Football History 101: The First NFL and the Forward Pass

In our last lesson on football history, we learned about the municipal amateur athletic clubs and met Pudge Heffelfinger, the first professional football player.  Today, we’ll learn about the consequences of athletic clubs skirting the amateur rules to pay players, and the formation of the first National Football League.

Turning Pro

As you’ll remember from our last lesson, the Amateur Athletic Union, to which the local athletic clubs belonged, prohibited its member clubs from paying its players.  However, you’ll also remember that many clubs found ways around the AAU’s rules to compensate “ringers,” and the Allegheny Athletic Association (AAA) outright paid Heffelfinger $500 in cash after their victory against arch rival Pittsburgh’s club.  Encouraged by Pudge's success, the AAA continued to pay other players, eventually drawing enough attention from the AAU to prompt an investigation. 

It turns out that the AAU was too late in stemming the tide of violations, however, as other Pennsylvania teams had already begun giving star players monetary incentives to keep an edge over opponents.  In fact, until hard evidence of Pudge Heffelfinger’s income was established, it was believed that a man named John Brallier had been the first professional football player; Brallier had been hired for the princely sum of $10, plus expenses by the Latrobe team to help beat its rival, Greensburg. 

The AAA, meanwhile, was ejected from the AAU in 1896.  Now, it was free to hire all the talent it wanted.  It quickly dominated the competition.  With a rogue team that had no organizational limits holding it back and able to snap up the country’s best talent, other clubs had no choice but to try going toe-to-toe in spending.  The first club to go all pro was the Latrobe Athletic Association, which fielded a team of only paid players for its entire 1897 season.

William Chase Temple

Inevitably, player salaries went up.  With payroll expenses skyrocketing, some athletic clubs suddenly found themselves in tight financial situations.  The first club bailout came to the Duquesne, Pennsylvania, club, in the form of steel magnate William Temple.  He was soon followed into team ownership by A.C. Dinkey, another steel baron, who owned the Homestead Library and Athletic Club. 

Barney Dreyfuss

In 1902, three baseball owners—Connie Mack of the Philadelphia Athletics, Art Rogers of the Philadelphia Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss—formed their own football teams and organized themselves into a league they named the National Football League.  This first NFL was short-lived, however, only playing for one season.  The three teams played each other as well as teams outside the league, but they didn’t play all of the same opponents, nor did they play the same number of games.  Thus, determining the NFL’s champion at the end of the season was an acrimonious affair.

The Bubble Bursts

When the NFL dissolved, its best players were siphoned off the market by a single team, Franklin, which dominated Pennsylvania football to such an extent that other teams didn’t even bother signing the remaining players.  The result was a mass exodus of football talent to Ohio, leaving Pennsylvania a virtual wasteland.  In Ohio, two towns—Canton and Massillon—soon dominated the gridiron landscape by outbidding each other to get the best and brightest. 

The spiraling player salaries raised the stakes for both towns.   The high quality of football that resulted from their spending spree attracted gamblers who began staking vast sums of money on the outcomes of their games.  Naturally, rumors about thrown games and players being on the take began to circulate.  In 1906, accusations between the two cities created a cold war of sorts.  Massillon accused Canton of throwing their last game against each other.  This caused Canton’s attendance and gate receipts to suffer, which meant that it couldn’t offer players as much money.  Ironically, with a severely weakened arch rival, Massillon’s crowds dwindled, too, and they were also unable to recruit good players.  The downfall of these two great teams left a tremendous void in the professional world, and the quality of play among all teams soon suffered.  Once again, football became its own worst enemy. 

Back To School

Supporters hoping to keep football alive turned, once again, to the college level.  While the business of football was eroding the game’s foundation outside college, the college game was experiencing a surge in popularity due to two factors:  rule changes and the evolution of the passing game. 

