History of the National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) was founded in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association (APFA) with ten teams from four states, all of whom existed in some form as participants of regional leagues in their respective territories. The league took on its current name in 1922. The NFL was the first professional football league to successfully establish a nationwide presence, after several decades of failed attempts.[citation needed] Only two founding members are still in the league, the Decatur Staleys (now the Chicago Bears) and the Chicago Cardinals (founded in 1898, joined the NFL in 1920, now the Arizona Cardinals) is the oldest NFL franchise.
League membership gradually stabilized throughout the 1920s and 1930s as the league adopted progressively more formal organization. The first official
The rival American Football League was founded in 1960. It was very successful, and forced a merger with the older NFL that resulted in a greatly expanded league and the creation of the Super Bowl, which has become the most-watched annual sporting event in the United States. The league continued to expand to its current 32 teams. A series of labor agreements during the 1990s and increasingly large television contracts have helped keep the league one of the most profitable in the U.S., and the only major league in the U.S. since 1990 to avoid a work stoppage that resulted in the loss of regular-season games.
Beginnings
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American football first became a professional sport in the year of 1892, when
Lyons' vision of a national league of existing football clubs (which, at the time, was competing with another proposed league, again backed by baseball) was cut short by the United States' entry into
Ohio's teams went along with the idea in the face of escalating costs: several bidding wars in the early 1900s, both in Pennsylvania and Ohio, had damaged the sport significantly, and another bidding war was about to erupt if something was not done. By forming a national league, teams reasoned that it would eliminate the practices of looting other teams' rosters and concentrating top talent in only a few teams, thus distributing talent more evenly and efficiently, thereby reducing costs for each individual team while still keeping a top-level product on the field.
Birth of a new league
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Teams in the 1920–1932 Era | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Akron Pros | Buffalo |
Canton Bulldogs | Chicago Cardinals | Chicago Tigers | Cleveland Tigers |
Columbus Panhandles | Dayton Triangles | Green Bay Packers | Rock Island Independents | Toledo Maroons | Kenosha Maroons |
Decatur Staleys |
Detroit |
Hammond Pros | Muncie Flyers | Racine Legion | Rochester Jeffersons |
On August 20, 1920, at a Hupmobile dealership in Canton, Ohio, the league was formalized, originally as the American Professional Football Conference, initially consisting only of the Ohio League teams, although some of the teams declined participation.[2] One month later on September 17, the league was renamed the American Professional Football Association, adding Buffalo and Rochester from the New York league, and Detroit, Hammond (a suburban Chicago squad), and several other teams from nearby circuits. The eleven founding teams initially struck an agreement over player poaching and the declaration of an end-of-season champion. Thorpe, while still playing for the Bulldogs, was elected president. Only four of the founding teams finished the 1920 schedule, and the undefeated Akron Pros claimed the first championship. Membership of the league increased to 22 teams – including more of the New York teams – in 1921, but throughout the 1920s the membership was unstable and the league was not a major national sport. On June 24, 1922, the organization, now headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, changed its title a final time to the National Football League.[3]
Two charter members, the
Early championships were awarded to the team with the best won-lost record, initially rather haphazardly, as some teams played more or fewer games than others, or scheduled games against non-league, amateur or collegiate teams; this led to the title being decided on a
In league meetings prior to
By
An annual
College football was the bigger attraction, but by the end of World War II, pro football began to rival the college game for fans' attention. Rule changes and innovations such as the
Racial minorities
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The NFL's precursor, the
However, since Carlisle had closed in 1918, the talent pool of Native Americans had dried up. Meanwhile, all black players in the NFL (including future Hall of Famer Fritz Pollard) were summarily kicked out prior to the 1927 season for reasons unexplained [citation needed]. From 1928 to 1932, no more than one black player could be found in the league each season, and none played more than two seasons. In 1933, there were two: Joe Lillard and Ray Kemp. Lillard was kicked off the Chicago Cardinals for fighting, while Kemp left to pursue what would become a successful coaching career. The moves left the league as all-white, and Boston Redskins owner George Preston Marshall allegedly used his pressure to keep it that way for the next several years, though each team's internal politics and cronyism, as well as the rising tide of racism in the United States as a whole, also played a significant role. Even during the wartime years, when much of the NFL's talent was overseas fighting World War II, players such as Kenny Washington who stayed in the United States were still passed up in favor of white players with normally debilitating medical conditions such as partial blindness.[citation needed]
NFL integration occurred only when the
However, despite the NFL's previous segregationist policies, the clear competitive advantage of AFL teams with liberal signing policies affected the NFL's drafts. By 1969, a comparison of the two leagues' championship team photos showed the AFL's Chiefs with 23 black players out of 51 players (45%) pictured, while the NFL's Vikings had 11 blacks, of 42 players (26%) in the photo. Chiefs players have been quoted as saying that one motivating factor in their defeat of the Vikings in
Merger with the American Football League
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In 1946, after World War II, the struggling league had headquarters in Chicago. Commissioner
By the middle of the 1960s competition for players, including
Several NFL franchises led by Cowboys General Manager
Although the AFL's identity was subsumed by the NFL, the NFL eventually adopted many of the AFL's innovations including the on-field game clock, names on player jerseys, recruiting at small and predominantly black colleges, gate and television revenue-sharing, establishment of southern franchises, and more wide-open offensive rules.
