| Dates | December 20, 1969 – January 4, 1970 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | 1969 | ||||
| Teams | 4 | ||||
| Defending champions | New York Jets | ||||
| Champions | Kansas City Chiefs | ||||
| Runners-up | Oakland Raiders | ||||
| |||||
The 1969 AFL playoffs was the postseason of the American Football League for its tenth and final season in 1969. For the first time, the ten-team league scheduled a four-team postseason, consisting of the top two teams from the two divisions. The division champions hosted the second place teams from the other division; both Western division teams won and advanced to the league championship game, with the winner advancing to play the NFL champion in Super Bowl IV in New Orleans on January 18, 1970.
Previously, the only scheduled postseason contest was the AFL Championship Game, between the two division winners, with the host site alternating between the divisions. Ties for a division title were resolved with an unscheduled tiebreaker playoff game (1963: East, 1968: West), while the other division's winner was idle.
Eastern runner-up Houston (6–6–2) had the league's fifth-best record; San Diego (8–6) was fourth, but finished third in the West and did not qualify for the postseason. Oakland (12–1–1) and Kansas City (11–3), both from Western division, had the best records and both advanced to the AFL title game.
The opening round of the AFL postseason was played December 20–21, the final week of the regular season for the NFL; they played the first round of their postseason the following weekend (December 27–28), while the AFL was idle. Both league championship games were held on January 4; Super Bowl IV was on January 11.