What is the National Football League: A Historical Timeline
- 5 years ago
A Historical Timeline of The National Football League:
The game of American Football first kicked-off in the world as a hybrid between Soccer and Rugby. In fact, Rugby itself too grew out of the soccer tradition in England, so soccer is truly at the very core of this sport. The NFL is mighty today, but it has humble beginnings dating way back to Aug 20, 1920, where 4 Ohio representatives met at Canton automobile showroom to form 'American Professional Football Association' (APFA). On June 24, 1922, APFA went through a transformation and officially dawned the name of the National Football League (NFL). However, in the first dozen years of its existence, the league went through a sticky patch as 40 different teams joined, only to quickly drop out or go out of business entirely. But it was the game: Colts vs Giants on Dec 28, 1958, often referred as the 'Greatest Game Ever Played', the Super Bowl before the Super Bowl, that put pro football on the map, that made the NFL! In the following year, Texas oilmen Lamar Hunt and Bud Adams, rebuffed in their attempts to acquire NFL franchises plan to launch American Football League (AFL) with 8 teams to rival NFL. The rivalry continued for 5 years but concerned about the financially ruinous impact, owners from both leagues held secret meetings to negotiate a merger. And on June 8, 1966, they agree to merge into NFL by 1970, meanwhile, an AFL-NFL World Championship Game is proposed. And that game quickly becomes known as the Super Bowl.
The game of American Football first kicked-off in the world as a hybrid between Soccer and Rugby. In fact, Rugby itself too grew out of the soccer tradition in England, so soccer is truly at the very core of this sport. The NFL is mighty today, but it has humble beginnings dating way back to Aug 20, 1920, where 4 Ohio representatives met at Canton automobile showroom to form 'American Professional Football Association' (APFA). On June 24, 1922, APFA went through a transformation and officially dawned the name of the National Football League (NFL). However, in the first dozen years of its existence, the league went through a sticky patch as 40 different teams joined, only to quickly drop out or go out of business entirely. But it was the game: Colts vs Giants on Dec 28, 1958, often referred as the 'Greatest Game Ever Played', the Super Bowl before the Super Bowl, that put pro football on the map, that made the NFL! In the following year, Texas oilmen Lamar Hunt and Bud Adams, rebuffed in their attempts to acquire NFL franchises plan to launch American Football League (AFL) with 8 teams to rival NFL. The rivalry continued for 5 years but concerned about the financially ruinous impact, owners from both leagues held secret meetings to negotiate a merger. And on June 8, 1966, they agree to merge into NFL by 1970, meanwhile, an AFL-NFL World Championship Game is proposed. And that game quickly becomes known as the Super Bowl.