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The first professional
football game in the United States took place in 1895 in the town of
Latrobe, Pennsylvania, between a team representing Latrobe and a team
from Jeannette, Pennsylvania. In the following years many professional
teams were formed, including the Duquesnes of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania;
the Olympics of McKeesport, Pennsylvania; the Bulldogs of Canton, Ohio;
and the team of Massillon, Ohio. Noted college players who took up the
professional game during its early years include Willie Heston (formerly
at the University of Michigan), Fritz Pollard (Brown University), and
Jim Thorpe (Carlisle Indian School).
The first league of
professional football teams was the American Professional Football
Association, formed in 1920. The admission fee was $100 per team. The
teams pledged not to use any student player who still had college
eligibility left, as the goodwill of the colleges was believed to be
essential to the survival of the professional league. Thorpe, a
player-coach for one of the teams, became president of the league during
its first year.
The American Professional Football Association gave way in 1922 to the
NFL. Red Grange, the famous halfback from the University of Illinois,
provided a tremendous stimulus for the league when he joined the Chicago
Bears in 1925 and toured the United States that year and the next. His
exciting play drew large crowds. Thereafter, professional football
attracted larger numbers of first-rate college players, and the
increased patronage made the league economically viable.
Strategically, the early NFL game was hardly distinguishable from
college football of the time. There was no attempt to break away from
college playbooks or rulebooks, and for several years the NFL followed
the NCAA Rules Committee recommendations. In the league’s early years,
players considered the low-paying NFL a part-time job and held other
jobs during the day. Thus, while college coaches could drill their
players daily for hours, professional football coaches arranged
practices in the evenings, sometimes only three or four times a week.
The popularity of the professional game slowly began to equal its
college rival after the NFL instituted its first player draft in 1936.
As many talented college players opted to play in the NFL, the
professional game also drew more fans. The Chicago Bears, the Chicago
Cardinals, the Detroit Lions, the Green Bay Packers, and the New York
Giants were some of the league’s dominant teams during the period.
Outstanding players included running back Cliff Battles, quarterback
Sammy Baugh, running back Tony Canadeo, and receiver Don Hutson. The
Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II (1939-1945), however,
drained many of the early professional franchises of money and players.
After World War II, college teams were allowed free substitution of
players—that is, a player could enter and leave the game an unlimited
number of times, as long as the ball was not in play during the
substitution. This feature of the game led to the modern two-platoon
system, in which one group of 11 players enters the game to play offense
and a second group enters to play defense. The trend toward platoons
crossed over to the professional game.
In 1946 the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) was established as a
rival to the NFL. The new league included the New York Yankees, the San
Francisco 49ers, the Baltimore Colts (now Indianapolis Colts), and the
Los Angeles Dons. The most powerful team in the new league was the
Cleveland Browns, coached by football innovator Paul Brown.
Although talented, the quarterbacks of the 1930s and early 1940s seldom
completed more than 50 percent of their passes. A major cause of these
low percentages was the primitive nature of pass-blocking strategies.
With little protection, passers always had to throw while avoiding
incoming rushers. Brown installed a blocking system that radically
transformed the passing game. He changed the system by arranging the
linemen in the form of a cup that pushed most pass-rushers to the
outside and provided a safe area, called a pocket, from which the
quarterback could pass. Using the strategy, Brown coached Cleveland to
four AAFC championships from 1946 to 1949.
In 1950 the Browns, 49ers, and Colts joined the NFL in a merger of the
two leagues. The move ushered in a period of popularity and prosperity.
Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s players such as quarterbacks Norm
Van Brocklin, Y. A. Tittle, and Johnny Unitas; receiver Tom Fears;
running back Jim Brown; defensive back Tom Landry; linebacker Ray
Nitschke; and all-around standout Frank Gifford ignited the league and
attracted fans. During the period a select group of franchises won NFL
championships, including Cleveland (1950, 1954, 1955), Detroit (1952,
1953, 1957), and Baltimore (1958, 1959). The advent of television helped
to popularize the professional game when in 1956 the Columbia
Broadcasting System (CBS) began to broadcast select games.
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