Selected I
History of Football · 01
The Leagues
From the APFA's auto-showroom founding to the merger — who survived and why.
→The record of the American game — how the leagues, the rules, and the numbers got this way.
The American game's record, kept honestly
How the leagues formed, why the rules changed, and what the record book actually says — sourced from the primary record.
From 1869 to the seventeen-game season
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In the archive
Selected II
History of Football · 02
The Rules
Why the rulebook reads the way it does, one change at a time.
Selected III
History of Football · 03
The Records
Era-labeled records — including the ones that can never fall.
— Hover to preview.
Insights
From the blog
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NFL’s Oldest Team: Cardinals, Bears or Packers?
Arizona leads by lineage; Arizona and Chicago tie by 1920 league entry, while Green Bay is oldest in its original market, with the 1898–1899 date conflict explained.
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The Boston Game’s Role in American Football’s Origins
Harvard’s conditional running, the 1874 McGill exchange, and Camp-era reforms reveal a gradual evolution—not a single invention.
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First Black Quarterback in the NFL: Pollard vs. Thrower
Pollard was the earliest quarterback-equivalent figure; Thrower was the first Black player used exclusively at quarterback in the NFL.
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