President Theodore Roosevelt, prompted by the occurrence of 18 football-related deaths in 1905 alone, called for a meeting with representatives from Harvard, Yale and Princeton.  He told them in no uncertain terms that if drastic changes weren’t made, he would abolish the sport.  Soon after, a conference of over sixty schools implemented a series of changes, including:

& Increasing the yardage required for a first down from five yards to ten yards;

& Establishing a "neutral zone” between the offensive and defensive linemen;

& Shortening the game from seventy minutes to sixty; and

& Adding another on-field official.

The Big Scrum is a book on this moment in football history

What would be the most significant rules change, however, was the legalization of the forward pass.  Previously, one player could only throw the ball to a teammate with a lateral or backward pass.  The purpose of the change was to further reduce the mayhem at the line of scrimmage that caused so many injuries but, of course, we know that the forward pass has become an integral part of the modern game.

As with most change, the acceptance of the forward pass was slow.  There were good reasons for hesitancy, however.  For one thing, no one was sure of the best way to execute a forward pass.  The ball was much more round in shape than today’s football and was therefore difficult to throw with much power or accuracy.  Also, under these early rules, an incomplete pass was a “live” ball and could be recovered by the opposing team.  So, attempting a pass was very risky for the offense.  However, there were some brave souls who studied and experimented with the maneuver, particularly at the college and high school levels.  By 1910, most college students had experience with the passing game and would be well-versed in its arts when they turned pro.

Assuming, of course, there was a “pro” to turn to.  What would become of the fledgling pro game, and who would step up to lead it into the era of the forward pass?  Tune in next time for your next lesson in Football History 101!

NFL-MLB Crossover Heroes: Bo Jackson

Today, I bring you the conclusion of our look at athletes who crossed sporting lines to have success in both football and baseball.  Plus, at the end of the post I’ll tell you the only football stadium that also functions as the home field for a Major League Baseball team.  Can you guess which one it is—without peeking?

 

Bo Jackson:   Vincent Edward “Bo” Jackson attended Auburn University, instead of playing for the New York Yankees right out of high school; the Yankees drafted him in the second round of the 1981 MLB draft.  At Auburn, he excelled in both baseball and football, winning the Heisman Trophy in 1985. 


When he first came out of college, however, it looked like Jackson was going to have to choose one sport over the other.  The Tampa Bay Buccaneers drafted him with the first overall pick of the 1986 draft and told him that he had to give up baseball (an understandable position to take, given the investment they were prepared to make in him).  Taking exception to the ultimatum, Bo decided to sign with the MLB Kansas City Royals, and made his way out of the minors to the major league squad in 1987.

Football Bo:  Since he hadn’t signed a football contract by the 1987 NFL draft, Tampa Bay forfeited its rights to Bo Jackson and his name was put back into the hopper for the 1987 draft.  The owner of the (then) Los Angeles Raiders, football pioneer and maverick personality Al Davis, recognized Jackson’s potential and selected him in the 7th round.  He gave him a salary that a full-time player would have, but still allowed him to play out the remainder of the season with the Royals.  He enjoyed a successful four seasons in the NFL, amassing 2,782 yards and 16 touchdowns as a backup running back to Raiders great Marcus Allen.  One of his most memorable games was a 221-yard, three-touchdown performance on Monday Night Football in 1987.  Here is a look back at this game, including one of his scores that produced a famous highlight (around 1:40):*

Baseball Bo:  Meanwhile, Bo continued to play as an outfielder and designated hitter for the Royals through 1990.  The high point of his baseball career was the 1989 season, when he was named an American League starter for the All Star Game, where he was named the game MVP.  Unfortunately, a severe hip injury Jackson sustained during the 1990 NFL playoffs led to a total hip replacement; he was released by the Royals but was able to return to baseball toward the end of the season as a member of the Chicago White Sox.  He missed the entire 1992 season, but in his first at-bat of the 1993 season, he hit a home run on his first swing.  However, he never got back to pre-injury form and played his final season in 1994 for the California Angels.  Over his eight-season career, Jackson had a .250 batting average and accumulated 141 home runs and 415 RBIs; in his breakout 1989 season, he was fourth in the league in total home runs (32) and RBIs (105).

