NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Titans owner Bud Adams, who helped found the American Football League and whose battles for players helped lead to the merger with the NFL, has died. He was 90.

The team announced Monday that Adams had died, saying he “passed away peacefully from natural causes.”

The son of a prominent oil executive, Adams built his own energy fortune and founded the Houston Oilers. He moved the team to Tennessee in 1997 when he couldn’t get the new stadium he wanted in Houston. The franchise, renamed the Titans, in 2000 reached the Super Bowl that Adams had spent more than three decades pursuing.

Adams’ 409 wins were the most of any current NFL owner. He got his 400th career win in the 2011 season finale when his Titans defeated the team that replaced his Oilers in Houston, the Texans. His franchise made 21 playoff appearances in 53 seasons, eighth among NFL teams since 1960.

“I consider Bud one of the founders of the game of professional football because of his role in helping to create the American Football League,” Dallas owner Jerry Jones said in a statement.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell called Adams a pioneer and innovator.

“As a founding owner of the American Football League that began play in 1960, Bud saw the potential of pro football and brought the game to new cities and new heights of popularity, first in Houston and then in Nashville,” Goodell said.

Kenneth Stanley Adams Jr. was born in Bartlesville, Okla., to the future chief executive of Phillips Petroleum Co., K.S. “Boots” Adams.

Adams joined Dallas oilman Lamar Hunt on Aug. 3, 1959, when they made the announcement that the AFL would begin competing with the NFL.