5 Things You Didn't Know: The NFL

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Its season is shorter and has fewer scheduled games than any other major American pro sport; nonetheless, the NFL has a firm hold on the title of "national obsession" in the U.S. In fact, it’s a Sunday and Monday night (and sometimes Thursday night) ritual from September through early February for its tens of millions of fans.

As the nation’s top dog, the powerhouse league has faced more than its share of challengers through the years, all eager to get a piece of its hugely lucrative pie. They include the World Football League of the early 1970s, the USFL of the early ‘80s, Vince McMahon’s 2001 XFL, and (excluding the AFL of the 1960s) its toughest challenge, the All-America Football Conference of the 1940s — none of which lasted beyond four seasons. The NFL has an impressive — though not perfect — winning record as the defendant in antitrust lawsuits, and its tremendous influence is slowly stretching beyond America’s vast and lucrative borders.

Without further ado, we present five things you didn’t know about the NFL.



1- The Redskins were the NFL’s last segregated team

By 1961, 13 of the league’s 14 teams had, to some degree, been desegregated and featured black players on their rosters. The one hold-out could be found in the nation’s capital. The Washington Redskins were the league’s last all-white team, and whether it was coincidental or not, they were also the worst (from 1959 through 1961, their record was 5-30). Team owner George Marshall had staunchly refused to desegregate, claiming he would do so when the Harlem Globetrotters hired white players. That all changed with the incoming presidential administration.

JFK had been elected, in part, thanks to his pro-civil rights platform, and having the league’s only all-white team in the nation’s capital was an eyesore for the administration. JFK, therefore, instructed his Secretary of the Interior, Stewart L. Udall, to threaten Marshall with federal retribution if the team didn’t hire black players; namely, they would be evicted from District of Columbia Stadium. In doing so, it became the first time in history that the federal government had attempted to desegregate a professional sports team.



2- The NFL scores forfeits 2-0

According to the official NFL rulebook, a forfeit occurs: “... when a game is not played because of the failure or refusal of one team to participate. In that event, the other team, if ready and willing to play, is the winner by a score of 2-0” (the points earned in a safety). Why a two-point safety? Because those points are the league’s only scores that are not credited to any one player.

This little-discussed rule is even less frequently applied, since dating back to 1920 there has been just one forfeit. Specifically, December 4, 1921, when the Rochester Jeffersons lost by forfeit to the Washington Pros/Senators. Since the league was just a year old and this rule was not yet established, the referee scored the game 1-0. No word on whose stats got padded with the point.



3- It was created in an automobile showroom

Organized professional football dates back to 1920 and a legendary meeting in Canton, Ohio. Fittingly, it featured a handful of former athletic standouts, such as George Halas and Jim Thorpe, hanging out in an automobile showroom, slamming beers and talking sports on a Friday night. Among other things, they settled on a name, the American Professional Football Association, and a membership fee, $100.

Since then, more than just the name has changed. Today, the NFL is a revenue juggernaut. According to Forbes, the mean value of the NFL’s 32 teams exceeds $950 million, making the NFL the world’s richest and most profitable professional sports league. It can further boast of having the world’s most valuable sports franchise, the Dallas Cowboys, valued at a cool $1.5 billion.

We have two more facts about the NFL you didn’t know…