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NFL Pioneers: The Integration of the NFL

The NFL has had a bit of a confusing as it had to be integrated twice in less than three decades. The first integration being in 1920 and the second being in 1946. This makes the NFL an interesting case because other leagues once integrated were permanently that way instead of the seesaw that the NFL did in the early to mid-1900s. The first player that integrated the league was Fritz Pollard and the second being Kenny Washington. Both men broke barriers and set new standards for the NFL and its future.

           Fritz Pollard first integrated the NFL in the year 1920 playing for the Akron Pros. Pollard played college football for Brown university as their starting halfback. He was the first African American to play football at Brown and was the first African American to be named a Walter Camp’s All-American. He also became the first African American player to play in the famed Rose bowl. Pollard was clearly a person used to breaking down barriers and had a strong will to keep pushing forward and making a difference. Pollard also served as the first African American head coach in NFL history. It took a long time for the NFL to acknowledge Pollard as a pioneer of the NFL and as its first African American head coach. Pollard long after his death was finally inducted into the NFL hall of fame in 2005 after much lobbying by groups pushing for the NFL to acknowledge its past and early beginnings.

           Twelve years later after Fritz Pollard integrated the NFL it once again segregated itself with heavy influence coming from Washington Redskins owner George Preston Marshall. Marshall was a very influential owner that was highly respected across the league, so it is believed that the other owners partially agreed to this to keep him happy and in their good graces. The segregation of the league coincided with a push for the NFL to a more respectable game. By segregating the league, the NFL owners hoped to avoid offending George Preston Marshall and its southern fans. The owners believed it would be beneficial at the time to not have African American players be active in their league. The NFL was heavily influenced by social and economic standards at the time which led to its resegregation. During the depression era it was bad publicity to hire African American with so many Caucasian Americans out of work. Also, two other influential team owners George Halas and Art Rooney claimed that the segregation of the league was due to inadequate African American talent at the collegiate level. Even though there were many standout African American players on top college football teams. As well as an underdeveloped scouting system for each team to use and find the best players. This twelve-year drought of African Americans in the NFL is a stain on the league as they had already integrated earlier. This charge led by George Preston Marshall showed that although there were some African Americans had been in the NFL that did not mean they had equal rights.

           In 1946 the Los Angeles Rams decided to bring in another African American by the name of Kenny Washington. Washington played football at UCLA and in 1939 won the most outstanding player award receiving votes from every opponent he faced. After leaving UCLA and being a police officer for two-year Washington played football for the Pacific Coast League Bears. Washington suffered from knee problems and hade five surgeries before retiring from the NFL in 1948. Washington’s introduction to the NFL was the end of segregated football and helped open doors for other future athletes.

           The NFLs integration of African Americans were performed terribly as it crossed the barrier and the closed it up again, until they eventually opened it forever. Although it did open its doors in 1946 for more African Americans to join the NFL there still were barriers to cross. Teams often signed African American players for only a year to keep the statistics high on the number of players in the league. They often though only kept a “token” African American player and stacked the players at halfback, defensive end, and cornerback to avoid criticism. There was not real change in the NFL until the 1960s coinciding with the peak of the civil rights movement as players demanded to be treated more fairly and get what they deserve based on talent and performance. The journey of integration in the NFL is a confusing and rocky one but it is a important part of its history that needs to be acknowledged.

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Brown Running the Ground

Jim Brown is considered on of the greatest running backs of all time. He is considered the greatest Cleveland Brown of all time. He is 11th all time in career rushing yards. In 1963 he would go on to lead the league in rushing for the sixth time in seven seasons. 

Jim Brown was born in Georgia, but would spend most of his childhood in New York. He would go on to play football for Syracuse where he would become an All-American. He would excel their enough to be drafted by the Cleveland Browns with the 6th overall pick of the 1957 NFL Draft. 

