The History of Modern Football

The National Football League was not always as wildly successful as it is now. The league's beginnings trace back to 1922 when college football was much more popular than the professional version. Gradually though big name college stars such as Red Grange turned to the professional ranks to make a living and the sport began to enjoy prosperity. Some of the most important happenings in modern football history had great significance in relation to garnering fans to the sport and shaping the NFL into the great success it has become.

  1. Geography

    • It was not until around the mid-1940s that professional football began to be looked at differently by the average sports fan in the United States. The pro game developed into a higher scoring affair than its college counterpart thanks to innovations such as the T formation. The Cleveland Rams moved to Los Angeles in 1946 and gave the NFL a presence in the western portion of the nation. San Francisco joined the circuit in 1950 and the sport was on its way to gaining a foothold across the country. The advent of television brought the game to millions more people and one game in particular cemented modern football as a fixture on the American sports scene.

    Significance

    • On December 28th, 1958 the Baltimore Colts defeated the New York Giants in sudden death overtime to capture the NFL championship. The contest was televised nationally and drew a huge audience from across the entire nation. Football legends such as Johnny Unitas, Lenny Moore, Raymond Berry, Frank Gifford, Kyle Rote and Sam Huff were on display in this thrilling contest. The drama that unfolded so caught the nation's fancy that the NFL began to take off in terms of status.

    Effects

    • The Green Bay Packers, which had been a dominant team in the NFL's earlier years along with the Chicago Bears, returned to glory in the 1960s under their coach, Vince Lombardi. The Packers would win five NFL championships as well as the first pair of Super Bowls under Lombardi. On New Year's Eve of 1967 the Packers would beat the Dallas Cowboys at Green Bay in a game played in sub-zero weather on a last minute touchdown by quarterback Bart Starr which would further enhance pro football's reputation as an exciting sport.

    Merger

    • In 1960 a rival circuit called the American Football League emerged to challenge the NFL for popularity. The AFL was able to lure exciting stars such as Joe Namath into their fold. The idea of the NFL and the AFL playing a championship game to crown one title holder emerged in the form of a game dubbed the Super Bowl in time for the 1966 season. Lombardi's Packers trounced the AFL's champ in the first two versions but Namath and the New York Jets shocked the Baltimore Colts in the third Super Bowl in January of 1969. The NFL would wind up proposing a merger with the AFL and in 1970 absorbed the other league's ten teams to form a much larger NFL.

    History

    • Various franchises would take turns being the dominant team of their era over the next few decades. The Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers were the best of the 1970s while the San Francisco 49ers ruled much of the 1980s. The Cowboys became the best once more in the early 1990s with the New England Patriots winning three Super Bowls in a span from 2001 through 2004. From a total of just a dozen teams at the time of that 1958 championship affair the NFL has expanded to now have 32 teams as of this June 2009 writing.