When Football Is Football is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear.

EPISODE SUMMARY

Remember the infamous “Spygate” scandal from a few years ago? As a reminder, one prominent NFL team was severely penalized for allegedly, and illegally, filming another team’s defensive signals from an on-field camera during a game, thus offering the offending club a significant offensive advantage.

On this episode of “When Football Was Football” we’ll dance around the “Spygate” scandal from 2007-2008 and zoom back to one of the original NFL spying controversies in 1934. Back in 1934, this particular scandal involved the Chicago Bears and the Chicago Cardinals, the only two remaining original league members.

Things could certainly be tough when two NFL teams who really didn’t like each other were not only in the same town, but also for a time, shared the same field! Such was the case for the Bears and the Cardinals during the 1930s.

Although the teams traditionally operated out of the north side (Bears) and the south side (Cardinals), both clubs counted Wrigley Field as their home base beginning in 1931. During this program of “When Football Was Football,” we’ll examine not only the unusual scheduling procedures that were in place when two NFL teams shared the same field, but also how the close-knit atmosphere contributed to growing suspicions of “spying” between the two local squads.

Read the entire episode blog post and check out some other cool info regarding this episode here.

WHEN FOOTBALL WAS FOOTBALL BACKGROUND

Each episode takes the listener back to the very early days of the National Football League. Author Joe Ziemba will share a forgotten or lost story from one of the NFL’s two oldest teams: The Bears and the Cardinals. Team championships, individual exploits, or long-buried items of interest from the earliest years of the NFL will be dusted off and resurrected for the listener. Not for the football faint-of-heart since these programs will document when the struggling Bears nearly went out of business or when Cardinals’ players earned $15 a game and were proud of it! It’s NFL history—with a twist!. See Joe's books below.

Cadets, Canons, and Legends: The Football History of Morgan Park Military Academy

When Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL

Music for the episode - https://www.purple-planet.com/