| Regular season | |
|---|---|
| Duration | September 19 – December 19, 1926 |
| Champions | Frankford Yellow Jackets |
ProsBuccaneersColonelsThe1926 NFL season was the seventhregular season of theNational Football League (NFL). It was a year in which a record 22 teams participated, a number not equaled again until after the1970 NFL-AFL merger.
In the spring of 1927, a league meeting was held in Cleveland in an attempt to solidify the league by relegating smaller and financially shaky teams out of the league. A total of just 12 teams would remain for the1927 season.
At their February 6–7 meeting, NFL owners agreed to declare all players ineligible for the league until after their college classes had graduated, effectively ending the ability of professional teams to poach players from collegiate squads.[1]
The league also established roster limits, specifying that teams must carry a minimum of 15 players and a maximum of 18.[1]
The National Football League grew to 22 teams in 1926, with newcomers including theBrooklyn Lions,Hartford Blues,Los Angeles Buccaneers, and theLouisville Colonels, with theRacine Tornadoes re-entering.
Offsetting the torrent of first-time teams, theCleveland Bulldogs sat out the season, theRock Island Independents defected to the upstartAmerican Football League, and theRochester Jeffersons suspended operations for the final time (eventually folding in early 1928).
Adding to the confusion, in 1926 theAkron Pros re-branded as theAkron Indians, theDuluth Kelleys as theDuluth Eskimos, and theBuffalo Bison as theBuffalo Rangers.
The Buccaneers, Eskimos, Colonels andBuffalo Rangers were "showcase teams," the first efforts for the league to reach beyond the northeast and midwest. The Buccaneers, a response to the AFL'sLos Angeles Wildcats, represented the state ofCalifornia; the Eskimos the far northern plains, while the Colonels represented theSouthern United States and the Rangers represented the state ofTexas and other areas of theSouthwestern United States.[clarification needed] These four teams (except the Rangers) all played primarily astraveling teams. Three of the four teams only lasted one season; the Buccaneers and Colonels both folded while the Rangers reverted to their previous status as the Bison, with only the Eskimos returning for 1927.
In mid-November, Brooklyn merged with the AFL'sBrooklyn Horsemen and stayed in the NFL, playing one more game as the Lions before changing its name to the Brooklyn Horsemen for the last three games — all shutout losses.
At the league's July scheduling meeting, theMilwaukee Badgers were fined $500 for having fielded four high school players the previous October in a game against theChicago Cardinals.[1] In addition, the league delivered a death penalty to the team's owner, A.L. McGurk, who was ordered to sell the franchise within 90 days.[1] The Badgers would never play in the NFL again.
The NFL continued to follow the football rules published by theNational Collegiate Athletic Association, as amended by its Rules Committee, during the 1926 season.
The most important rules change in 1926 was an attempt to change the risk-reward ratio of the forward pass, specifying that the second and third incompletions during any series of downs would each result in a five-yard penalty against the offense.[2] Another rule attempted to eliminate the stalling tactic of a team with a lead incurring intentional safeties during the waning minutes of a game by forcing the ball to be kicked away from the 20 yard line, with only an onside kick available as a means of the offensive team retaining possession.[2]
The league had a record 22 teams for the 1926 season.
| First season in NFL * | Rejoined the NFL † | Last active season ^ |
| NFL standings | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| W | L | T | PCT | PF | PA | STK | |||
| Frankford Yellow Jackets | 14 | 1 | 2 | .933 | 236 | 49 | T1 | ||
| Chicago Bears | 12 | 1 | 3 | .923 | 216 | 63 | L1 | ||
| Pottsville Maroons | 10 | 2 | 2 | .833 | 155 | 29 | T1 | ||
| Kansas City Cowboys | 8 | 3 | 0 | .727 | 76 | 53 | W7 | ||
| Green Bay Packers | 7 | 3 | 3 | .700 | 151 | 61 | T1 | ||
| New York Giants | 8 | 4 | 1 | .667 | 151 | 61 | W3 | ||
| Los Angeles Buccaneers | 6 | 3 | 1 | .667 | 67 | 57 | L1 | ||
| Duluth Eskimos | 6 | 5 | 3 | .545 | 113 | 81 | L1 | ||
| Buffalo Rangers | 4 | 4 | 2 | .500 | 53 | 62 | T1 | ||
| Chicago Cardinals | 5 | 6 | 1 | .455 | 74 | 98 | L1 | ||
| Providence Steam Roller | 5 | 7 | 1 | .417 | 89 | 103 | L1 | ||
| Detroit Panthers | 4 | 6 | 2 | .400 | 107 | 60 | L3 | ||
| Hartford Blues | 3 | 7 | 0 | .300 | 57 | 99 | L1 | ||
| Brooklyn Lions | 3 | 8 | 0 | .273 | 60 | 150 | L3 | ||
| Milwaukee Badgers | 2 | 7 | 0 | .222 | 41 | 66 | L5 | ||
| Dayton Triangles | 1 | 4 | 1 | .200 | 15 | 82 | L2 | ||
| Akron Indians | 1 | 4 | 3 | .200 | 23 | 89 | T1 | ||
| Racine Tornadoes | 1 | 4 | 0 | .200 | 8 | 92 | L4 | ||
| Columbus Tigers | 1 | 6 | 0 | .143 | 26 | 93 | L5 | ||
| Canton Bulldogs | 1 | 9 | 3 | .100 | 46 | 161 | L1 | ||
| Hammond Pros | 0 | 4 | 0 | .000 | 3 | 56 | L4 | ||
| Louisville Colonels | 0 | 4 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 108 | L4 | ||
TheFrankford Yellow Jackets were named the NFL champions after finishing the season with the best record. Their 14 victories were the most in an NFL season to that point, a record that would not be bested until the1968 Baltimore Colts won 15.
After the season, thePhiladelphia Inquirer lobbied for aWorld Series-style game between the Yellow Jackets and theAFL's championsPhiladelphia Quakers, with the Quakers' owner challenging the Yellow Jackets, but ultimately the NFL denied permission to this game to be held.[3]
In January 1927, an owners' meeting was held in New York City at which tentative plans were made to reorganize the NFL into two classes, "A" and "B", with weaker teams demoted to the second division.[4] A follow-up meeting was held on April 23 and 24 in Cleveland'sStatler Hotel to formalize these changes.[4]
Although the splitting of the league into tiers was initially envisioned, the decision was made to eliminate small and financially struggling teams from the league, with 10 of the league's 22 clubs thereby either relegated to independent semi-pro status or nudged into dissolution.[5]
The NFL would not again have as many as 22 teams until the1970 season, which followed theNFL-AFL merger.