National Football League franchise moves and mergers

National Football League franchise moves and mergers

Throughout the years, a number of teams in the National Football League (NFL) have either moved or merged.

In the early years, the NFL was not stable and teams moved frequently to survive, or were folded only to be resurrected in a different city with the same players and owners. The Great Depression era saw the movement of most surviving small-town NFL teams to the large cities to ensure survival. Franchise mergers were popular during World War II in response to the scarcity of players. Few of these relocations and mergers were accompanied with widespread controversy.

Franchise moves became far more controversial in the late twentieth century when a vastly more popular NFL, free from financial instability, allowed many franchises to abandon long-held strongholds for perceived financially greener pastures. Despite a Pete Rozelle promise to Congress not to relocate franchises in return for a law exempting the league from certain aspects of antitrust laws, making possible the AFL-NFL merger, several franchises have relocated in the years since the merger and the passage of the law (Public Law 89-800) which sanctioned it.

While owners invariably cited financial difficulties as the primary factor in such moves, many fans bitterly disputed these contentions, especially in Baltimore, St. Louis, and Cleveland, each of which eventually received teams some years after their original franchises left. However, Los Angeles, the second-largest media market in the United States, has not had an NFL team since 1994 and the league is promoting an expansion there. [1] Another city that is often mentioned as a potential site for a moved franchise is Toronto, Ontario, the site of frequent speculation regarding a future franchise.

Additionally, with the increasing suburbanization of the U.S., the building of new stadiums and other team facilities in the suburbs instead of the central city became popular from the 1970s on, though at the turn of the millennium a reverse shift back to the central city became somewhat evident.

Contents

Teams making more significant moves, in chronological order

Quasi-moves: movement of more or less intact teams from one city to another

The NFL considers these separate franchises but there is significant continuity from one to the other

  • Canton Bulldogs: mothballed for the 1924 season when the owner of the Cleveland Bulldogs bought it and took the players and nickname to Cleveland. Franchise resurrected in 1925
  • Cleveland Bulldogs: to Detroit, Michigan in 1928 as the Detroit Wolverines
  • Duluth Eskimos: to Orange, NJ as the Orange Tornadoes in 1929 (separate franchises but same players)
  • Newark Tornadoes: The Newark franchise was forfeited to the league and ordered to be disposed of to the highest bidder after the 1930 season. The next franchise granted was the Boston Braves (now Washington Redskins franchise) in 1932. So, while it is possible that Newark franchise was sold to the Boston group in 1932, there is no documentation available. Neither Newark nor Boston played in 1931. The team itself joined the minor-league American Association later in the 1930s and adopted the name Newark Bears.
  • Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers corporate entities and players (but not franchises) swap cities after the 1940 season after complex ownership deal.
  • Boston Yanks franchise to New York City as the New York Bulldogs in 1949 (separate franchise but same owner and players)
  • New York Yanks (formerly New York Bulldogs) folded after the 1951 season; players transferred to new Dallas Texans franchise for the 1952 season
  • Dallas Texans: operated out of Hershey, PA for the last five games of the 1952 season, playing their last three games in Akron, OH. Franchise folded after season's end and players awarded to new Baltimore Colts franchise in 1953.
  • Baltimore Colts and Los Angeles Rams corporate entities (but not players) swap cities after 1971, in similar move to 1940 Eagles-Steelers relocations.
  • Cleveland Browns: to Baltimore as the Ravens in 1996. In 1995 Browns owner Art Modell announced plans to move the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore for the 1996 season. The NFL, the city of Cleveland and Modell reach an agreement whereby the Browns franchise and history would remain in Cleveland to be resurrected by 1999. Modell was given a new franchise for Baltimore, made up of players from the 1995 Cleveland Browns. For more information on this particular move, see Cleveland Browns relocation controversy.

Franchise mergers

Teams moving between cities/boroughs within their metropolitan area, chronologically by team's first such move

Temporary moves, in chronological order

The following are not actually relocations, but temporary moves because these teams' home stadiums were either under construction or otherwise adversely affected:

Ultimate disposition of the 14 charter franchises

By the start of the 1920 APFA season, the nascent National Football League was composed of 14 franchises. Of those teams, only two are still in operation as of 2010 (denoted in bold):