Bo was famous for breaking a bat over his knee after a poor at-bat

Endorser Bo:  Off the field, Bo created his own marketing legacy when he signed an endorsement deal with Nike that resulted in the popular “Bo Knows” campaign.  These ads featured Jackson channeling his inner George Plimpton, taking on a variety of sports.  The highlight of the campaign, though, was a two-spot series with blues legend Bo Diddley.  In the first spot, Bo Diddley says to Jackson, “You don’t know diddley!”  In a later ad, Jackson impresses Diddley with his much-improved guitar playing and Diddley says, “Bo…you do know Diddley, don’t you?”

Now for the NFL stadium that is the only one that is also the home field of a Major League Baseball team… 

Until the early 1990’s several stadiums served a dual purpose of fielding football and baseball.  Two developments in sport architecture in the 1990s and early 2000s changed this:  (1) the rise in popularity of retro-style baseball parks (the first being Baltimore’s Oriole Park at Camden Yards); and (2) the widespread use of FieldTurf and other artificial turfs, which can’t be rolled up and moved for another sport like the older AstroTurf. 

So, which stadium still hosts professional football and baseball teams?  O.co Coliseum, which is home to the Oakland Raiders and the Oakland Athletics.  The O.co Coliseum has been known by many names:  Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, Network Associates Coliseum, McAfee Coliseum and Overstock.com Coliseum.  Through the years though, it has been commonly known as The Oakland Coliseum, or simply The Coliseum.

*I’m a bit disappointed by Al Michaels in the beginning of his interview of Bo Jackson.  Bo mentioned that what he remembers most about that game is that it was his birthday and the day before his wife had told him she was pregnant with their second child.  It’s a nice personal revelation and Michaels just ignores it and moves on.

NFL-MLB Crossover Heroes: Thorpe, Parker and Neon

With the 2012 Major League Baseball season about to get into full swing, so to speak, I thought we'd take a look at some of football's stars who dabbled in baseball.  Throughout the history of both sports, there have been numerous examples of such crossover athletes.  This was especially true in the early 20th century because, as we will learn in our next Football History 101 lesson, some of the first football team owners were also owners of established baseball clubs.  As such, they raided their baseball teams for talent to field their football teams.

The multi-sport athlete is not an ancient phenomenon, however, and it would take many posts to list them all—especially when you consider the players who were drafted by clubs from another sport but never played (e.g., quarterbacks Daunte Culpepper and Dan Marino and baseball legend Dave Winfield) and those players whose careers were limited to appearances in the minor leagues (e.g., retired safety John Lynch and QB greats John Elway and Sammy Baugh).  There are plenty of men, though, who enjoyed a high degree of success in both sports (and even in other athletic pursuits). Today, we look at two players from the early days of football, and one distinctly more modern example:

Jim Thorpe:   Widely considered to be one of the greatest athletes of all time, if not the greatest, Jim Thorpe dominated the sports world in the first few decades of the twentieth century.  The son of an Irish Catholic father and a Native American mother (of the Sac and Fox tribe), Thorpe had incredible natural talents that were recognized by Glenn Scobey “Pop” Warner, one of the coaching pioneers of early football.  Warner coached Thorpe at Carlisle Indian Industrial School, a college in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. While in school, Thorpe competed in football, track and field, baseball, lacrosse and ballroom dancing (he won a championship title in ballroom dancing in 1912). 

Thorpe’s football notoriety was born out of Carlisle’s upset of Harvard in 1911, in which he scored all of Carlisle’s 18 points (four field goals and a touchdown).  Thorpe’s first love was football, but in 1912 his fame turned international when he competed in the Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden.  Thorpe easily won the gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon (note in the photo that he competed with mismatched shoes; his went missing moments before the event got started).  However, those medals were subsequently stripped by the International Olympic Commission when it was revealed that Thorpe had been paid to play baseball in 1909 and 1910.  After this episode Thorpe left the Olympics behind and played professional football and baseball from 1913 through 1919; he continued to play football until 1928.

