Welcome to your 88th season, NFL. The founding fathers of 1920 surely wouldn’t recognize the Goliath league that evolved from the Decatur Staleys, Dayton Triangles, Canton Bulldogs and other cash-strapped teams. Signing the legendary Red Grange in November 1925 pointed the NFL in the right direction. Yet it wasn’t until after World War II that the league’s popularity, powered by visionary commissioner Pete Rozelle and television, rose like a rocket. A look:
1950s
1950 — After dominating the All-America Football Conference, the Browns of innovator Paul Brown win a championship in their first NFL season. They also play in six of the next seven title games, winning two more championships for Cleveland during the decade.
1958 — In the championship game credited for launching the NFL’s popularity, the Colts beat the Giants 23-17 at Yankee Stadium in New York when fullback Alan Ameche scored on a 1-yard run in sudden-death overtime. Paid attendance is 64,185.
1959 — Vince Lombardi becomes coach of the Packers in January. The Packers win a championship in Lombardi’s third season and win four more before he steps down after the 1967 season, having compiled a 98-30-4 record in Green Bay while being the face of the NFL.
1960s
1960 — Rams general manager and former public relations man Pete Rozelle, 33, succeeds Bell as commissioner in January. Nearly 40 years later, The Sporting News names Rozelle the 20th century’s most powerful person in sports. Before he retires in 1989, Rozelle provides the NFL with leadership toward unprecedented growth. He begins by convincing team owners to equally share revenue from television contracts, a historic agreement that stabilizes, then enriches, their franchises.
1961 — NFL teams start playing a 14-game schedule, an increase of two games.
1962 — Fantasy football is created in a New York hotel room by Raiders publicist Bill Tunnell and part-owner Bill Winkenbach and Oakland Tribune sportswriter Scotty Stirling. Winkenbach names their game the Greater Oakland Pigskin Prognosticators League, and the first GOPPL participants are Raiders and Tribune staff members.
1963 — The Pro Football Hall of Fame opens in Canton, Ohio.
1965 — NFL Films is created and becomes the league’s award-winning video storyteller.
1966 — The Super Bowl era starts with this season. The NFL champion Packers meet the AFL champion Chiefs at the Los Angeles Coliseum, and the Packers win 35-10 before 61,946 fans.
1968 — The Jets in this season pull off a blockbuster upset, beating the NFL champion Colts 16-7 in Super Bowl III at the Orange Bowl in Miami. The victory doesn’t surprise Jets quarterback Joe Namath, who guaranteed the AFL champions would win.
1969 — The Chiefs in this season give the AFL a second consecutive victory over the NFL, beating the Vikings 23-7 in Super Bowl IV. The game is the last played by an AFL team.
1970s
1970 — First season of the NFL-AFL merger, which creates a 26-team league operating under an NFC-AFC umbrella.
1971 — Frank Gifford joins the “MNF” announcing team, sharing the booth for the first time with Howard Cosell and Don Meredith. In sports broadcasting, they become the equivalent of rock stars.
1972 — The Cowboys take cheerleading to a bold, new level by adding choreography and scantily clad dancers to their troupe. The Cowboys’ cheerleaders quickly become as popular as the State Fair of Texas.
1974 — Seeking to increase game action, the NFL in April institutes rulebook changes that include moving goalposts from the goal line to the back of the end zone and regular-season, sudden-death overtime.
1977 — The passing game begins to open up with more changes in rules, including restrictions on defensive contact with receivers.
1978 — Giving fans more reasons to cheer, teams start playing a 16-game schedule, an increase of two games.
1979 — Steelers defensive tackle “Mean Joe” Greene stars in a Coca-Cola advertisement that debuts during the telecast of Super Bowl XIII, helping to fuel the Super Bowl commercials craze. TV Guide and USA Today later anoint it one of the top 10 commercials in television history.
1980s
1980 — ESPN, less than a year old, begins televising the NFL draft. Four years later, draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. joins the telecast.
1981 — The 49ers in this season win their first of four championships during the decade.
1982 — John Madden uses a telestrator, providing fans with unique, electronic analysis of plays, during the CBS telecast of Super Bowl XVI in Pontiac, Mich. The telestrator eventually becomes a standard part of game coverage.
1983 — Six quarterbacks are selected in the first round of the draft. Three (John Elway, Jim Kelly and Dan Marino) end up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Four (Elway, Kelly, Marino and Tony Eason) eventually make Super Bowl starts.
1985 — The 49ers draft wide receiver Jerry Rice in the first round. At the end of his career, the former Mississippi Valley State star ranks as arguably the best player in NFL history.
1987 — ESPN starts televising games, bringing the NFL to cable TV.
1989 — Paul Tagliabue succeeds Pete Rozelle as commissioner. Leaguewide prosperity, labor peace and continued parity become the hallmarks of Tagliabue’s reign.
1990s
1990 — The era of multibillion-dollar television contracts begins with a four-season deal worth a record $3.6 billion.
1993 — Unfettered free agency begins. Defensive end Reggie White, the biggest name on the market, leaves the Eagles and signs with the Packers. It’s a four-year deal worth $17 million, and White helps return the Packers to power.
1994 — First season of the salary cap era.
1995 — The NFL embraces the Internet age, becoming the first major sports league with its own website.
1999 — The Browns, one of the NFL’s storied franchises, return to Cleveland as an expansion team.
2000s
2000 — Cincinnati opens Paul Brown Stadium, starting a six-year span in which 11 franchises begin playing in completely renovated or new stadiums (including the Broncos’ Invesco Field at Mile High, in 2001).
2001 — Widely applauded for its reaction to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the NFL postpones games for a week and resumes play with leaguewide displays of patriotism.
2002 — The Texans begin play as the NFL’s 32nd team.
2003 — The NFL Network debuts on cable television.
2004 — Janet Jackson has a “wardrobe malfunction” during her halftime performance at Super Bowl XXXVIII in Houston, shocking TV viewers and instantly becoming part of Super Bowl lore.
2005 — The Cardinals and 49ers meet in the NFL’s first regular-season game outside the United States. Played in Mexico City, the game attracts a record crowd of 103,467.
2006 — Gamblers in Nevada legally wager $94.5 million, a record, on the Super Bowl.
Sources: “Brand NFL,” San Francisco Chronicle, NFL Record & Fact Book, “The Scrapbook History of Pro Football,” , Wikipedia, The Washington Post