  • Akron Pros: Changed name to Akron Indians in 1926. Permanently suspended operations in 1927.
  • Buffalo All-Americans: Changed name to Buffalo Bisons in 1924, Buffalo Rangers in 1926, and changed back to Buffalo Bisons in 1927 before suspending operations halfway through 1927. Resumed play in 1929, but folded following the season. City is currently represented by the Buffalo Bills, a charter member of the American Football League in 1960.
  • Canton Bulldogs: Cleveland Bulldogs in 1923. Suspended operations in 1924. Resumed play in Canton in 1925. Folded following 1926 season. City is currently represented only by the preseason Pro Football Hall of Fame Game.
  • Chicago Cardinals: Merged with Pittsburgh Steelers for one year in 1944. Returned as an independent team in 1945. Moved to St Louis in 1960. Moved to Phoenix in 1988. Changed name to Arizona Cardinals in 1994.
  • Chicago Tigers: Folded following 1920 season.
  • Cleveland Tigers: Folded following 1921 season. City is currently represented by the Cleveland Browns.
  • Columbus Panhandles: Changed name to Columbus Tigers in 1923. Folded following 1926 season.
  • Dayton Triangles: See "The case of the Indianapolis Colts" below.
  • Decatur Staleys: Moved to Chicago in 1921. Changed name to Chicago Bears in 1922.
  • Detroit Heralds: Changed name to "Tigers" and folded in the middle of the 1921 season, sending its players to Buffalo. City currently represented by the Detroit Lions.
  • Hammond Pros: Folded following 1926 season.
  • Muncie Flyers: Folded following 1921 season.
  • Rochester Jeffersons: Suspended operations following 1925 season; folded in 1928.
  • Rock Island Independents: Left NFL and became an independent team following 1924 season. Joined first American Football League in 1926, but folded before end of season.

The case of the Indianapolis Colts

The Indianapolis Colts have perhaps the most complex history of any football team in the NFL. The Colts can trace their history as far back as 1913, with the founding of the Dayton Triangles. The team then went through the following changes:[5]

  • Franchise became a road team in 1924, although it retained the "Dayton Triangles" name.
  • Franchise established a permanent home base in Brooklyn, New York and renamed Brooklyn Dodgers in 1930.
  • Changed name to Brooklyn Tigers in 1944. In the same year, the Boston Yanks are founded.
  • Merged with Boston Yanks in 1945 as the wartime "The Yanks."
  • Franchise canceled in 1945 by league and the team's temporary merger with the Boston Yanks is made permanent, as a parallel team (AAFC New York Yankees) is founded by the Tigers' former owner.
  • Boston Yanks moved to New York in 1949 and become New York Bulldogs. Renamed New York Yanks in 1950, absorbing much of the former AAFC New York Yankees' roster that year.
  • Team dissolved in 1951 and replaced by the Dallas Texans.
  • Texans, in turn, became a road team halfway through the 1952 season and were dissolved shortly thereafter; they are replaced by the second incarnation of the Baltimore Colts in 1953, which absorbed the team name of a previous Baltimore Colts franchise, as well as its marching band.
  • Baltimore Colts owner Carroll Rosenbloom and Los Angeles Rams owner Robert Irsay swap ownership of teams following the 1971 season. (Their heirs continued to own both franchises until 2010, when Rosenbloom's children sold the Rams to Stan Kroenke.) The Rams later move to St. Louis in 1995.
  • Baltimore Colts moved to Indianapolis in 1984 to become the Indianapolis Colts, which still play to this day. The marching band stays in Baltimore and associates itself with the Baltimore Ravens when they debut in 1996.

Officially, all of these teams except for the second Baltimore Colts and the Indianapolis Colts are considered separate franchises.[citation needed]

See also

  • Defunct NFL franchises

References

  1. ^ The lukewarm attitude of Los Angelenos towards having an NFL franchise in such a large market has been an embarrassment to the otherwise successful league.Canadian expansion not on NFL radar
  2. ^ Willis, 2010, p. 323–325.
  3. ^ Peterson, 1997, p. 122.
  4. ^ McDonough, 1994, p. 50.
  5. ^ http://www.profootballresearchers.org/Coffin_Corner/17-05-621.pdf

Bibliography

  • Official 2005 National Football League Record and Fact Book. New York: Time Inc. Home Entertainment. (2005). ISBN 1-932994-36-X
  • Carroll, Bob; with Gershman, Michael, Neft, David, and Thorn, John (1999). Total Football:The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-270174-6
  • McDonough, Will (1994). 75 Seasons: The Complete Story of the National Football League. Atlanta: Turner Publishing, Inc. ISBN 1-57036-056-1
  • Peterson, Robert W. (1997). Pigskin: The Early Years of Pro Football. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507607-9
  • Willis, Chris (2010). The Man Who Built the National Football League: Joe F. Carr. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, Inc. ISBN 978-0-8108-7669-9

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