History of the National Football League facts for kids
The National Football League (NFL) is a super popular professional American football league. It started way back in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association (APFA). When it began, there were ten teams from four different states. These teams were already playing in smaller, local leagues. In 1922, the league changed its name to the NFL. It was the first professional football league to become successful all across the country. Only two of the original teams are still around today: the Chicago Bears (who were first called the Decatur Staleys) and the Arizona Cardinals (who were the Chicago Cardinals). The Cardinals are actually the oldest NFL team, starting in 1898 before joining the NFL in 1920.
Through the 1920s and 1930s, more teams joined and the league became more organized. The first official championship game was played in 1933. After World War II, in 1946, the NFL started signing black players again. The league also changed its leadership, making the Commissioner role more powerful. Teams became stronger financially. By 1958, the NFL was becoming one of the most popular sports leagues in the United States. This was especially true after the 1958 NFL championship game, which many called "the most exciting game ever played."
In 1960, a new league called the American Football League (AFL) was formed. It became very successful and eventually merged with the NFL. This merger created a much bigger league and led to the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is now the most-watched yearly sports event in the U.S. The NFL has continued to grow and now has 32 teams. Deals made in the 1990s and large TV contracts have helped the league stay very profitable.
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How American Football Began
American football became a professional sport in 1892. That's when players like Pudge Heffelfinger and Ben "Sport" Donnelly got paid to play. For many years, professional football was mostly played in certain regions. There were no national leagues or big tournaments. Many attempts to create a national league failed.
One of the most famous regional leagues was the Ohio League. It had legendary player Jim Thorpe. Another league was the New York Pro Championship. In 1917, two New York teams, the Rochester Jeffersons and the Buffalo All-Stars, played games in Ohio. After the Jeffersons lost to Thorpe's Canton Bulldogs, the Jeffersons' owner, Leo Lyons, suggested forming a league. Lyons hoped a league could make football as popular as baseball.
Lyons' idea for a national league was put on hold by World War I and a flu pandemic in 1918. Many teams had to stop playing. But some teams, especially in New York, kept going. These teams picked up many star players who stayed in the U.S. By 1919, professional football was spreading out. Two main groups of teams formed: one near the East Coast and another around the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes group eventually became the modern NFL.
Teams in Ohio agreed to form a league because costs were getting too high. There were bidding wars for players, which hurt the sport. By forming a national league, teams hoped to stop stealing players from each other. This would help spread talent more evenly and lower costs for each team.
Birth of the National Football League
| 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, a new league was officially started in Canton, Ohio. It was first called the American Professional Football Conference. A month later, on September 17, it was renamed the American Professional Football Association. This new league included teams from Ohio, New York, and other nearby areas. The eleven founding teams agreed to stop stealing players and to have a champion at the end of the season. Jim Thorpe was elected president while still playing for the Canton Bulldogs.
Only four of the original teams finished the 1920 season. The Akron Pros won the first championship without losing a game. In 1921, the league grew to 22 teams. But it was still unstable and not a major national sport. On June 24, 1922, the organization changed its name one last time to the National Football League. Its headquarters moved to Columbus, Ohio.
Two of the original teams are still playing today: the Chicago Cardinals (now the Arizona Cardinals) and the Decatur Staleys (now the Chicago Bears). The Green Bay Packers started in 1919 and are the oldest team that hasn't moved. They joined the league in 1921. The New York Giants joined in 1925. The Indianapolis Colts trace their history back to the Dayton Triangles, one of the founding teams. However, the Colts are officially recognized as a separate team started in 1953.
In the early years, championships were given to the team with the best record. This was sometimes confusing because teams played different numbers of games. This led to a tiebreaker in 1921 and a disputed title in 1925. Many teams joined and left the league often. Owners could even trade their teams to different cities. Sometimes, a bigger team would buy out a smaller team just to get a player.
Before the 1933 NFL season, three new teams joined the NFL. The league then had ten teams. With the help of George Preston Marshall and George Halas, the NFL was split into an Eastern Division and a Western Division. The two division winners would then play in an NFL Championship Game.
By 1934, most small-town teams had moved to bigger cities. Only the Green Bay Packers stayed in a smaller town. They even started playing some home games in Milwaukee for more support. In 1941, the NFL headquarters moved to Chicago. In the early days, many NFL teams used the same names as baseball teams in their cities. For example, the Pittsburgh Steelers were first called the "Pittsburgh Pirates."
