The American Association (AA) was a professional American football league based in New York City. Founded in 1936 as a minor league with teams in New York and New Jersey. The AA extended its reach to Providence, Rhode Island prior to the onset of World War II. The American Association was the first minor football league with a working arrangement with the National Football League as a system of farm clubs, beginning with the purchase of the Stapleton Buffaloes (which played one game as the New York Tigers) by New York Giants owner Tim Mara in 1937. The American Association was formed after a proposal by Edwin Simandi, manager of the Orange Tornadoes football
team. Members of the defunct Eastern League (1932) and Interstate League (1933) became charter members of the new AA as the owner of the Passaic Red Devils, Joe Rosentover, became the leagues president. The original lineup consisted of four teams from New York (Mt. Vernon Cardinals, Brooklyn Bay Parkways, New Rochelle Bulldogs, and White Plains Bears) and four from New Jersey (Orange Tornadoes, Paterson Panthers, Passaic Red Devils, and Stapleton Buffaloes, the last of which consisted mostly of the remains of the defunct Staten Island Stapletons). The formation of the league was announced in June 1936. On the field, the top four teams would qualify for the playoffs. Leading the way was the Paterson Panthers (4-1-0), followed by the Brooklyn Bay Parkways (4-2-2), the New Rochelle Bulldogs (3-2-1), and the Mt. Vernon Cardinals (3-2-0). Mt. Vernon declined to participate in the playoffs, so the Orange Tornadoes (4-4-0) would take their place as the fourth playoff team. In the first round of the playoffs, Brookyn would whitewash the New Rochelle Bulldogs 18-0, while the Paterson Panthers would do the same against the Orange Tornadoes 10-0. The Brooklyn Bay Parkways would be crowned champions of the American Association when the Paterson Panthers would withdraw from the AA Championship Game. In the first game of a series between the AA champion and the winners of the Dixie League, the Washington Pros (Dixie League) defeated the Brooklyn
Bay Parkways (American Association) 13-6 in Richmond, Virginia, January 1, 1937. It was the last time that an American Association team would lose to a team in the Dixie League in a football game.