Joe Carr (Columbus Panhandles) – The Father of Professional Football

During the 1921 season, Clair and Green Bay admitted the use of players with college eligibility, so they withdrew from the APFA. Curly Lambeau promised to follow the rules and used $50 of his own money to buy back the team. Harsh weather and low attendance would end up leading to Lambeau going broke.

Local merchants led by Press-Gazette general manager Andrew B. Turnbull arranged a $2,500 loan for the club and a public non-profit set up to run the team. Lambeau would be named the head coach and manager. Fans were able to purchase shares of stock in the Packers for $5, which would also come with a season ticket.

A meeting in Cleveland, OH at the Hollenden Hotel would bring together the owners of the teams. The meeting occurred on June 24-25, 1922. There were 20 clubs that met for this meeting, which would provide some interesting amendments to the 2-year old constitution. During the meeting, the owners would also allow an insurance agent to take 15 minutes to make a spiel about protecting the league from long-term liability.

One of the outcomes of the amendments to the constitution was the guaranteeing of salaries to referees, even if the game was not played. Also, President Joe Carr would schedule which refs would in charge for each game, instead of allowing the teams to decide the refs of their own.

It would be determined the length of the 1922 season would be from October 1 to December 10, with an added stipulation the teams must have no less than 7 and no more than 13 games played, to be considered official for the league standings. Joe Carr had experience in the minor baseball leagues as an executive, so he used his expertise to present a “reserve clause” for players.

It was said Halas and Sternman “ran afoul of the clause at the June meeting.” Another major change was this was the first time the league would really buckle down on the use of collegiate players in professional games. The first offense would result in a fine for the team, and the 2nd offense would result in expulsion from the league.

Another problem was collegiate players were “moonlighting,” meaning they were using false names to be able to play for professional teams. It was decided if a collegiate player was caught doing this, he would be expelled from the league forever.

The salary cap was another point of contention. It was at first decided the league would impose a $1,800 salary cap per game, but there was a difference of opinions regarding exactly what would be counted towards this salary cap. Some teams wanted only the player salaries to count, while others wanted the expenses of getting the players to the game to count, as well.

The primary teams on the latter side were Chicago and Buffalo. This was believed to be mostly because they had more home games than away games, which would result in an advantage for them by freeing up more cash for them to give to higher-paid salaries.

A meeting in Dayton on August 20, 1922, would “gut” the Decatur Staley’s because the team “no longer existed.”

This meant all the players were free agents. George Halas had major clout, so many of the players went back to the Chicago Bears with Halas. However, it was said Guy Chamberlain hurt the most. He would sign a new contract to play for Ralph Hay’s Canton Bulldogs. The rest of the meeting didn’t do much other than shrinking the salary cap down to $1,200 per game, but it would only include the salaries of the players.

Owners would also vote to include a clause that players wouldn’t be paid if “the game was canceled for reasons unavoidable or beyond the control of management.”
Players and owners would have some workarounds to get past the salary cap limitation. One quote found was “look, we’ll just put down $100 on the contract we file with the league, but after the game, we’ll give you an extra hundred.”

This was considered to be a common arrangement. However, it made me think to the Pudge Heffelfinger episode of the Football History Dude where we discussed the first documented professional football player, and how he had made $500 for one game 30 years earlier.

Another workaround was the teams would give star players $100 for playing, and then they would also list that player as the coach, meaning they could give them more money. Teams would carry 16 players, which is a far cry from the 53-man roster on current NFL teams.

A quote about the direction of the league showed how the owners felt they were going the right way. It said the league “went from a flabby group of poor-mouths desperately trying to get independent teams to join up to a moderately muscular bunch, tough to get in and tougher still (on paper) to get out.”

Perhaps the most important change, though, was this was the first time the name would be changed from the American Professional Football Association to the National Football League.