AFC East - AFC East

AFC East

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 while Sparano enters 2012 as a member of Ryan's staff. Parcells himself coached the Patriots (1993–6) and the Jets (1997–9) and was Vice President of Football Operations for the Dolphins until the summer of 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).