The NFL Needs a Marooning

This is a repost from the entry I did on Sporting News and other sites. Enjoy.

In 83 years, this great country has seen many things change the very landscape of the nation as we know it. This is a day of age where accolades are more important to us than results. Also, controversy and negative publicity are what we would much rather read about than a feel-good news headline of any kind. Then there's the story of the Pottsville Maroons.

The year 1925 was significant in many ways during the "Roaring 20s". It was a time where Prohibition was very much alive, and Calvin Coolidge was our 30th U.S. President in office. Babe Ruth was in the midst of an iconic career in baseball. Bobby Jones was on top of golf. Jack Dempsey was the household name in boxing. And Red Grange was the most popular name on the college gridiron. Then there's the Pottsville Maroons.

Pottsville, Pennsylvania, a small town about 90 miles northeast of Harrisburg, had signed on to play in the National Football League in 1925. Pottsville, known for it's overabundance of arthricite(a fine carbon coal), had played in the very tough Arthricite League prior to joining the NFL. After meeting with NFL Commissioner Joseph Carr, Pottsville owner J.G. Streigel, a town physician, was looking forward to competing in the NFL.

The Maroons won five of their first six games of the season with their only loss to Providence in Week 2 by the score of 6-0. The Maroons didn't allow anyone else to score in those games as they outscored their opponents 131-6 which included avenging their loss to Providence by the score of 34-0 in Week 4. In Week 7, the Maroons lost their second game of the season to rival Frankford, 20-0. The next day, Pottsville beat Rochester 14-6 to get back on track. Then they beat Cleveland and Green Bay before getting their rematch with Frankford. The rematch was a far cry from the first meeting as Pottsville dominated in a 49-0 win over Frankford.

So after their win over Frankford, they played the Chicago Cardinals in what was billed as the unofficial NFL Championship Game. In snowy and bitterly cold Chicago conditions, the Maroons beat the Cardinals 21-7 to seemingly lock up the NFL Championship.

Pottsville was contractually obligated to play Notre Dame six days later in Philadelphia, but received stiff warnings from Carr about playing the game. Streigel claimed he did receive permission from the front office to play the game. Since Frankford was in that territory and they had a scheduled game that day, they said Pottsville violated territorial rules. It should be noted that Frankford had originally scheduled a game against Notre Dame not long after the first game between them and Pottsville fully expecting to be the league champions. However, they slipped down the stretch and Pottsville ended up with the best record so they played Notre Dame instead. Also, Frankford and Pottsville were heated rivals long before the 1925 season.

The game was played and Pottsville beat the Notre Dame All-Stars on a field goal in the closing minute, 9-7. This was the same Notre Dame team that had the famed Four Horsemen playing, and was played during a time where the college game was thought to be far better than the pro game. The win by Pottsville gave the fledging NFL legitimacy after many believed that it was a castoff league for former college players.

Two days earlier, the Cardinals played a game against the Milwaukee Badgers, a team that disbanded during the season. Milwaukee played the game with four high school players, a violation of league rules. The Cardinals won that game 59-0. Then they won a game against another team that disbanded from the league that year in their finale, the Hammond Pros.

So after having to sort out the mess, Carr ruled that Pottsville would be stripped of the NFL Championship. Furthermore, the Maroons were suspended well as having their franchise returned to the league, and they couldn't complete their remaining schedule. The Cardinals were fined and one player, Art Folz, received a permanent ban for his part in recruiting high school players in the game the Cardinals played against Milwaukee.

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