![]() In August the first organizational meeting for what later became the NFL was held in Canton, Ohio, at the Jordan and Hupmobile automobile showroom. ![]() Several attempts to organize a professional football league had been made early in the century, but each had failed until an attempt to form a league took root in 1920. The strongest cries for organization and structure emanated from the stronghold of professional football in Ohio, where the foundation for the NFL was laid. By the end of the 1910s, there was need for order and discipline, for the establishment of a uniform set of rules and conduct that would govern the sport. The outbreak of these problems created confusion within the sport, compounded by the widely varying schedules each team maintained. In the search for talent, football clubs began scouting college players, hiring some while the players were still enrolled in school. The lure of these rising salaries prompted players to switch continually from one team to another, going wherever the highest bid beckoned. As the number of professional teams proliferated and competition became more heated, the salaries paid to players escalated rapidly. Ohio was home to at least seven professional teams during the first decade of the 20th century, but the growth of football in Ohio and elsewhere bred a host of problems, each attributable to the professionalism that spurred the sport ’s growth. ![]() Other purely professional football clubs were organized in the ensuing years, as the epicenter of football activity moved from Pennsylvania to Ohio. Five years later, the Latrobe Athletic Association football team comprised entirely professional players, becoming the first team to field professionals for a full season. In 1892 William “Pudge ” Heffelfinger was paid $500 by the Allegheny Athletic Association to play one game against rival Pittsburgh Athletic Club, marking the advent of professionalism in American football. By the 1890s, the new version of football was a popular activity at local athletic clubs, particularly in Pennsylvania where intense rivalry between two clubs led to the first payment to a player. OriginsĪmerican football evolved as a hybrid of soccer and rugby during the early 1870s, gaining distinction from its two influences in 1876 when the first rules for the sport were written. The NFL negotiated television and radio broadcast rights for the teams and maintained the right to market team names and logos through licensing agreements. ![]() The owners of the franchised teams operated their teams much like stand-alone businesses, but shared approximately 75 percent of their revenue with other franchises. The governing body for the most popular spectator sport in the United States, the National Football League (NFL) serves as a trade association for 30 U.S.-based franchised teams and operates an American football league in Europe under the name NFL Europe League. Incorporated: 1920 as American Professional Football Conference ![]()
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