The first yearly draft of college players happened in 1936. The first NFL game was shown on TV on October 22, 1939. During this time, the NFL became segregated, meaning there were no black players. This was largely due to the influence of George Preston Marshall. Other owners followed this policy to please fans in the South. Even after the ban was lifted, Marshall's Washington Redskins remained all-white until the Kennedy administration made them integrate in 1962. Despite this, Marshall was honored in the Pro Football Hall of Fame for his many ideas that helped the league grow.
College football was more popular for a while. But after World War II, professional football started to catch up. New rules and plays made the game faster and higher-scoring. The league also expanded beyond the East and Midwest. In 1945, the Cleveland Rams moved to Los Angeles. In 1950, the NFL added three teams from another league, the All-America Football Conference. In 1958, the Baltimore Colts and New York Giants played "The Greatest Game Ever Played." This game was shown on TV across the country and helped make the NFL much more popular.
Diversity in the NFL
The early NFL had some players from different backgrounds. Between 1920 and 1926, nine African-American players played for NFL teams. Teams also featured Native American players, especially from the Carlisle Indian School. For example, the Oorang Indians team in 1922-1923 was made up entirely of Native American players. Walter Achiu and Arthur Matsu were the first Asian-American players, joining in 1927 and 1928. Ignacio Molinet and Jess Rodriguez were the first Hispanic players, playing in 1927 and 1929.
However, after 1926, black players were no longer in the league for a period. From 1928 to 1932, there was only one black player each season, if any. By 1933, the league became all-white. This was influenced by some team owners and the general increase in racism in the United States. Even during World War II, when many players were fighting overseas, black players who stayed home were often not chosen to play.
The NFL began to integrate again when the Cleveland Rams moved to Los Angeles. The stadium there required them to have a diverse team. So, they signed two black players, Kenny Washington and Woody Strode. Other NFL teams slowly followed. However, the Washington Redskins owner, George Preston Marshall, resisted until the government made him integrate in 1962.
In 1946, a rival league, the All-America Football Conference, signed two black players. By 1960, the new American Football League (AFL) actively looked for players from smaller, predominantly black colleges. This gave black players more chances to play professionally. Early AFL teams generally had more black players than NFL teams. This competitive advantage eventually influenced the NFL to also draft more diverse players. By 1969, the AFL's championship team, the Chiefs, had many more black players than the NFL's Vikings.
Merging with the American Football League
After World War II, the NFL was struggling. Bert Bell became the new commissioner in 1946. He moved the league headquarters to Philadelphia. Bell helped make the NFL a big commercial success. After he passed away in 1959, the NFL offices moved to Manhattan, where they are today.
The NFL was the only major professional football league for most of the 1950s. But in 1960, a group of people who wanted to own football teams formed a new league called the American Football League. This AFL became the NFL's strongest competitor yet.
By the mid-1960s, the two leagues were competing fiercely for players. This drove up player salaries. In 1965, star quarterback Joe Namath chose to sign with the AFL's New York Jets for a huge amount of money. In 1966, the NFL's New York Giants signed a player who was already under contract with an AFL team. This made the competition even more intense.
Behind the scenes, some NFL team owners wanted to end this rivalry. They met with AFL owners to discuss a merger. On June 8, 1966, the two leagues announced they would merge. They agreed to have a shared draft for college players and a championship game between the two league winners. This game later became known as the Super Bowl. The merger also led to a new NFL team in New Orleans.
In 1970, the leagues fully merged under the name National Football League. They were divided into two conferences with an equal number of teams. Since the NFL had more teams, three NFL teams (Pittsburgh Steelers, Cleveland Browns, and Baltimore Colts) moved to the AFC, which was the conference with the former AFL teams. Two new teams, the Seattle Seahawks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, were also added later as part of the merger. The AFL teams also paid a total of $18 million over 20 years as part of the deal.
Even though the AFL stopped existing as a separate league, the NFL adopted many of its ideas. These included having a game clock on the field, player names on jerseys, recruiting players from smaller colleges, sharing money from ticket sales and TV, and having more exciting offensive plays.
The Modern Era
In the 1970s and 1980s, the NFL became America's most popular sport. The Super Bowl became a huge event, almost like a national holiday. Monday Night Football, which started in 1970, became very popular by mixing sports and entertainment. Rule changes in the late 1970s made the game faster and more exciting, with lots of passing.
Other leagues tried to compete with the NFL, like the World Football League in the 1970s and the United States Football League (USFL) in the 1980s. The USFL lasted three seasons and had some big-name players. But it spent too much money and tried to compete directly with the NFL in the fall, which led to its downfall. The XFL also tried to compete in 2001 but only lasted one season. These leagues didn't really change the NFL, but some players used them to restart their careers.
