1966 was the seventh regular season of the American Football League, and one of the last before the AFL-NFL Merger. The league entered talks with the National Football League regarding a merger, which would take effect fully in 1970. The season also saw the debut of the Miami Dolphins. This gave the AFL 9 teams. Although the league had an odd number of teams, they continued to play a 14-game schedule. In the Western Division, the Kansas City Chiefs (11-2-1) rolled through the regular season without much of a challenge, winning the division by three games over the Oakland Raiders (8-5-1). In the Eastern Division, it was a tight season long battle between the Buffalo Bills (9-4-1) and the Boston Patriots (8-4-2), with the Bills coming out on top by one game. This would set up the AFL Championship Game between the Buffalo Bills and the Kansas City Chiefs at War Memorial Stadium in Buffalo, New York on January 1, 1967. The Bills went into the 1966 AFL Championship having already won the game the previous two years.  Though the game was to be played in Buffalo, the visiting Kansas City Chiefs were three-point favorites, mainly because of their explosive and innovative offense led by Head Coach Hank Stram. The Bills were a more conventional team with a solid defensive line and a running mindset on offense. A Bills fumble on the opening kick off gave the Chiefs a short field to work with, and Quarterback Len Dawson immediately took advantage of it, hitting Fred Arbanas for the game's first score. Jack Kemp's first pass for the Bills was a 69 yard score to Elbert Dubenion. Late in the second quarter and trailing 14–7, Kemp led the Bills to the Kansas City 10.  Bobby Crockett was open in the end zone, but Kemp's pass was intercepted by Johnny Robinson, who returned the ball 72-yards, setting up a Mike Mercer field goal to close out the first half. Buffalo found no offensive rhythm in the second half, and the Chiefs closed the game out in the fourth quarter with Dawson found Chris Burford for a 45 yard gain, setting up a one foot touchdown run by rookie  Mike Garrett. Garrett scored his second touchdown less than two minutes later following another Bills fumble, sending the Chiefs to the AFL-NFL Championship Game, or Super Bowl I. The first half of Super Bowl I was competitive, as the Chiefs out-gained the Packers in total yards, 181–164, to come within 14–10 at halftime. But Green Bay safety Willie Wood's 50-yard interception return early in the third quarter sparked the Packers to score 21 unanswered points in the second half. Green Bay quarterback Bart Starr, who completed 16 of 23 passes for 250 yards and two touchdowns, with 1 interception, was named MVP.