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EPISODE SUMMARY
Every so often, an NFL team strikes gold with a draft choice. In 2022, virtually no stone is left unturned when teams belly up to evaluate potential draftees. Film, personal workouts, sprint times, psychological profiles, and personal interviews are all considered as part of the process to determine which players will be identified as probable draft prospects. After all, big, big money is at stake along with the future success of the selecting team.
But when the draft was initiated in 1936, many of the draftees simply were not interested in pursuing professional football. This prompted teams to begin looking at prospects with a little more scrutiny instead of simply relying on newspapers or football magazines to learn about the top prospects. Or in many cases, a bit of luck was involved…
Less study was required for the Chicago Bears in 1940 when a fairly well-known, although smaller player, was a draft day objective of the team. He was selected as the second pick in the first round of the 1940 draft by the Philadelphia Eagles but eventually enjoyed such a stellar career with the Bears that owner George Halas once said: “The highest compliment you can pay any ball carrier is to just compare him to George McAfee.”
Read the entire episode blog post and check out some other cool info regarding this episode here.
WHEN FOOTBALL WAS FOOTBALL BACKGROUND
Each episode takes the listener back to the very early days of the National Football League. Author Joe Ziemba will share a forgotten or lost story from one of the NFL’s two oldest teams: The Bears and the Cardinals. Team championships, individual exploits, or long-buried items of interest from the earliest years of the NFL will be dusted off and resurrected for the listener. Not for the football faint-of-heart since these programs will document when the struggling Bears nearly went out of business or when Cardinals’ players earned $15 a game and were proud of it! It’s NFL history—with a twist!. See Joe’s books below.
Cadets, Canons, and Legends: The Football History of Morgan Park Military Academy
When Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL
Music for the episode – https://www.purple-planet.com/