For most American households, it is the best of times….. and the worst of times. It’s the time when husbands are glued to the TV sets the whole weekend and wives are screaming about chores to be done and activities not done. Yes folks FOOTBALL 2013 has arrived all across this great nation of ours on the practice fields of grade schools, high schools, colleges, and universities alike. Even in vacant lots, grassy knolls, overgrown pastures, and streets and alleys, grown men and young boys are throwing, catching, and running with an oblong ball. They are running into each other at top speed and with great force, spraining and tearing muscles and cartilage, breaking bones, and causing concussions. Football has become America’s most popular sports activity and best loved diversion.
Last Sunday the Dallas Cowboys met the Miami Dolphins in the Hall of Fame Game to open the 2013-14 football season. Sure it’s the preseason and the game means little more than a chance for wannabes, could bes, coulda beens, and never weres to show their stuff and possibly make the roster of an NFL team. For some it’s their first shot; for others it’s their last chance. Most of the players who got on the field Sunday, will not be on either the Cowboys or Dolphins roster when the regular season opens a month from now. The game was played in the NFL’s Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
In August of 1920, a group of independent football team owners, met in a Canton Ohio Hupmobile dealership owned by Ralph Hayes, who also owned the Canton Bulldog’s Football Club, to discuss forming a new professional football league. Among those present were Jim Thorpe the player/coach of the Canton Bulldogs, Leo Lyons the player/coach/owner of the Rochester Jeffersons, George Halas coach/owner of the Decatur Staleys, Chris O’Brien a painting and decorating contractor who owned the Racine Cardinals, along with representatives of several other teams. There had been professional leagues, associations, conferences, and federations but these men were determined to create a strong and lasting league identity that would draw media attention and fan support, and of course make money. Most football fans of that era followed college football and many sportswriters of the time, considered professional football to be an “unclean’ and even “dishonest” activity and at best, secondary to college football. The owners forged an agreement and first called the new association the American Professional Football Conference with nine teams. Several teams declined to join the group. A month later, two more teams were added, bringing the total to eleven and the group name was changed to the American Professional Football Association. Jim Thorpe was elected president of the APFA, even though he was still an active member of the Canton Bulldogs. The Association would formally become the National Football League in June of 1922.
So with pro training camps and preseason games, college and high school practices going strong the regular football season will start in about a month. The NCAA football season opens Thursday Aug. 27 including Indiana State at Indiana. The NFL season opens about a month from now on Sunday Sept. 8. Oh, by the way, the Indianapolis Colts open their preseason schedule against the Buffalo Bills at Lucas Oil Stadium this coming Sunday, Aug. 11 at 1:30 p.m.
snicewanger@yahoo.com