Amazing NFL Stories 12 Highlights From NFL History
Today’s National Football League NFL is a spectacle No pro sport is bigger in the United States The stars are big The money is bigger Yet the league’s beginnings were quite small THE NFL RISES FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS 1 4 Akron Pros players around 1921
By 1920 pro teams were scattered around the Midwest There was no single champion There was no shared rule book Players went to the highest bidder It was chaos Ralph Hay owned one such team the Canton Bulldogs Hay thought he had a better way to operate So in 1920 he invited several other owners to his car dealership in Canton Ohio There the men agreed to form the American Professional Football Association APFA They later renamed it the National Football League The early NFL didn’t look much like the league we know Most of the teams were from the Midwest They didn’t play a fixed schedule Most still played against non-NFL teams There were no playoffs or championship game Teams voted for the 1920 NFL champion four months after the season The Akron Pros ended up with that belated honor after an 8 0 3 season ANOTHER NFL FIRST The first televised NFL game was on October 22 1939 An estimated 500 viewers watched the Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Eagles 23 14 No footage of that first broadcast exists today 14 Teams in the NFL’s first season in 1920 The NFL was called the American Professional Football Association in 1920 and 1921 Only two of the original NFL teams still exist The Decatur Staleys are the present-day Chicago Bears The Racine Cardinals are today’s Arizona Cardinals The Dayton Triangles won the first game between two NFL teams They beat the Columbus Panhandles 14 0 on October 3 1920 5
Turkey Stuffing Mashed potatoes Family They’re all staples of most Thanksgiving Day celebrations So is football The NFL has been playing Thanksgiving Day games since 1920 In the coming years Thanksgiving football would provide fans with plenty of thrills In 1980 the Detroit Lions and Chicago Bears played the first Thanksgiving overtime game The Bears Dave Williams returned the opening kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown to end it In 1993 the Dallas Cowboys appeared to be on their way to a victory over the Miami Dolphins The Cowboys blocked a kick with seconds to go It should have been over But Dallas defensive lineman Leon Lett chased down and touched the ball That made the ball live Miami recovered and kicked the game-winning field goal THANKSGIVING DAY GAMES BECOME A TRADITION 2 6 Detroit Lions fans tailgate with a turkey before the 2011 Thanksgiving game
Confusion reigned in 1998 The Lions and the Pittsburgh Steelers went to overtime Steelers running back Jerome Bettis called tails for the coin toss The toss came up tails but referee Phil Luckett misunderstood He gave Detroit the ball The Lions went on to kick a game-winning field goal And who could forget 2012 New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez made blooper reels everywhere He ran right into the rear end of one of his linemen Then he fumbled Sanchez’s butt fumble remains one of the most amusing plays in NFL history 84 Total points scored in a 1986 Thanksgiving game The Green Bay Packers outlasted the Detroit Lions 44 40 The NFL has held three games every Thanksgiving since 2006 The Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions traditionally host Thanksgiving games each year 7 The Dallas Cowboys Leon Lett loses the ball against the Miami Dolphins on Thanksgiving in 1993
