The Birth of the NFL

Jay Berwanger was the first player to
ever be selected in the NFL Draft.

The sport of professional football was in a state of confusion in the very beginning of the 20th century due to dramatically rising salaries, players switching teams consistently to follow the highest bidder, and using players who were still enrolled in college. In order to fix this, the teams decided that it was necessary to force all teams to abide by the same rules by creating an official league. In 1920, a meeting was held in Canton, Ohio to address this issue, and the American Professional Football Conference (APFC) was created. A month later, the name of the league was changed to the American Professional Football Association (APFA) and Jim Thorpe was named president. Two years later, on June 4th, 1922, the name of the organization was once again renamed, this time to the National Football League (NFL).

In 1935, the NFL agreed to use Bert Bell's idea of an annual draft of college players prior to the 1936 season, with teams selecting in reverse order of finish. In the 1936 NFL Draft, Jay Berwanger from University of Chicago was selected by the Philadelphia Eagles first overall, making him first player ever drafted in the NFL. However, he decided to not play professional football, making Riley Smith of Alabama (selected by the Boston Braves) the first drafted player to ever sign with an NFL team. At almost the same time, the American Football League (AFL), a rival league, was created.

What do you think about the the original NFL Draft? Isn't it interesting that sometimes, the top pick in the draft didn't even want to play football professionally. Nowadays, it is every kid's dream to be the first pick in the NFL Draft. Where do you think professional football would be today if the NFL was not created?