There were player strikes in 1982 and 1987. The 1982 strike lasted eight weeks, making the season shorter. The 1987 strike lasted 24 days, also shortening that season.
Before the 2002 season, the NFL reorganized its divisions. It created eight divisions with four teams each. This was the first time the divisions were changed since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. A new team, the Houston Texans, was also added.
In 2007, the NFL updated its shield logo for the first time since 1980. The new design has eight stars, one for each division, and a football shaped like the Vince Lombardi Trophy. This new logo was made to look good on TV, digital media, and clothing.
Women in the NFL
In 1987, Gayle Sierens became the first woman to do play-by-play announcing for an NFL regular season game. In 2017, Beth Mowins became the first woman to call a nationally televised NFL game. She has continued to be a regular NFL broadcaster. In 2018, Hannah Storm and Andrea Kremer made history as the first all-female broadcast team to call an NFL game.
Shannon Eastin became the first woman to officiate an NFL game in 2012 during a preseason game. In 2015, Sarah Thomas became the first full-time female official in NFL history. In 2021, she became the first woman to officiate a Super Bowl.
On July 27, 2015, the Arizona Cardinals hired Jennifer Welter as an assistant coaching intern. She is believed to be the first female coach in the NFL. The Buffalo Bills hired Kathryn Smith in 2016, making her the first full-time female assistant coach. In 2017, Katie Sowers became an assistant coach for the San Francisco 49ers. She was the first openly LGBT coach in the NFL. In 2020, she became the first female and openly gay coach to reach the Super Bowl. Also in 2020, Callie Brownson became the first woman to coach an NFL position group in a regular-season game. In 2021, Jennifer King became the first black woman to be a full-time coach in NFL history. That same year, Lori Locust and Maral Javadifar became the first female coaches to win a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
NFL Around the World
The NFL has been expanding outside the United States. It started with exhibition games called the American Bowl. Then, it had a league in Europe called NFL Europa, which is now closed. Since 2005, the NFL has been playing regular season games outside the U.S. The first was in Mexico City, Mexico. Since 2007, games have been played in London, England, and since 2008, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The American Bowl games ran from 1986 to 2005. In 1991, the league formed the World League of American Football, which later became NFL Europe. This league had teams in Britain, Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands. The NFL closed it down in 2007.
The league played a regular-season game in Mexico City in 2005. On October 28, 2007, a regular season game was played in Wembley Stadium in London. It was a big success, with many tickets sold quickly. Games have continued to be played in London and Toronto. In 2016 and 2017, games were also played in Mexico City.
The NFL has offices in Mexico and Germany to help grow the sport in those countries. These offices handle sponsorships, merchandise, broadcasting, and community work.
Team Moves and Mergers
In the early days, NFL teams moved often. During World War II, some teams even merged temporarily because there weren't enough players. An example is the Steagles, a temporary team formed by the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles.
Later, in the late 1900s, team moves became very controversial. The NFL was very popular and financially stable, but some teams still moved to cities they thought would be more profitable. This happened even though the league had promised Congress in 1966 that no city would lose its team if the merger was allowed. Fans in cities like Cleveland, Baltimore, and Houston were very upset when their teams left. However, these cities eventually got new NFL teams.
For a while, Los Angeles didn't have an NFL team from 1994 until 2016. The San Diego Chargers also moved back to Los Angeles in 2017. The Oakland Raiders moved to Las Vegas in 2020. These recent moves were not about money problems, but about getting better stadiums.
Why Football is So Popular
While baseball is often called "America's national pastime," football is the most popular sport to watch in the United States. According to a Harris Poll, professional football became more popular than baseball in 1965. It has been America's favorite sport ever since. In a 2008 poll, 30% of people said the NFL was their favorite sport. This was more than the next three professional sports combined: baseball (15%), auto racing (10%), and hockey (2%).
Football TV ratings are higher than other sports, even though the football season has fewer games. Other studies also show that NFL football is the most popular spectator sport in America. In a 2003 study, 42.8% of Americans over 18 said they loved or liked NFL football a lot.
The NFL has the highest attendance per game of any professional sports league in the world. However, because baseball has a much longer season, its total attendance is higher.
A 2007 study on "team loyalty" ranked NFL teams very high. The Pittsburgh Steelers and their fans were ranked number one. The New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts were also in the top spots.
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