Clarence “Ace” Parker:  A three-sport athlete, and football All-American, at Duke University (football, baseball and basketball), Parker was drafted by the Brooklyn (football) Dodgers in the 1937 NFL draft.  Having already played a season in Major League Baseball for the Philadelphia Athletics, he didn’t intend to play football.  With a less than stellar batting average, however, Ace sought and received permission from the Athletics to play quarterback for the Dodgers.  Wanting to cover all his bases, as it were, he played both baseball and football in 1937 and 1938.  Soon his talent on the gridiron overshadowed his below-average skill on the diamond and, in 1938 he became a one-sport athlete.  He didn’t limit himself to quarterbacking, though, and posted respectable numbers as a halfback and kicker.  He retired after the 1946 season (his career was interrupted by military service in World War II) at the age of 34 and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1972.  At the age of 99, Ace Parker has the distinction of being the oldest living member of the Hall of Fame and the oldest living former professional football player; he will turn 100 on May 17th.

Deion Sanders:  Loyal Naptime Huddle readers may remember reading about “Neon” Deion Sanders in our “Stars and Legends” series, which lists him among the NFL’s greatest cornerbacks.  A three sport star at Florida State University (which has retired his #2 jersey), Sanders was drafted fifth overall by the Falcons in 1989.  He also started playing for the Atlanta Braves that year and would continue to play baseball part-time for nine years.  Sanders didn’t just play baseball for the sake of being a two-sport athlete, though; he achieved tremendous success in both sports. 



His accomplishments are admirable by any standards, but are even more impressive considering the higher level of athletic competition compared to the days of Jim Thorpe and Ace Parker.  Like those legends of yesterday, Deion Sanders played multiple positions:  cornerback, kick return specialist and wide receiver in football and center and left field in baseball.  He is the only athlete ever to hit a major league home run and score a touchdown in the same week; he is also the only athlete to play in both a Super Bowl and a World Series.  In fact, Sanders won two Super Bowls, one with the San Francisco 49ers and the other with the Dallas Cowboys.  Deion is also only one of two players to score a touchdown six different ways:  interception return, punt return, kickoff return, receiving, rushing and off a fumble recovery.  In 2011, the first year he was eligible, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. 

In our next post on NFL-MLB crossover athletes, we stay in the modern era with a memorable character who “knew” how to market himself.

March Quiz Answers

1.  In what year did Frank Tripucka become the first quarterback in the American Football League (AFL) to throw a touchdown pass and become the first professional quarterback in the United States to throw for 3,000 yards in a season?

 

1960, THE DEBUT SEASON FOR THE AFL

 Relevant post:  The Numbers Game

2.  In what year did the Georgia legislature outlaw football in response to the death of a college player?

 

1897; THE GOVERNOR VETOED THE BAN AFTER RECEIVING A LETTER FROM THE DEAD STUDENT’S MOTHER ASKING THE SPORT TO BE REINSTATED.

 Relevant Post:  Football History 101: The Gridiron's Genesis

3.  Under what circumstances will a team spend “dead money”?

 

IF IT RELEASES A PLAYER BEFORE IT HAS PAID THAT PLAYER HIS ENTIRE SIGNING BONUS, THE REMAINING AMOUNT OF THAT BONUS COUNTS AGAINST THE TEAM’S SALARY CAP FOR THE ENSUING SEASON.

 Relevant Post:  The NFL's March Madness

4.  Whose jerseys are the only others to be retired by the Denver Broncos? (Hint: there are two.)

 

QUARTERBACK JOHN ELWAY (#7) AND RUNNING BACK FLOYD LITTLE (#44)

 Relevant Post:  The Numbers Game

Floyd Little

5.  Name two of the four rules changes made at the NFL’s Annual Meeting.

 

(1)    THE NEW SCORING RULES FOR OVERTIME WILL

NOW APPLY TO REGULAR SEASON GAMES;

    (2)    TURNOVERS WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY REVIEWED

BY THE REPLAY OFFICIAL;

(3)    HAVING TOO MANY PLAYERS ON THE FIELD IS

NOW A “DEAD BALL” FOUL; AND

(4)    THE VICTIM OF A “CRACKBACK” BLOCK IS NOW

CONSIDERED A “DEFENSELESS PLAYER.”

