The AFC West is a division of the National Football League's American Football Conference. The AFC West was formed as a result of the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. The new NFL was aligned into six divisions (two conferences of three divisions each). The original AFC West had four members - the Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs, Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers. All four teams were previously members of the American Football League's Western Division. These four teams have remained in the AFC West since its inception, and are currently the only teams in the division. When the Raiders played in Los Angeles from 1982 to 1994, they remained in the AFC West.

When the Seattle Seahawks and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers began play in 1976, the Buccaneers were put into the AFC West and the Seahawks were put into the NFC West. After one year, Seattle was moved into the AFC West and Tampa Bay was moved into the NFC Central. The Seahawks played in the AFC West until the 2002 re-alignment, when they were put back into the NFC West, thus restoring the pre-1976 alignment.

ESPN's Chris Berman often calls this division the "AFC Smythe" due to its geographical similarity to the old Smythe Division of the NHL, now known as the Pacific Division.

In recent years, the division is often cited as one of the NFL's "Toughest Divisions" due partially to the home-field advantages of Invesco Field, Arrowhead Stadium and McAfee Coliseum(The Black Hole).

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