage of the AFL's wide-open attack than Chargers receiver Lance Allworth. Nicknamed "Bambi" for his gracefulne s on the field, Allworth dominated AFL defenses for nearly the entire 1960s. He retired a year after catching a touchdown pa s from legend Roger Staubach in VI."Lance was the best I've ever seen, including the present time," Mix said of Allworth, who in 2019 was included in the NFL's 100th anniversary team. "He never dropped a pa s. He played at a time when cornerbacks could be hitting the players all the way down the field. But more importantly, he played on a team where we had so many offensive weapons and Sid distributed the ball among those guys. In today's game, Lance would have twice as many catches. "We had a lot of great players, but all of us on the team thought that Lance was special." Keith Magnuson Jersey Mix shared a story that sums up how much he and his Chargers teammates revered Allworth, who in 1978 became the first AFL player to receive induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame."We're flying back from an eastern road trip, and we hit some horrific weather," Mix recalled. "And the plane is shaking and going up and down, and I'm convinced that the plane is going to crash. Then I remembered that Lance was on board, and I relaxed as I thought, 'Oh, God wouldn't kill Lance (laughs).' Lance loves that story because it's true!" "He was always so far behind the defense."Lance Alworth was a superior playmaker for the in the 1960s. NFL (@NFL) Evan as a young a sistant, Al Davis championed a deep-pa sing attack. Before rising to prominence as the Raiders principal owner and general manager, Davis served as Mix's position coach at USC before joining the Chargers' inaugural coaching staff."I remember when Al was my position coach at USC," Mix said, "and occasionally, he would say to me, 'Ron, I'm trying to get these coaches to chuck the ball, but I'm not making any progre s at all. So, keep working on your blocking technique.'" Davis came to the right place, as the Chargers head coach, Sid Gillman, was an innovator in his own right. The first coach to be inducted into the College and Pro Football Hall of Fame, Gillman has one of the greatest coaching trees in history. The list of coaches a sociated with Gillman's coaching tree includes Bill Walsh, George Allen, Noll, Al Davis, Ara Parseghian, Bo Schembechler, Chuck Knox and Dick Vermeil. Following his team's 51-10 win over the Patriots in the '63 title game, Gillman Jordan Schroeder Jersey approached NFL Commi sioner Pete Rozelle about the Chargers facing the NFL champion . Gillman's idea was rejected, but it planted the seeds for what would eventually be known as the Super Bowl. The 1963 AFL Championship Keith Lincoln rushes 13-206-1, 6-123 through the airRote 10-15-173-2Hadl 7-11-132-1Alworth 4-77-151-10 Old Time Football (@Ol_TimeFootball) "Sid was something of a rocket scientist when it came to offensive football and the pa sing game," said Noll, who served as an a sistant on Gillman's staff in Los Angeles before leading the to four Super Bowls in the 1970s, . "He saw things other coaches hadn't seen. And he wasn't afraid to put his ideas into action.""His dedication was infectious," Mix said of his former coach. "You saw how hard he was working and the amount of time he put in. I think it had an influence on a lot of players about how serious they should take their craft." The AFL also included coaching legends in Kansas City's Hank Stram, Oakland's John Madden and Buffalo's Lou Saban. Weeb Ewbank, who led the to back-to-back NFL championships in 1958-59, orchestrated the AFL's signature victory. More on that in a second.By the mid-1960s, the NFL grew tired of fighting against Jan Rutta Jersey the AFL, who by that point had succe sfully landed some of 's premier players while building a solid fan base. A future merge of the two leagues was announced on June 8, 1966. Until their merger in 19