 Relevant Post:  NFL Annual Meeting: Rules Changes and Redux

6.  If a team places its franchise tag on a player, how much must it pay that player? 

 

THE GREATER OF 120% OF THAT PLAYER’S SALARY OR THE AVERAGE OF THE TOP FIVE SALARIES AT THAT PLAYER’S POSITION.

Relevant Post:  The NFL's March Madness

7.  TRUE OR FALSE:  Among George Plimpton’s exploits in the world of professional sports was a stint as a professional wrestler named “Jungle George.”

 

FALSE.  HE TRIED HIS HAND AT FOOTBALL, BASEBALL, TENNIS, HOCKEY AND EVEN BOXING, BUT HE NEVER DONNED TIGHTS AND VENTURED INTO THE WORLD OF PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING.

 Relevant Post:  Reading Huddle:  Paper Lion

8.  What brutal formation developed in the 1890s caused so many injuries that Army and Navy canceled their annual game in 1894 for fear of too many casualties?

 

THE FLYING WEDGE

 Relevant Post:  Football History 101: The Gridiron's Genesis

9.  Which receiver joined the San Francisco 49ers in February after having retired before the 2011 season?

 

RANDY MOSS

 Relevant Post:  Cleats On, Cleats Off

10.  Who was the first football player to be paid, and what club paid him?

 

WILLIAM “PUDGE” HEFFELFINGER, WHO WAS HIRED BY THE ALLEGHENY ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION

Relevant Post:   Football History 101: Pro Football's Infancy

 

BONUS:  Who helped George Plimpton apprehend Robert Kennedy assassin Sirhan Sirhan?

 

FORMER DECATHLETE RAFER JOHNSON

 Relevant Post: Reading Huddle: Paper Lion

March Quiz

OK, there weren't all that many posts in March, so no excuses for laying a goose egg on this one!

1.  In what year did Frank Tripucka become the first quarterback in the American Football League (AFL) to throw a touchdown pass and the first professional quarterback in the United States to throw for 3,000 yards in a season?   

2.  In what year did the Georgia legislature outlaw football in response to the death of a college player?

 

3.  Under what circumstances will a team spend “dead money”?

 

4.  Whose jerseys are the only others to be retired by the Denver Broncos? (Hint: there are two.)

5.  Name two of the four rules changes made at the NFL’s Annual Meeting.

6.  If a team places its franchise tag on a player, how much must it pay that player?

7.  TRUE OR FALSE:  Among George Plimpton’s exploits in the world of professional sports was a stint as a professional wrestler named “Jungle George.”

8.  What brutal formation developed in the 1890s caused so many injuries that Army and Navy canceled their annual game in 1894 for fear of too many casualties?

9.  Which receiver joined the San Francisco 49ers in February after having retired before the 2011 season?

10. Who was the first football player to be paid, and what club paid him?

BONUS:  Who helped George Plimpton apprehend Robert Kennedy assassin Sirhan Sirhan? 

Check in tomorrow for the answers!

NFL-MLB Crossover Week: Jeter is to Brady as the Yankees are to...

 Today I'm pleased to present another post from my good friend and fellow blogger, Gary Hailey (you may remember the post he did in February on the connections between football and hip hop).  Gary is the author of the enlightening and popular blog, 2 or 3 lines (and so much more), which can be found at http://2or3lines.blogspot.com/.  If you like music at all, you must check it out.  You'll learn more than you thought you could about your favorite songs and artists from all genres and periods. 

