The NFL’s first frantic February

Super Bowl LX is today, meaning people who don’t know the difference between football and foosball will still be tuning in to the event. And make no mistake about it – it is an event, with 60 minutes of gridiron action augmented (and sometimes overshadowed) by music, marketing and talking – lots and lots of talking.

But while February 8, 2026, will see the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots battle for the Lombardi Trophy, February 8, 1926, was also a pretty big day in NFL history.

On that date, newspapers across the United States reported that the head of the newly-anointed NFL champion Chicago Cardinals had taken a pass on his team being declared champion. Plus, a new football league was being formed to challenge the National Football League.

That’s a lot to unpack, so let’s open the suitcase …

One hundred years ago, NFL owners held their winter meetings in Detroit. Among the agreements reached for the 2026 season included banning college players from playing in the NFL until their class had graduated; limiting league clubs to scheduling no more than two games per week; upping guarantee money from $1,000 to $1,500, with one percent of gate receipts going to a league fund; increasing team roster size from 16 to 18 players; and reelecting NFL President Joseph Carr for a new three-year term (at $5,000 per year).

“Professional football successfully passed its crisis at the Detroit meeting,” Green Bay Packers president A.B. Turnbull proclaimed to the Green Bay Press-Gazette. “It was the unanimous opinion of the delegates that some drastic steps were necessary and those in attendance lost little time in putting across several regulations that will be of benefit to the postgraduate sport.”

Those “regulations” were interesting, but pale in comparison to the main headlines.

For openers, Carr decided to dethrone the Pottsville Maroons, who finished the 1925 season with a 10-2 NFL record. They were 13-2 overall, counting exhibition conquests of independent Colwyn Darby, Eastern League foe Atlantic Roses, and the Notre Dame All-Stars (featuring Harry Stuhldreher, Don Miller, Jim  Crowley and Elmer Layden of “Four Horsemen” fame).

However, the franchise violated the territorial rights of the Frankford Yellowjackets by playing the Notre Dame exhibition in Philadelphia, an offense Carr found so grievous that he suspended the Maroons, stripped them of their title and awarded it to the Cardinals (who lost to Pottsville, 21-7, in 2025).

But … Chicago owner Chris O’Brien declined the honor. The Cardinals, in fact, were on probation for suiting up four high school players in a 2025 contest. He said that sanction – and the fact that Pottsville had been removed from the league – convinced him it would be wrong to accept a crown. He wanted a championship “clearly won on the field of play.”

Thus, league owners voted that there would be no champion for the 1925 season.

Turns out, the NFL had even bigger concerns.

On February 7 it was revealed that a  new football league would be formed in Chicago later in the month. C.C. Pyle, manager of superstar Red Grange (who played with the Chicago Bears in 1925), made the announcement when he was denied a franchise in New York.

While Pyle – who had a lease with Yankee Stadium – said the majority of owners were fine with a second team in America’s First City, New York Giants officials blocked the move.

“There is room for two teams in New York, just as there is in Chicago,” Pyle told the Associated Press.

On February 18, Pyle announced that Grange would be the main attraction for the New York Football Yankees of the American League of Professional Football. Philadelphia and Milwaukee were also granted franchises, with St. Louis, Cleveland and Boston awarded conditional franchises.

So, by the end of February, the National Football League found itself without a defending champion and also had to fend off a challenge from another circuit showcasing the sport’s biggest draw in Grange.

O’Brien, however, was confident the senior organization would prevail.

“We have most of the high class stars under contract and a war chest of which we draw, and we certainly intend to protect our investment to the best of our financial ability,” he said in an interview with the Green Bay Press-Gazette. “If the newcomers think they can break in without a fight, they are welcome to try it.”

A century later, it’s obvious things have turned out just fine for the NFL.

Pyle’s circuit lasted only one season, although his Yankees were granted admission to the NFL for 1927. They folded after two seasons, and Grange returned to the Bears in 1929. Frankford – pictured at the top of this article – won the 1926 NFL championship with a 14-1-2 record and nary a hint of controversy.

The National League has held off all challengers ever since. Its biggest, coming from the modern American Football League, resulted in a full merger that went into effect in 1970. Now at 32 clubs and an international brand, it’s hard to imagine any serious future competition.

And as for that vacated title in 1925, well, the NFL officially awarded it to the Chicago Cardinals in 1963.

Travel to the Borough of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, however, and you might find there remains some disagreement over that decision.