NFL Nuggets:

Statement from the New England Patriots. pic.twitter.com/rhXdwVvnr8

— New England Patriots (@Patriots) December 10, 2019

• What Florio is already calling “Spygate 2” (Electric Boogaloo) involves the Patriots “Not the football operation” film crew filming the Bengals sideline for eight solid minutes from the press box.
  • Belichick claims no involvement in the affair:
    • “I’m really focused on getting ready for the Bengals here.”
    • “We’re competitive and we’ll try to be competitive in every area,” Belichick said during a conference call with Cincinnati media Tuesday morning. “But we don’t knowingly, intentionally want to do anything that’s across the line.
  • The Patriots have “cooperated fully” with the NFL and turned over all tapes, after which the film crew returned to Boston for appropriate discussions with team officials.

On This Day: December 10, 1922 – 1st National Football League Championship awarded

The undefeated Canton Bulldogs (10-0-2) are named inaugural champions of the NFL.

Prior to the organization known as (John Facenda voice) “The National Football League”, the governing body for professional football in the USA was known as the American Professional Football Association. The APFA was founded in 1920, after combining the Ohio Football League and the New York Professional Football League. Jim Thorpe was its first president – even though he was still an active player for one of its franchises, the Canton Bulldogs. The inaugural season featured 14 teams: Akron Pros, Buffalo All-Americans, Canton Bulldogs, Chicago Cardinals, Chicago Tigers, Cleveland Tigers, Columbus Panhandles, Dayton Triangles, Decatur Staleys, Detroit Heralds, Hammond Pros, Muncie Flyers, Rochester Jeffersons and Rock Island Independents.

The Akron Pros were the APFA’s first champions in 1920, with an 8-0-3 record, and won a commemorative fob for their efforts, after a miscue with the trophy left them without an award.

[Fun fact: the Akron Pros folded in 1927, but one of their most famous alums was the singer Paul Robeson. Robeson played college football at Rutgers, and professionally for the Akron Pros (1921) and the Milwaukee Badgers (1922). In the offseason he pursued a law degree, and quit football after the 1922 season to finish that off, graduating from Columbia law school in 1923.]

The league renamed itself the NFL in 1922, but retained its championship determinant of best record. (A playoff structure/format wasn’t established until 1933.) The teams that year were: (select logos represented)

• Akron Pros
• Buffalo All-Americans  
• Canton Bulldogs
• Chicago Bears (formerly the Chicago Staleys)
• Chicago Cardinals

• Columbus Panhandles  
• Dayton Triangles

• Evansville Crimson Giants
• Green Bay Packers
• Hammond Pros
• Louisville Brecks
• Milwaukee Badgers  
• Minneapolis Marines
• Oorang Indians – an all-Indian team captained by Jim Thorpe

• Racine Legion
• Rochester Jeffersons
• Rock Island Independents
• Toledo Maroons

The Bulldogs had a 10-0-2 record in 1922. The two ties were against Dayton & Toledo, and both were 0-0 scores. They were a defensive powerhouse, such as could be measured in the early days of the forward pass; for the entire season they only gave up 15 points, and had 8 shutout wins. Their star & coach was Guy Chamberlin, a Nebraska graduate who was recruited to the Bulldogs as a player by Jim Thorpe in 1919, after Chamberlin was discharged from the army.  

[Fun facts: Although Thorpe was Chamberlin’s idol, they only played together one season. In 1920 Chamberlin jumped to George Halas’ Decatur Staleys, winning the NFL title as a player in 1921, before returning to Canton in 1922 as their player-coach. His talents as both player & coach led Canton to NFL championships in 1922 & 1923. When the team was sold & moved to Cleveland, he won the 1924 title with the Cleveland Bulldogs. In 1925 he left the Bulldogs for the Frankford Yellow Jackets, and player-coached them to a title in 1926. He retired in 1927 as a member of the Chicago Cardinals. He played 9 seasons, totaling 92 games. He was voted into the Hall of Fame in 1965, alongside John “Paddy” Driscoll, Dan Fortmann, Otto Graham, Sid Luckman, Steve Van Buren, and Bob Waterfield.]

Even though there were 18 teams in the NFL, not all teams played each other. Weather caused cancellations that were not made up. Some teams, like Hammond, Oorang and Louisville, were “travelling teams”, meaning they played on the road their whole season. Some teams only played partial seasons, as they either couldn’t afford to field a whole team for a full season or it was their first season & couldn’t commit to all the travel. Thus, despite only playing twelve games against ten teams, the Bulldogs were deemed the champions by virtue of their record and number of games played.

There was no trophy issued to the winning team. The original APFA trophy, the Brunswick-Balke Collender Cup, was awarded to the Akron Pros in 1920 as the result of by a vote of the league’s managers, rather than who finished at the top of the standings. This led to disputes filed by the Buffalo & Decatur franchises, holding up official recognition of the Pros’ championship. No record was kept of the meeting to decide those disputes, and the trophy was apparently misplaced & lost to history.

The NFL doesn’t have any photos of the trophy itself; the only existing photo comes from a promotional brochure from the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Tire Company around that time. The Akron Pros were instead awarded commemorative fobs to celebrate their league victory. The next appearance of a NFL Champions trophy was in 1924, when the owner of the Cleveland Bulldogs had one commissioned for their championship victory.

In 1934, the NFL decided upon a permanent league championship trophy, which they called the Ed Thorp Memorial Trophy after their rules expert, referee, and – most importantly – a friend of many NFL owners due to his ownership of a sporting goods franchise.

The winning team got to hoist the original at a ceremony, and were given a replica to display during the year while the original was returned to league headquarters for safekeeping. The Ed Thorp was awarded to the NFL champion until 1969. It was replaced by the Lombardi Trophy in 1970, which recognizes the winner of the Super Bowl. The Halas Trophy, which is now awarded to the NFC champion, was introduced in 1984.

Finally, the three remaining teams from that 1922 season are the Bears, Packers, and the Chicago – St. Louis – Arizona Cardinals. The next current team to be founded would be the New York Giants in 1925. Given all the defaults & departures between 1922-30, it’s apparent the NFL survived in spite of itself.

Tonight’s sports:

• NHL:
  • Lightning at Panthers – 7:00PM | Sportsnet
  • Blues at Buffalo Sabres – 7:30PM | NBCSN
  • Flames at Coyotes – 9:00PM | Sportsnet1
  • Leafs at Canucks – 10:00PM | Sportsnet
• NBA:
  • Nuggets at 76ers – 8:00PM | TNT / TSN
  • Knicks at Trail Blazers – 10:00PM | TSN2
• NCAA:
  • Brown at St. John’s – 7:00PM | FS1
  • Maryland at Penn State – 7:00PM | ESPN2
  • Texas Tech vs. Louisville – 7:00PM | ESPN
  • Butler at Baylor – 9:00PM | ESPN2
  • Connecticut vs. Indiana – 9:00PM | ESPN

Hilarious Canadian controversy: The Canucks refused to move the start time of the game up to 7:00PM ET to accommodate the Leafs TV market, because that would mean a 4:00PM PT start here on the Best Coast, hampering game-time attendance. There are rumblings that Toronto sportswriters & media might take it out on Canucks D-man Quinn Hughes when it comes to Rookie of the Year voting. Pissy bitches.