In addition to being a music lover, Gary is an ardent baseball fan.  With the 2012 MLB season in, er, full swing, we're experiencing a bit of cross-sport synergy this week.  I was also excited to see Gary's post because I, too, have a big crush on Tom Brady--though mine is more of the "If I weren't a married woman..." variety. 

Anywho...enjoy and PLAY BALL!

I've been a New York Yankees fan since I was a kid. While Mickey Mantle was my favorite Yankee back then, Derek Jeter is my favorite Yankee now.

I don't have a favorite NFL team any more, but I must admit that I have a serious man-crush on Tom Brady. He and Derek Jeter share many of the same essential qualities -- they both are quietly confident, perform in the clutch, know how to handle themselves off the field as well on the field, and are pretty snazzy dressers. I guess I would say Tom Brady is the Derek Jeter of the NFL.

Let's take that premise one step further. If Tom Brady is the Derek Jeter of the NFL, what team is the New York Yankees of the NFL?

Before we can answer that question, we need to identify the essential qualities of the Yankees. What is it that defines the Yankees in the mind of the typical fan?

The Yankees have two fundamental characteristics. First, they are winners -- no team in the history of professional sports has been more consistently successful.

Second, they are hated by those who don't love them -- no one is neutral when it comes to the Yankees.

Are the New York Giants the Yankees of the NFL? Both are New York teams, and most fans of one team are fans of the other as well -- and the franchises have some other things in common.

Back in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the New York Giants were almost as successful as the Yankees. The Giants won the '56 NFL title (the Yankees won the World Series that year) and made it to the NFL championship game five times in six years between 1958 and 1963. The Yankees played in five World Series during that same six-year period.

Both teams’ fortunes then took a turn for the worse. The Yankees won the Series in 1962, but that was their last championship until 1977. The Giants suffered an even longer drought, and didn't win a Super Bowl until 1987.

The Yankees became dominant once more in the 1990s -- their last losing season was 1992, and they missed the playoffs only once in the past 17 seasons. No NFL team has managed to be as consistent as the Yankees, but the Giants have been in the playoffs seven times since 2000 and won two of the last five Super Bowls.

But while the Giants have been a prominent franchise with its share of detractors, they don't inspire nearly the same degree of loathing from fans of other teams. The Giants have never had a lightning-rod owner like George Steinbrenner, or widely-despised players like Reggie Jackson and Alex Rodriguez.

Let's consider two other teams who may deserve the "Yankees of the NFL" title.

First, there are the Dallas Cowboys -- "America's Team." Both the Cowboys and the Yankees get much more media attention than they deserve -- at least that's what their non-fans believe. The extravagant new stadiums both teams recently moved into are symbolic of their financial muscle and organizational ego. Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones reminds people of George Steinbrenner in his heyday.

And the Cowboys’ record of success on the field is certainly Yankee-like -- no NFL team has had more consecutive winning seasons (20), more postseason appearances (30), or more Super Bowl appearances (eight).

On the other side of the ledger, the Cowboys' recent lack of success on the field is very un-Yankee-like -- they have won only one playoff game since 1996.

I think the team that most deserves to be called the Yankees of the NFL is the New England Patriots. Like the Yankees, most fans expect the Patriots will be in the playoffs every season -- it's always a surprise when they don't make it to the postseason. (Since 1996 -- the year the Yankees began to dominate baseball again after a decade-plus of mediocrity -- the Patriots have been in the playoffs 12 of 16 seasons and made it to six Super Bowls.)

But the main reason I think the Patriots are the Yankees of professional football is how intensely they are disliked by their non-fans. The Yankees had an owner who rubbed everyone the wrong way -- the Patriots have a coach who everyone hates.

And for no good reason, a lot of people hate Tom Brady and Derek Jeter.

How can this be? These two athletic paragons are admirable above all other current pro athletes -- if you think there are better role models in the world of professional sports, I'd like to hear who they are. (OK, OK -- Brady did desert his ex-girlfriend after getting her pregnant, but there's probably a very good explanation.)

