NFL 100

It has been 100 years since the National Football League was formed and many changes have happened between now and when the league formed in 1920. Football began earlier than 1920 and it was wildly popular at colleges for decades, but the first successful pro league that took off was known as the America Professional Football Association which is known today as the National Football League. Only two teams from the first NFL season still play today and those are the Arizona Cardinals and the Chicago Bears. The league was compiled of 14 teams and were so informal half of them didn’t have official team logos. The NFL had its dysfunctional years and always had new teams joining and older ones dropping out. In order for a team to be added in the first year of the league it cost $100 for teams to start their own franchise. Football carried on tradition and interest for Americans who wanted to see one of the most violent sports in the world. When the NFL finally settled down a new league formed known as the American Football League, which was led by Lamar Hunt. The AFL and NFL had its disputes and both sides fought hard for the pride of their league. The AFL wanted to prove that they were better than the NFL and one way to prove that was to take the winners of each league to play in a big game which is now the super bowl. The leagues finally merged and the NFL’s Green Bay Packers dominated the AFL’s Kansas City Chiefs and Oakland Raiders for the first two super bowls. Many of the critics wondered if this was a complete waste of time showing that the NFL was way better, but that all changed when the New York Jets won a shocking game over the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl 3. Since the AFL proved that it can play well enough to beat NFL teams this is what sparked pro football to be one of America’s best sports over the last 100 years.