Many people view professional football history as starting with the first Super Bowl. There were 34 NFL Championship games before the Green bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs took the field. 35, if you count the one that got the Packers to that first Super Bowl. There were even twelve titles before the football powers that were decided that playing a game to decide it all might be a nifty idea. When there is no single game to crown the champ, there is often problems. That was the case in 1921. The Buffalo All-Americans had concluded their regular season with a record of 9-0-2. The 7-1 Chicago Staleys (Bears) suffered their single loss in a Thanksgiving Day game against the All-Americans. Buffalo owner Frank McNeil claimed the title of the American Professional Football Association (renamed the National Football League in 1922). That's when it got a little screwy.
Chicago people call the mess that followed their first championship. Buffalo people call it the "Staley Swindle." No one involved in professional sports likes to lose. Staleys owner George Halas took hating to lose to a whole other level. He'd do pretty much anything to get a win. In those rough early days of professional football, teams often scheduled postseason "exhibition" games to make some extra money. McNeil scheduled one of these "exhibition" games with the tough Akron Pros for Saturday, December 3rd. While McNeil saw extra game cash, Halas saw an opportunity. He challenged McNeil to a game on December 4th. McNeil accepted the challenge on the condition that it be considered a postseason exhibition game and not counted in the final standings. The Buffalo All-Americans defeated the Akron Pros on Saturday, 14-0. They then hopped an all-night train to Chicago to face a well rested Staley's team on Sunday. Chicago defeated Buffalo 10-7.
Frank McNeil still believed his team to be the 1921 APFA Champions. He even invested in tiny, gold footballs for his players to recognize them as a championship outfit. While McNeil was doing that, Halas was scheming. He quickly scheduled games against the Canton Bulldogs and Chicago Cardinals in the hopes of matching Buffalo's win total. A 10-0 defeat of the Bulldogs and a scoreless tie against the Cardinals brought the Staleys record to 9-1 (ties were dropped in those days when determining the champion). Conveniently, this matched the 9-1 record of the All-Americans. Halas decided that the 1921 title belonged to Chicago and began to persuade the other owners to view it the same. He claimed that a rematch game mattered more than an earlier contest. He also claimed that the combined 16-14 score in the two games favored his Staleys. Halas' first argument proved to be the winner. The league instituted the first ever tiebreaker for the championship. It also became a league rule. This new rule stated that if two teams played multiple times in a season, the last game between the two carries more weight. The league was also forced to put a finite end to the season after this incident. The Chicago Staleys were named the 1921 APFA Champions.
Frank McNeil went to his grave fighting for an overturn of the championship decision. Who can blame him? I don't understand how McNeil's belief that the rematch with the Bears was an "exhibition" game could just be washed away like it was. It makes no sense that he'd even play the game if there was ever any doubt. Unless I'm missing something, it looks like the revised final standings for the All-Americans reflects the Staleys game but not the game against Akron Pros. If one game counted in the standings, shouldn't the other game? I have the All-Americans at 10-1 to the Staleys 9-1. None of this mess was right. Part of the problem was the leadership void in the new professional football league. Jim Thorpe was more figurehead than action as the first commissioner. Joe Carr would change that but he was just getting started as 1921 was closing. Instead, Buffalo was without a title and soon a team. The All-Americans had been one of the stronger professional teams since 1918. That run pretty much ended with the 1921 season. Play on the field gradually declined over the following years and the team finally folded in 1929. George Halas' Staleys/Bears has been one of the flagship franchises since the birth of the APFA/NFL. Much on Halas' sheer will. The mess in 1921 was also an example of the power that Halas held. It's difficult to hate him as the league likely wouldn't have survived without him. I'm sure that many owners still found a way to despise him. Frank McNeil was likely among them.
Highway Robbery!
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