Colten

From Canton to Now

Colten

Mr. Degroot

8 English

February 29

The National Football League(NFL) started in Canton Ohio with a couple of people meeting together to discuss opening a new football league. At first it wasn’t very popular and they started losing money. Over time, it started gaining popularity. The National Football League was started in 1920 and is still currently growing in popularity.

The National Football League started in 1920 with the Akron Pros, Canton Bulldogs, Cleveland Tigers, and Dayton from Ohio Triangles; the Hammond Pros and Muncie Flyers from Indiana; the Rochester Jeffersons from New York; and the Rock Island Independents, Decatur Staleys, and Racine Cardinals from Illinois(American Professional Football Conference is Formed and Britannica). These are the teams that founded the NFL. Jim Thorpe was the first president of the NFL(Steve Fiorillo). The NFL had big competition back then though because everyone watched college football (Christopher Klien). Everyone watched it because WW1 put the game on hold and in 1920, everyone started to watch it again. The NFL started falling apart because the football players started to get more expensive and the teams weren’t getting more popular. But as Bum Phillips said, “The ONLY discipline that lasts, is self discipline.”

The NFL merged the AFC (American Football League) and NFC (National Football Conference) in 1970(Football: NFL). They merged together to make a big football league so that there would be less competition money wise. This was an important event in football history as it started what method we use now in football. In regular season games, AFC plays AFC and NFC plays NFC. In 1966, they announced that they would merge but they didn’t create a schedule with each other until 1970. They had to split up the teams evenly into the AFC and NFC with 13 teams on both sides. Over time, more teams started to join and others dropped out or relocated to different places. Today there are 36 teams overall; 18 in the AFC; 18 in the NFC.

The NFL started to become popular because of rivalries, tradition, tailgating, fantasy football, sports betting, regional pride, and the fact that football is a team sport that requires a variety of talents, including speed, strength, size, and smarts. Another reason was that the teams moved to bigger cities so more people started to watch their games. Whenever 

something big in America started, football followed. Wherever they went, people followed. It got so popular that eventually, the Super Bowl became one of the most watched things on TV(Football: NFL). 

The makers of the NFL had no clue that their business would be so popular as it is today. The NFL overall makes 18.6 billion dollars a year. That is a lot more money than the teams got back in the 1920 when they had to pay to play a game. The National Football League was started in 1920 and is still currently growing in popularity.

Works Cited

"1920 - American Professional Football Conference is Formed." Pro Football Hall of Fame, American Eagle, 2021, www.profootballhof.com/football-history/football-history/1869-1939/1920/. Accessed 14 Mar. 2024.

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "National Football League". Encyclopedia Britannica, 16 Feb. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/topic/National-Football-League. Accessed 20 February 2024.

Gosling, Ryan. "NFL Origins: How Did the League Begin?" Pro Football, Pro Football Network, LLC, 18 Sept. 2022, www.profootballnetwork.com/nfl-origins-how-did-the-league-begin/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2024.

Fiorillo, Steve. "History of the NFL: From the 1890s to the Present." thestreet.com, The Arena Media Brands, 29 Oct. 2018, www.thestreet.com/sports/nfl-history-14761022. Accessed 21 Feb. 2024.

"Football: NFL." Ducksters, Technological Solutions Inc., 21 Feb. 2024, www.ducksters.com/sports/national_football_league.php. Accessed 21 Feb. 2024.

Klein, Christopher. "The Birth of the National Football League." History.com, A&E Television Networks, 18 May 2023, www.history.com/news/the-birth-of-the-national-football-league. Accessed 21 Feb. 2024.

Curiel, Adrian. NFL Wall. 2017, New York. images.unsplash.com/photo-1512144253214-d94e86cd9189?ixlib=rb-4.0.3. Accessed 21 Mar. 2024.