Let's face the facts, folks. If you're not a fan of Brady or Jeter, it's because you are envious of them. You know both men are more successful, smarter, more attractive, and much, much cooler than you are and you just can't live with that knowledge. Am I right, or am I right?

There is only possible reason for not giving the Patriots the "Yankees of the NFL" title -- and that is the fact that the Patriots are a Boston team. As a Yankees fan, it's not easy for me to admit that any team from Boston deserves to be compared to the Bronx Bombers. (Watching a Patriots home game on TV and seeing that half the guys in the stadium are wearing Red Sox hats is a real turnoff for me.)

Now that we've settled the question of what pro football team deserves to be called the Yankees of the NFL, let's move on to some other football-baseball pairings.

Who are the New York Mets of the NFL? To answer that question, let's decide on what the essential qualities of the Mets are. For one thing, their defining moment was one of the most shocking World Series upsets in history -- the victory of the lightly-regarded "Miracle Mets" over the powerful Baltimore Orioles in 1969. For another, they seem destined to always play second-fiddle to the Yankees -- they just can't compete with their American League neighbors.

It should be easy to figure out who the Mets of the NFL are -- the New York Jets, of course. The Jets' greatest moment was their shocking upset of the powerful Baltimore Colts, also in 1969. And the Jets generally take a back seat to their more successful NFL brethren, the Giants.

Add to that the fact that Mets fans generally root for the Jets -- like Yankees fans generally support the Giants. (In my experience, Mets/Jets fans are usually unhappy misfits -- often younger siblings who suffered growing up in the shadow of a smarter, better-looking, or more athletic older brother.)

Who are the St. Louis Cardinals of the NFL? The Cardinals are a model organization. They have won more World Series than any other National League team -- and they've done it without the material advantages that the major-market teams (like the Yankees and the Dodgers) have. Cardinals fans are known for being supportive and well-behaved -- players love playing in St. Louis.

Albert Pujols celebrating with fans after Game 7 of the 2011 World Series

One team that is definitely not the St. Louis Cardinals of the NFL is the Arizona Cardinals -- who were once the St. Louis football Cardinals. That team made the playoffs exactly three times in its 28 seasons in St. Louis, and never won a playoff game. They may have shared a city and a nickname, but the football Cardinals and baseball Cardinals were polar opposites.

I think the two NFL teams that most resemble the baseball Cardinals are the Packers and the Steelers. Both are among the most successful NFL franchises of my lifetime. And both play in relatively small and unglamorous cities in front of loyal and devoted fans. Maybe we should declare a tie and leave it at that.

Next, who are the Baltimore Orioles of the NFL? From 1968 through 1985, the Orioles never had a losing season, and seemed to have the number of the richer Yankees, who consistently lost to them despite their bigger payroll and lineup full of famous names. The Orioles won the AL East in 1997, but haven't had a winning season since -- that's 14 straight sub-.500 campaigns, boys and girls. (The team drew 3.7 million fans in 1997, but fewer than half as many fans last year.) And there's no indication that the team has turned it around.

To find the Orioles of the NFL, you need only head south down I-95 a few miles. The Washington Redskins were regulars in the NFL playoffs between 1982 and 1992, winning three Super Bowls in a ten-year span. Since 1993, not so good -- only five winning seasons and no Super Bowls (not to mention no NFC championship game appearances) in 19 years . . . and their records in those five winning seasons were only 10-6, 10-6, 9-7, 9-7, and 8-7-1 -- not exactly impressive.

Like the Orioles, the Redskins have morphed from being a model organization to being irrelevant. In recent years, both teams have been known for incompetent ownership, a revolving-door policy when it comes to hiring and quickly firing coaches and managers, and disastrous free-agent acquisitions. (Albert Belle, meet Albert Haynesworth.)

Last -- and almost certainly least -- who are the Cleveland Indians of the NFL? That's easy -- the Cleveland Browns! (Sorry, Cleveland fans -- I admit that was a cheap shot.)