The AFC East is a division of the National Football League's American Football Conference. It has four members: Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots, and New York Jets. They are all former members of the American Football League (AFL), three of which are charter members of the AFL (the Dolphins were an AFL expansion team in 1966).
The division has its roots in the AFL's Eastern Division, which featured all of the above teams as well as the Houston Oilers. The division was absorbed nearly intact with the AFL-NFL Merger in 1970, but Houston was removed and replaced by the closer Baltimore Colts. Despite relocating to Indianapolis, Indiana in 1984, the Colts continued to play in the AFC East until the 2002 re-alignment when they were moved to 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 play within the central city of their metropolitan area. The Patriots play in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts; the Jets play in East Rutherford, New Jersey; the Dolphins play in Miami Gardens, Florida; and the Bills play 7 games in Orchard Park, New York and 1 in Toronto, Ontario. All of the teams are coached by a 1st or second generation member of the Bill Parcells Coaching Tree, the Patriots have Bill Belichick, the Dolphins have Tony Sparano, the Jets had Eric Mangini (who served as an assistant with both Belichick and Parcells) and the Bills have Dick Jauron, who served as an assistant with former Parcells assistant Tom Coughlin.
Parcells himself coached the Patriots (1993-6) and the Jets (1997-9) and is currently Vice President of Football Operations for the Dolphins.
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.
Division champions
- 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.
Wild Card qualifiers
- Since 1970
- 1970 - Miami Dolphins
- 1971 - Baltimore Colts
- 1972 - None
- 1973 - None
- 1974 - Buffalo Bills
- 1975 - None
- 1976 - New England Patriots
- 1977 - None
- 1978 - Miami Dolphins
- 1979 - None
- 1980 - None
- 1981 - Buffalo Bills, New York Jets
- 1982 - *
- 1983 - None
- 1984 - None
- 1985 - New England Patriots, New York Jets
- 1986 - New York Jets
- 1987 - None
- 1988 - None
- 1989 - None
- 1990 - Miami Dolphins
- 1991 - New York Jets
- 1992 - Buffalo Bills
- 1993 - None
- 1994 - New England Patriots
- 1995 - Indianapolis Colts, Miami Dolphins
- 1996 - Buffalo Bills, Indianapolis Colts
- 1997 - Miami Dolphins
- 1998 - Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots
- 1999 - Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins
- 2000 - Indianapolis Colts
- 2001 - Miami Dolphins, New York Jets
- 2002 - None
- 2003 - None
- 2004 - New York Jets
- 2005 - None
- 2006 - New York Jets
- 2007 - None
- 2008 - None
* - 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.
Total playoff berths
| Team | Division Championships | Playoff Berths | Super Bowl championships |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miami Dolphins | 14 | 22 | 2 |
| New England Patriots | 10 | 14 | 3 |
| Buffalo Bills | 7 | 13 | 0 |
| New York Jets | 2 | 9 | 0 2 |
| Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts1 | 6 | 10 | 13 |
1 Known as the Baltimore Colts before 1984. Realigned into the AFC South beginning with the 2002 NFL season.
2 Won Super Bowl III before AFL-NFL Merger and formation of AFC East. 3 Won Super Bowl V as member of AFC East.
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This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