Unlike previous armed conflicts such as World War I and World War II, both of which effectively stopped or dramatically reduced the amount of professional football played in the United States, both the AFL and NFL were largely unaffected by the
Modern era
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In the 1970s and 1980s, the NFL solidified its dominance as America's top spectator sport,[citation needed] and its important role in American culture. The Super Bowl became an unofficial national holiday and the top-rated television program most years. Monday Night Football, which first aired in 1970, brought in high ratings by mixing sports and entertainment. Rule changes in the late 1970s ensured a fast-paced game with much passing to attract the casual fan.
The World Football League was the first post-merger challenge to the NFL's dominance, and in 1974, successfully lured some top NFL talent to its league and prompted a few rules changes in the NFL. However, financial problems led the league to fold halfway through its 1975 season. Two teams, the Birmingham Vulcans and Memphis Southmen, made unsuccessful efforts to move from the WFL to the NFL.
In 1982 and 1987 there were player strikes.[2] The 1982 NFL strike, which lasted for eight weeks, forced the 1982 season to be shortened to 9 games per team. The 1987 NFL strike, which lasted for 24 days and forced the 1987 season to be shortened to 15 games per team.
The founding of the United States Football League in the early 1980s would prove to be the longest sustained challenge to the NFL's dominance since the 1970 merger, lasting three seasons. The USFL was a relatively well-financed competitor with big-name players and a national television contract, but overspending on that talent and a decision to move its niche spring operation into a head-to-head competition with the NFL in the fall (abandoning some of its biggest cities in the process) over the objections of many of its original owners were two major factors in the league's demise. The league's last-ditch effort to sue the NFL for hundreds of millions of dollars in antitrust damages, while a technical victory, failed to secure the funds the USFL needed to survive.
The
Prior to the 2002 season, the league realigned the divisions. The realignment consisted of eight divisions of four teams each. The NFC and AFC Central were renamed the NFC and AFC North, and the NFC and AFC South were created as brand new divisions. Arizona and Seattle join the NFC West, with Arizona leaving the NFC East and Seattle leaving the AFC West. Atlanta, New Orleans, and Carolina move from the NFC West to the new NFC South, along with Tampa Bay leaving the old NFC Central to join the NFC South. Jacksonville and Tennessee move from the old AFC Central to join to the new AFC South, along with Indianapolis moving from the AFC East to the AFC South. The other team to join the AFC South is the brand new expansion franchise Houston Texans.[22] This realignment marked the first time the divisions were realigned in the league since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970.
The
On August 31, 2007, a story in USA Today unveiled the first changes to the league's shield logo since 1980, which took effect with the 2008 season.[23] The redesign reduced the number of stars in the logo from 25[23] (which were found not to have a meaning beyond being decorative) to eight (for each of the league's divisions), repositioned the football in the manner of the Vince Lombardi Trophy, and changed the NFL letters to a straight, serifed font. The redesign was created with television and digital media, along with clothing, in mind. The shield logo itself dates back to the 1940s.
Women
In
Shannon Eastin became the first woman to officiate an NFL game in 2012, in a pre-season matchup between the Green Bay Packers and the San Diego Chargers.[28] In 2015 Sarah Thomas became the first full-time female official in NFL history.[29] In 2021 she became the first woman to officiate a Super Bowl.[30]
On March 3, 2013, Lauren Silberman became the first woman to ever try out for the NFL when she appeared as a kicker at the NFL Regional Scouting Combine in Florham Park, New Jersey.[31][32] However, after two poor kicks, Silberman left the field, citing an injury to her quadriceps; the tryout was suspected by members of the press and public as being nothing more than a publicity stunt.[33] Olympic pole-vaulter Jenn Suhr publicly expressed interest in attending an NFL scouting combine in 2014, but did not indicate what position she would play.[34]
On July 27, 2015, the Arizona Cardinals hired
International expansion
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In recent years, the NFL has expanded into new markets and ventures outside of the United States, beginning with a regular series of exhibition games known as the
The American Bowl games began in 1986 and continued until 2005 at various sites in countries around the world. Then in 1991, the league formed the World League of American Football, later known as NFL Europe and still later as
The league played a regular-season NFL game in
After 100 years of American football influence in Mexican territory, in 1998 the NFL opened a representation office in Mexico, called NFL México, as the NFL identified Mexico as a key market outside the United States due to proximity and tradition. The Mexican office handles sponsorship, licensing, detail dealers, sport culture, broadcasting, public relationships and community service.[49]
After 78 years of American Football influence in German territory, in 2023 the NFL opened a representation office in Duesseldorf Germany, called NFL Germany, as the NFL identified Germany as a key market outside the United States due to proximity and tradition. The German office handles sponsorship, licensing, detail dealers, sport culture, broadcasting, public relationships and community service.[who?]
