9781422283080

A swarm of pro football teams dotted the map for the next 20 years. Most of them struggled financially. Scheduling was chaotic . Teams bid against each other for top talent, while the game itself was brutal and disorganized. Players earned two- and three- figure amounts per game. College players assumed false identities to earn extra bucks on Sundays. It was time to all start working from the same playbook. Birth of the League In August of 1920, representatives of four pro teams met in a Canton, Ohio, automobile showroom. They formed the American Professional Football Conference. A month later, 10 more teams joined the group. It was renamed American Professional Football Association, then became the National Football League in 1922. During the 1920s and 1930s, NFL teams came and went, among them one-year wonders such as the Tonawanda Kardex (0–1 in 1922), the Kenosha Ma- roons (0–4–1 in 1924), and the Kansas City Cow- boys (8–3, the NFL’s fourth-best record, in 1926).

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