New York Yankees (1940 AFL)

The New York Yankees of the third American Football League was the third professional American football team competing under that name. It is unrelated to the Yankees of the first AFL (and the National Football League), the Yankees of the second AFL, and the (later) Yankees of the All-America Football Conference. The Yankees played their home games in Yankee Stadium and Downing Stadium in New York, New York.

After finishing fourth in the AFL’s season of 1940, the Yankees were sold to agent and promoter Douglas Hertz. By the summer of 1941, the team’s AFL franchise was revoked in light of a scandal involving the new owner, and a group headed by William Cox assumed control of the team by the beginning of the new season. The newly renamed New York Americans were competitive, finishing one-half game behind league champions Columbus Bullies. While the Americans were making plans for a 1942 AFL season, the league suspended operations in the wake of the entry of the United States into World War II, and the Americans followed suit. The league did not return to business after the end of the war, and neither did the New York Americans.