Franchise relocations and mergers
In the early years, the league was not stable and teams moved frequently. Franchise mergers were popular during World War II in response to the scarcity of players. An example of this was the Steagles, temporarily formed as a merger between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles.
Franchise moves became far more controversial in the late twentieth century when a vastly more popular NFL was free from financial instability and allowed many franchises to abandon long-held strongholds for perceived financially greener pastures. This was done in spite of the promises to Congress by Pete Rozelle in 1966 that if the AFL–NFL merger were allowed, no city would lose its franchise. Those promises were made to ensure passage of PL 89-800, which granted antitrust immunity to the merged professional football leagues. While owners invariably cited financial difficulties as the primary factor in such moves, many fans bitterly disputed these contentions, especially in Cleveland (the Rams and the Browns), Baltimore (the Colts), Houston (the Oilers), and St. Louis (the Cardinals and the Rams), each of which eventually received teams some years after their original franchises left (the Browns, another Browns, Ravens, Texans, and Rams, respectively). Notably, the second-largest media market in the United States,
Popularity
While
However, the
The NFL has the highest per-game attendance of any domestic professional sports league in the world. The NFL's overall attendance, however, is only approximately 20 percent of Major League Baseball, because of the latter's longer schedule (162-game scheduled regular season).[b]
A 2007 Turnkey Sports & Entertainment's Team Brand Index for "team loyalty" ranked NFL teams in twelve of the top twenty-five spots out of 122 total between the four major sports leagues. The
Controversies
National Anthem controversy
In the 2016 preseason, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick sat and later knelt during the national anthem. He did it in protest of racial injustice and police brutality, and he referenced a series of African-American deaths caused by law enforcement.[56] Inspired by Kaepernick, other NFL players conducted various forms of silent protests during the national anthem.[57] The protests received highly polarized reactions, with some praising him and his stand against racism and others denouncing the protests. In September 2017 President Donald Trump said that NFL owners should "fire" players who protest the national anthem.[58][59]
In May 2018, the NFL prohibited players from kneeling in protests during the national anthem.
In June 2020, amid the George Floyd protests, The New York Times wrote that the NFL had wrestled with the issue of race, noting that three-quarters of NFL players are African-American, yet nearly every NFL team owner is white.[69] Goodell put out a statement where he apologized for not listening to the concerns of African-American players.[69] The Times wrote that Goodell's "words were panned as hypocritical because of the league owners’ rejection of Kaepernick."[69] Michael Rosenberg of Sports Illustrated wrote, "Mainstream white America is going to reconsider Kaepernick at some point — the way it reconsidered Muhammad Ali years after he refused to go to Vietnam, the way it reconsidered Jackie Robinson and Jack Johnson. Progress comes in fits and starts, and this country tends to punish those who urge it to move faster. The reconsideration of Kaepernick has begun."[70][71]
Concussions
The league has been criticized for its efforts in preventing concussions, in which eight former players have died, and have also had concussions throughout their careers. In 1994, former commissioner Paul Tagliabue created the Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee in order to study the effects of concussions on players.[72] With the suicide of linebacker Junior Seau in 2012, concerns arose about the connection between player deaths and concussions.[73] As a result, on April 9, 2013, a lawsuit involving 4,100 plaintiffs and 222 consolidated lawsuits against the NFL was held by a federal court.[74]
In 2005, Bennet Omalu found evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in the brain of former Pittsburgh Steelers player Mike Webster. The NFL initially hounded Omalu and tried to force him to withdraw his findings. Since this discovery, however, 91 other former NFL players have been tested for CTE at the VA-BU-CLF Brain bank at Boston University, with 87 of these tests showing signs of CTE.[75] The story of Bennet Omalu has since been made into a major motion picture.
See also
- Timeline of the National Football League
- History of American football
- History of the National Football League championship
- Homosexuality in American football
- United States antitrust law
- History of the NFL Commissioner
- Ohio League & New York Pro Football League (direct predecessors)
Notes
- ^ With the exception of the various teams in ice hockey's Pacific Coast Hockey Association, which was a rival to the National Hockey League in the 1910s and 1920s.
- ^ An ingredient in the rise of American football's popularity in comparison with baseball is the innovation of television. Television can capture most if not all the lineup in an American football game, but player positioning on a baseball field is too diffused to appear usefully on one screen.
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Sources
- Algeo, Matthew (2006), Last Team Standing. Philadelphia:Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-81472-3
- Coenen, Craig R. (2005). From Sandlots to the Super Bowl: The National Football League, 1920–1967. Knoxville, Tennessee: The University of Tennessee Press.
- Lyons, Robert S. (2010). On Any Given Sunday, A Life of Bert Bell. Philadelphia:Temple University Press. ISBN 978-1-59213-731-2
- Peterson, Robert W. (1997). Pigskin New York:Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507607-9
- Williams, Pete (2006). The Draft: A Year Inside the NFL's Search for Talent. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-35438-1
- Willis, Chris (2010). The Man Who Built the National Football League: Joe F. Carr. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, Inc. ISBN 978-0-8108-7669-9
External links
- NFL History at NFL.com