Two of the first ten clubs were the Cardinals and the Bears. The Cardinals were known as the Racine Cardinals in Chicago, and the Bears were known as the Decatur Staleys in Decatur. It's not always clear if the Cardinals were from Chicago or Racine, Wisconsin. But they were certainly a popular team with fans in both cities. The other eight teams all played in their respective cities.
The Browns joined the NFL as an expansion team in 1950. They originally played their home games at Cleveland Stadium, now known as "Pro-Football-Hall-Of-Fame" Stadium. The stadium was built for the Browns by owner Alva B. Adams (who also built Lambeau Field for the Packers). The stadium had a capacity of 65,000 people during its peak years, but it was never sold out.
The Rams moved to Los Angeles in 1946, and they have been there ever since. They originally played their home games at Huntington Park Stadium, now known as Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The stadium was built for the Rams by owner A.E. "Ed" Dagron, who also built Chandler Pavilion for the Lakers. The stadium has a capacity of 100,000 people and is still used today by both the Rams and the Raiders.
The Titans are another new franchise. They started playing in 1964.
As of today, the only two founder members of the NFL are the Decatur Staleys (now known as the Chicago Bears) and the Chicago Cardinals (now known as the Arizona Cardinals). The other six current teams were added through a series of expansions between 1947 and 1956. These additions doubled the size of the league without altering its basic structure or schedule.
The eight original teams were Boston Americans, Brooklyn Dodgers, Chicago Bears, Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, and Pittsburgh Pirates. In 2002, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers became the first team to relocate within the same year as an initial move to Tampa was also found to be impractical due to lack of stadium availability and community support. Since that time, several more teams have announced plans to relocate including the San Diego Chargers who had already played their last game at Qualcomm Stadium before announcing their intention to move to Los Angeles effective 2020.
In addition to the eight original teams, three more teams can now be considered founding members of the NFL: the Washington Redskins, who moved into their current home stadium, D.C. Stadium, in 1937; the Indianapolis Colts, who began play in 1958; and the Baltimore Ravens, who joined as an expansion team in 1996.
These ten teams represent the only ones currently active in the NFL.
The league began in 1920 with five Ohio teams (Akron Pros, Canton Bulldogs, Cleveland Tigers, Columbus Panhandlers, and Dayton Triangles), four Illinois teams (Chicago Tigers, Decatur Staleys, Racine Cardinals [the Cardinals were based in Chicago but took the name of a local street], and Rock Island Grizzlies), and Rockford (Ill.) High School.
Black Jack Johnson was the first player drafted by a major American sports team (first round, fifth overall by the New York Yankees). The only other athlete to be selected before the draft was Joe Namath, who went second overall by the Baltimore Colts. Both players would go on to have successful careers in football.
The first game was played between Akron and Cleveland, with both teams winning. The Panhandlers defeated the Tigers 17-7 at Columbia University's Ross Field. The next week, the Bulldogs beat the Pros 21-10 at Public Domain Stadium in downtown Cleveland. That same year, the Chicago Staleys played their only season in the NFL, finishing with a record of 4-4-1. They were outscored 102-99 during the season.
There were no limits on how many players a team could have on its roster at any one time, so coaches had to make some kind of decision about which players to keep around for the future. They usually chose veterans over rookies because they were more likely to be available when games needed to be played.
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