Pete Rozelle as one of the most influential people in American history Muhammad Ali, Albert Einstein, and Bill Gates are all very influential people in American history. But Pete Rozelle is also an equally qualified candidate to be the most influential. Rozelle has done some things that most people thought couldn't be done. He was once the commissioner of the National Football League. Rozelle also invented the Super Bowl and Monday Night Football. Some would say that's enough to make you name the most influential person in modern history. Rozelle obviously didn't think so though because in 1960 he merged the NFL and AFL into one major league. In the following paragraphs I will explain why I think Pete Rozelle is one of the most influential people in history. First of all, what does the word commissioner mean, and what does it do? Well, the people close to Rozelle had a very different opinion of him than what the coaches, players and fans thought. Until Rozelle's death in 1996, he was belittled in every way by owners, coaches and players. They saw him more or less as the boy whose job it was to order stuffed mushrooms for the post-game party. Well, that wasn't Rozelle at all. He was an astute promoter of his sport. As previously stated, Rozelle invented the Super Bowl. Rozelle didn't stop there though; it then sold the rights to the first game to both NBC and CBS forcing them to compete for viewers. Rozelle also invented Monday Night Football, the second longest-running prime-time program on American television, after 60 Minutes..