Not only in 1963 Jim would lead the league in rushing but he would also set a record for rushing yards in a single season. In the first game of the season Brown would rush for 162 yards in a 37-14 win against Washington. In week 2 he would rush for 232 yard against Dallas which would be his highest rushing game of the season. In week 3 he would only rush for 95 yards but would rush for over 100 yards for his next 3 games. Week 7 would be his lowest rushing game of the season with 40 rushing yard against the New York Giants. He would go from his lowest rushing game of the season to the second highest rushing game. Brown would rush for 223 yard in a 23-17 win against Philadelphia. Brown would be up and down the next three games with him rushing for 99, 154, and 55 yards respectfully. In week 12, Brown would rush for 179 yards against St. Louis in which they won 24-10. In the final game of the regular season  he would rush for 125 yard in a 27-20 win against Washington. The Browns would go on to the playoffs with a 10-4 record. He would score 15 touchdowns that season for 90 points. Brown would set the single season rushing record with 1,863 rushing yards and average 133 yards per game. He would average around 6 yards per carry that season in 14 games. Back then the NFL only played 14 games instead of 16 games. Who knows what Brown would have rushed for the that season if the season would of been 16 games. All the other players who would break his record would play 16 games not 14.

Jim Brown will always be considered with Emmitt Smith, Barry Sanders, and Walter Payton as the greatest running back of all time. He has set multiple records and is 11th all time in rushing yards. His 1963 season will probably go down as one of the greatest single seasons for a player of all time.

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NFL’s Beginning and What It’s Like Today

On Sept 17, 1920, a league known as American Professional Football Association (APFA) was founded in Canton, Ohio. According to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, A meeting was held between representatives of 11 teams they established the league which would later be renamed the NFL and they elected Jim Thorpe as president. Two of the 11 teams are still in existence today, with the Decatur Stanley (now the Chicago Bears) and the Chicago Cardinals (now the Arizona Cardinals).

The Pro Football Hall of Fame website says, Jim Thorpe was a half Caucasian and Native American player and president. The first year of the league he served as the president, coach and player on the Canton Bulldogs. Before football, he would go on to play Major League Baseball and compete in the Olympics. According to Biography.com, he was stripped of his gold medals for being paid to play minor league baseball. Although there was no proof, some think that he was stripped of his gold because he was Native American. After football, he would go on to act in Hollywood. He founded a casting company to fight Hollywood to hire Native American actors.

The NFL today looks very different than what it looked like in 1920. For one thing the NFL today is more diverse than it was in 1920. The website Statista.com, states that 57.5 percent of NFL players are black. Today the issue of race is big in politics and sports including football. Concussions are also an issue more recently with retired black players. An Associated Press article written by Mary Claire Dale and Michelle R. Smith says that retired black players are demanding the end of “race norming”. They want to determine the players eligible for the $1 billion payouts for the settlement of brain injury claims. Former Washington football player and his wife, Ken Jenkins, 60, and Amy Lewis got over 50,000 petitions to show the judge, Anita B. Brody, who is working on the massive settlement. In the settlement, the NFL maintained on using a scoring algorithm on dementia testing that says African-Americans start with lower cognitive skills. That means they must score lower than whites to get an award. It went unnoticed unit 2018 and made it harder for black people. For a score of 1.5- level dementia, the average award is from $400,000 to $1.5 million for men under 45. The average of 2.0- level dementia is from $600,000 to $3 million. The first lawsuit against the NFL in the matter was filed in 2011. The NFL did not want to face a trial agreed to pay the players $765 million over 65 years in 2013 for certain diagnostics, which includes Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. A doctor from New York University, Dr. Art Caplan, has stated on the issue saying, “It continues to look as if it’s trying to exclude people rather than trying to do what is right, which is to help people that, clinically, have an obvious and severe disability.” He also notes that there is a long myth that black people feel less pain. There is an upside to “race norming” though. According to an article by CBS News 60 Minutes, the NFL says the players who were denied will have their test rescored.

There is no denying that the NFL has a concussion problem, it doesn’t help that race got involved. The evidence that is brought up in this article does do the players justice. With black people scoring higher than the whites they can not qualify for the payments. The system on how to score players needs to change, whether it be not score based on race or do a different scoring method. If the scoring does not change the NFL needs to lower the score for payment or just pay every player who did the test. The scoring just should not be based on race. It can even be replicated in the world outside of football. Nothing should be based on race. Just because you are white does not mean you should get hired for a job you are not qualified for.

With the NFL 101 years old, race has always been an issue in the league. This shows that it is still a problem today with the NFL agreeing to retest the players who were denied payment. The first president, Jim Thorpe, has fought for Native American's rights with Hollywood just like the players are fighting for their right to the payment. Thorpe would likely be fighting with the players who were denied.