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rulebook or standings. Also, there was no way to keep players
from changing teams whenever they wanted.

The Early Days

The owners of four professional teams got together on August
20, 1920. They wanted to talk about organizing their football
games. They named their group the American Professional

Football Conference and agreed on a set of rules. About
one month later, more teams wanted to join and create a
professional football league. The new group changed its name

to the American Professional Football Association (APFA). APFA
leaders created more rules for the sport. In April 1921, the
league crowned the Akron Pros from Ohio as its first champion.
From there the APFA added even more teams. It started to
expand to bigger cities. On June 24, 1922, the APFA changed its
The history of the National Football League
name. It was now the National Football League. The number of
teams in the NFL rose and fell as leaders added new teams and
closed struggling ones.

The NFL was made up almost entirely of white athletes
in those days. There were a few Black players in the 1920s,
but soon the owners wrongfully decided not to give any
Black players contracts. Two former college stars finally broke
that barrier in 1946. The Cleveland Rams wanted to move to

Los Angeles, California. They wanted to play their games at
the LA Coliseum, which was built with public money. Local
officials said the Rams had to integrate their roster. So the team

agreed to sign Kenny Washington and Woody Strode. Both of
these men had played locally at the University of California,

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