Adams soon became interested in owning an NFL team. In 1959, Adams and fellow Texas oilman Lamar Hunt tried to buy the struggling Chicago Cardinals and move them to Texas. When that effort failed, he tried to get an expansion team, only to be turned down. A few days after returning to Houston, Adams got a call from Hunt proposing an entirely new football league. They met several times that spring, and Hunt convinced Adams to field a team in Houston. In Hunt's view, a regional rivalry between Hunt's Dallas Texans (now the Kansas City Chiefs) and a Houston team would be critical to the league's growth. On August 3, Adams and Hunt held a press conference in Adams's boardroom to announce formation of the new league, which was formally named the American Football League.