The Birth of the NFL

September 17, 1920. Football in America has arrived. Team after team joins the growing landscape: the Muncie Flyers, the Rock Island Independents, the Decatur Staleys. While more teams are waiting in the wings, the on-field product is a bit of a mess.Few fans are interested, players are on shaky contracts, and—maybe most importantly—the game itself is boring. At a car dealership in Canton, Ohio, team representatives are gathered today with the ambitious goal of fixing football.Today, the precursor to the NFL is established. How did a small, underfunded football league, based largely in east coast cities and midwestern factory towns, morph into the NFL, a pop culture juggernaut that is now the richest sports league in the world?Special thanks to our guests John Eisenberg, author of The League, and Ken Crippen, former executive director of the Professional Football Researcher's Association and founder/lead instructor of the Football Learning Academy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.