Throwback Thursday: A Minor Annoyance

The Green Bay Packers defeated the Chicago Bears 21-13 on Sunday. It was the 200th game in the long rivalry between these two teams. That's a lot of games. It's more games than any two NFL teams have played against each other. Whenever the Packers and Bears play a game in this long, storied rivalry nearly everybody honks about it being the league's oldest rivalry. Packer-Bears isn't the league's oldest rivalry and the insistence of so many to call it that is annoying. This is the 100th NFL season so there's been a great deal of reference to and appreciation of the league's history. It'd be nice if people would appreciate that history accurately. The Packers-Bears rivalry isn't the league's oldest rivalry. All one has to do is pull up the 1920 NFL Standings to see that.

1920 NFL Standings

Akron Pros	8-0-3	1.000
Decatur Staleys	10-1-2	0.909
Buffalo All-Americans	9-1-1	0.900
Chicago Cardinals	6-2-2	0.750
Rock Island Independents	6-2-2	0.750
Dayton Triangles	5-2-2	0.714
Rochester Jeffersons	6-3-2	0.667
Canton Bulldogs	7-4-2	0.636
Detroit Heralds	2-3-3	0.400
Cleveland Tigers	2-4-2	0.333
Chicago Tigers	2-5-1	0.286
Hammond Pros	2-5-0	0.286
Columbus Panhandles	2-6-2	0.250
Muncie Flyers	0-1-0	0.000

In order to be fully factual it has to be pointed out that the National Football League wasn't the National Football League in 1920 or 1921. The professional football league that we now know as the National Football League was called the American Professional Football Association during their first two seasons. 

Back to the 1920 standings. The 1920 APFA Standings. The Decatur Staleys are the Chicago Bears of today. So, what's missing from the 1920 standings? The Green Bay Packers are missing from the 1920 standings. The Packers were around and doing their own football thing in 1920 but they we weren't part of the professional football league that we now know as the National Football League. The Packers joined the league in 1921 and they were real close to not being part of the league in 1922. But that's a story for another day. Today's story is that the Packers have only competed in 99 of the league's 100 season. Who has competed in every one of the league's 100 seasons? The Bears and Cardinals have competed in every one of the league's 100 seasons. 

First Bears-Cardinals game:

November 28, 1920: Cardinals 

Cardinals 7

Staleys 6

First Bears-Packers game: 

November 27, 1921

Staleys 20

Packers 0

The Bears/Staleys played the Caridnals a full year before they played the Packers. In fact, the Bears/Staleys played the Cardinals twice before they played the Packers for the first time. So, the Bears-Packers might be the most contested rivalry in the league's history but it isn't the league's oldest rivalry. The Bears-Cardinals rivalry is the league's oldest. It's a year older than Packers-Bears. If people are going to honk about the league's history it sure would be nice if they honked about it accurately.