AFC East

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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 division: Buffalo Bills of Orchard Park, 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 18 Super Bowls and won 7 of them, with the most recent during the 2004 National Football League season by the New England Patriots. The most recent appearance in the Super Bowl by an AFC East team was the Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI.

Entering 2012 the Patriots have the most wins in the division's history, with a record of 414-365-9, with a playoff record of 23-16 (3-4 in Super Bowls). The Dolphins are second at 400-300-4 (having played 84 fewer games than their division rivals) with a playoff record of 20-20 (2-3 in Super Bowls). The Bills are at 364-416-8 with a playoff record of 14-15 but winless having gone to four consecutive Super Bowls. The Jets presently hold a record of 359-421-8, with a playoff record of 12-13 including victory in Super Bowl III. The Patriots and Dolphins have won 14 division titles apiece; the Bills have won ten division titles, and the Jets have won four.

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. The Miami Dolphins entered the AFL in 1966 as part of its Eastern division.

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:

• The Bills play 7 games in Orchard Park, New York and 1 in Toronto, Ontario (they played in the city of Buffalo from 1960–72).
• The Jets play in East Rutherford, New Jersey (they played in the New York City borough of Manhattan from 1960–63, and in the borough of Queens from 1964–83)
• The Dolphins play in Miami Gardens, Florida, a suburb of Miami (they played in the city Miami from 1966–86)
• The Patriots play in Foxborough, approximately halfway between their original home city of Boston (in which the team played from 1960 to 1970) and Providence, Rhode Island.

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).

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 Central division (1970 season) and later are renamed the Tennessee Oilers (1997 season), then Tennessee Titans (1999 season). Moved to AFC South in 2002.

^C New York Titans renamed to New York Jets (1963 season)

^D Miami Dolphins enfranchised (1966 season)

^E Baltimore Colts merge from NFL's Western Division to AFC East (1970 Season)

^F Baltmore Colts relocate team to Indianapolis, Indiana subsequently renamed Indianapolis Colts (1984 Season). They moved to the AFC South in 2002

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.

Wild Card qualifiers

Since 1969

• 1969 – Houston Oilers
• 1970 – Miami Dolphins
• 1971 – Baltimore Colts
• 1974 – Buffalo Bills
• 1976 – New England Patriots
• 1978 – Miami Dolphins
• 1981 – Buffalo Bills, New York Jets
• 1982 – strike year* New England Patriots & N Y Jets
• 1985 – New England Patriots, New York Jets
• 1986 – New York Jets
• 1990 – Miami Dolphins
• 1991 – New York Jets
• 1992 – Buffalo Bills
• 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
• 2004 – New York Jets
• 2006 – New York Jets
• 2009 – New York Jets
• 2010 – New York Jets

* – 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.

Schedule assignments

See also

• Bills-Dolphins rivalry
• Dolphins-Jets rivalry
• Jets-Patriots rivalry
• Colts-Patriots rivalry

Total playoff berths while in the AFL/AFC East

(AFC East records 1960-2011 seasons)
Reflects Colts & Oilers results only while in the East Division.
In the sortable table below, teams can be ordered by name, number of division wins, playoff berths, or titles.

¹ Realigned from NFL West in 1970 merger. Known as the Baltimore Colts before 1984. Realigned into the AFC South beginning with the 2002 NFL season.
² Realigned into the AFC Central in 1970 merger, and into the AFC South in 2002. Known as Tennessee Oilers from 1997–98, and Tennessee Titans since 1999.

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