| Regular season | |
|---|---|
| Duration | September 13 – December 13, 1931 |
| Champions | Green Bay Packers |
The1931 NFL season was the 12thregular season of theNational Football League. The league decreased to 10 teams due to financial hardships caused by theGreat Depression: while theCleveland Indians joined as an expansion team and the league lost theMinneapolis Red Jackets and theNewark Tornadoes, theFrankford Yellow Jackets folded midway through the season.
Meanwhile, theGreen Bay Packers were named the NFL champions for the third consecutive time after major controversy when they decided to cancel a season-ending game against Portsmouth, which was alleged to have been in order to preserve their first-place finish: major rule changes were made in the scheduling of games to prevent any repeat of this incident.[1]
The league decreased to 10 teams.
| First season in NFL * | Last active season ^ |
The two best teams in 1931, theGreen Bay Packers and thePortsmouth Spartans, did not face each other that season. The Spartans would later become theDetroit Lions, and face the Packers regularly, but not in their 14 games in '31. Green Bay and Portsmouth were both unbeaten at 7–0–0 after seven weeks of play. InWeek Eight, however, the Spartans played two games on the weekend of October 31. After defeating Frankford 14–0, Portsmouth travelled to New York's Polo Grounds to face the Giants. A crowd of 32,500 watched the Spartans lose, 14–0.[2] In Chicago, the Packers beat the Bears, 6–2. The next week, Portsmouth lost again. When the Packers were finally beaten inWeek Ten, losing 21–13 to the Cardinals and falling to 9–1–0, Portsmouth was at 10–2–0. InWeek Eleven, Portsmouth had a "must win" game against the Cardinals, and was trailing 13–7 at halftime.Dutch Clark scored a touchdown, butGlenn Presnell's conversion attempt failed, leaving the score at 13–13. After the Cards went up 20–13, even a tying score would have left the Spartans in second place, but Portsmouth lost 20–19.[3] The same day, Green Bay won at New York, 14–10, and also won on Thanksgiving (38–7 at Providence). On November 29, Green Bay registered its 12th win, 7–0 at Brooklyn, to clinch the title, meaning a 7–6 loss to the Bears the next week was immaterial.
| NFL standings | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| W | L | T | PCT | PF | PA | STK | |||
| Green Bay Packers | 12 | 2 | 0 | .857 | 291 | 87 | L1 | ||
| Portsmouth Spartans | 11 | 3 | 0 | .786 | 175 | 77 | W1 | ||
| Chicago Bears | 8 | 5 | 0 | .615 | 145 | 92 | L1 | ||
| Chicago Cardinals | 5 | 4 | 0 | .556 | 120 | 128 | W1 | ||
| New York Giants | 7 | 6 | 1 | .538 | 154 | 100 | W2 | ||
| Providence Steam Roller | 4 | 4 | 3 | .500 | 78 | 127 | T1 | ||
| Staten Island Stapletons | 4 | 6 | 1 | .400 | 79 | 118 | W2 | ||
| Cleveland Indians | 2 | 8 | 0 | .200 | 45 | 137 | L5 | ||
| Brooklyn Dodgers | 2 | 12 | 0 | .143 | 64 | 199 | L8 | ||
| Frankford Yellow Jackets | 1 | 6 | 1 | .143 | 13 | 99 | L2 | ||