NFL 100: How the game has changed

Liam Blackburn

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NFL 100: How the game has changed image

The NFL kicks off its 100th season this week, and it has come a long way from its humble and somewhat chaotic beginnings in Canton, Ohio.

Today, the league is a giant that generates billions of dollars each year, but the first meeting that set the wheels in motion for the NFL occurred in the office of a car salesman.

Events that day led to the formation of the American Professional Football Association, which two years later became the National Football League.

We took a trip down memory lane to profile that 1920 campaign, and discover just how different football was back then.

The teams and schedule

Fourteen teams from four states were involved in the inaugural season of the AFPA, including brilliantly named clubs such as the Muncie Flyers, Rochester Jeffersons and Rock Island Independents.

The schedule and final standings were a bit of a mess given four teams joined the league during the season, while others disbanded and some played fixtures against organizations from outside the APFA. With no Super Bowl and no championship game, it was determined by a vote that the unbeaten Akron Pros were the first-ever league winners.

The well-oiled NFL machine of today features 32 franchises, spread across 22 states, with each team playing 16 regular-season games — some in locations as far-flung as London and Mexico City — before a playoff system and Super Bowl determines the eventual champions.

Only two of those teams — the Cardinals (then known as the Chicago Cardinals) and the Bears (then known as the Decatur Staleys) — remain from the first ever campaign.

The star players

Canton Bulldogs back Jim Thorpe was one of the league's original superstars — an Olympic gold medalist who also played professional baseball and basketball. 

Reigning MVP Patrick Mahomes would likely make a decent javelin thrower and could have gone on to become an MLB pitcher if he wanted to, but his only focus in a professional sense is football.

In total, 10 players from that 1920 season are enshrined in the Hall of Fame, including Thorpe, longtime Bears owner George Halas and pioneer Fritz Pollard, who was one of the league's first two African-American players and later the first African-American head coach.

Who knows how many of today's players will end up in Canton, but you can already start making the busts for Tom Brady, Drew Brees and J.J. Watt.

The salaries 

Thorpe's initial contract with the Bulldogs, which he signed in 1915, earned him $250 per game.

Russell Wilson's recent contract extension, which made him the NFL's highest-paid player, earns the Seahawks quarterback an average of $35 million a year. Thorpe would have had to play 140,000 games to bring that home annually.

The trades

The first trade in league history occurred at a match when Akron's tackle Bob "Nasty" Nash was shipped to the Buffalo All-Americans for $300 and five percent of the gate receipts.

In contrast, the blockbuster trades prior to the 100th season saw Odell Beckham Jr. and Antonio Brown change teams for multiple draft picks.

The stats

In that debut campaign, the All-Americans were the league's number-one offense, putting up 258 points in 11 contests at an average of 23.5 points per game. And yet they were still shutout on two occasions.

Thirteen teams averaged more points per game than that figure in the 99th NFL season, including the league-leading Chiefs, who put up a whopping 35.3.

At the other end of the spectrum, the aptly named Akron Pros made their opponents look like a bunch of amateurs. They had 10 shutouts in 11 fixtures and conceded only seven points all season.

Even the Khalil Mack-led 2018 Bears — who shipped a league-low 283 points across 16 regular season games — can't compete with that.

The commissioners

The first-ever commissioner, the aforementioned Thorpe, also happened to be the league's best player and a head coach for one of the franchises. The future Hall of Famer carried on playing for, and coaching, the Bulldogs while president of the APFA. Perhaps unsurprisingly given his commitments elsewhere, Thorpe lasted only a year in the role.

One of Thorpe's successors, and the current incumbent, Roger Goodell has been the NFL's head honcho for 13 years. He rose through the league's ranks after initially taking a job as an intern in 1982. Goodell, a defensive back in his playing days, never played beyond high school due to a knee injury.

Liam Blackburn