This podcast delves into a fascinating "what if" scenario from NFL history, focusing on the 1921 season and the controversial championship claims between the Buffalo team and the Chicago Staleys. The discussion centers around the pivotal decision made by Buffalo to accept an invitation from George Halas to play an exhibition game, which ultimately led to their loss and Chicago being awarded the championship. Listeners will hear insights from Ken Crippen of the Football Learning Academy, who describes the competitive landscape of the time, including Buffalo's impressive record and the nuances of how championships were determined prior to the establishment of a formal playoff system. The episode invites reflection on how different decisions could have altered the course of football history, including the potential consequences for Buffalo's franchise. Join us as we explore this intriguing chapter of the sport, highlighting the complexities and rivalries that shaped early professional football.

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You're just in time to examine a time back a hundred years ago where we had a situation in the NFL that caused a what if scenario.

What if something to do with Buffalo and the town of Chicago.

We have that coming up in just a moment here on Pigskin Dispatch.

This is the Pigskin Daily History Dispatch, a podcast that covers the anniversaries of American football events throughout history on a day to day basis.

Your host, Darrin Hayes is podcasting from America's North Shore to bring you the memories of the gridiron one day at a time.

So as we come out of the tunnel of the Sports History Network, let's take the field and go no huddle through the portal of positive gridiron history with pigskindispatch.com.

This podcast is part of the Sports History Network, your headquarters for the yesteryear of your favorite sport.

You can learn more@sportshistorynetwork.com hello my football friends.

This is Darren Hayes of pigskindispatch.com welcome once again to the Pig Pen, your portal to positive football history.

And welcome to another what if scenario here in football history.

And we're going to go back into the NFL.

The second year of the NFL.

It's actually called the American Professional Football association, the apfa.

They had another controversy the second year.

We talked about one a couple weeks ago in our what if series.

Well, this one that we've talked about a couple times and it has to do with a Buffalo team and a Chicago team.

Here's ken.

They did come in second, but there's kind of an interesting story associated with that.

So the Decatur Staleys became the Chicago Staleys and then following years when they became the Chicago Bears.

So both of them were the strongest teams.

Buffalo had a record of 9:1 and 2 and Chicago had a record of 9:1 and 1.

But you kind of have to go back a little bit from the beginning of the season to talk about some of the things that happened.

One was Buffalo scheduled some, what they call, quote unquote exhibition games at the end of the year.

So they were 8,02 at the end of the year.

They thought that they had won the championship.

Everything was great, but they figured they would try to earn a little bit more money and scheduled a couple of exhibition games.

The problem is, is that they did win the first exhibition game.

It was against Akron.

The second one was against Chicago and they lost that game.

The issue comes in is they beat Chicago earlier in the season, but then lost to Chicago at the end.

So back in those days, the tiebreakers were.

It was usually the second game the they consider counted more than the first.

So Chicago thought that they had the edge because they beat Buffalo the second game.

Then you also add into it that when you sum up the total amount of points played between the two games, Chicago had 16 points and Buffalo had 14 points.

So again, Chicago said that, okay, we're the champions because we outscored you in the two games that we played.

Now, keep in mind back then that they didn't determine the championship on the field.

They determined the championship in a vote in the league meetings in the off season.

So that was the case that Chicago made was that we beat them in the second game, which counts more than the first, and we outscored them.

When you look at the other two games, Buffalo claimed that the last two games were just exhibition games and so they shouldn't count in the standings.

Buffalo is undefeated, and so therefore they should be the champions.

We thank Ken for that great history that he did to set us up for this what if scenario.

So our what if question for tonight.

What if Buffalo had not accepted George Halas invitation to play the exhibition game in quotations and Buffalo just stayed the course, didn't play their exhibition games and retired the season?

They would not have lost to Chicago.

They would have not lost to anybody.

They would have kept that 902 record and, you know, the two big ties, but they would have beaten Chicago in that match.

Chicago would have not been able to go and argue at the meeting.

George Halas wouldn't have and said, hey, we outscored these guys 16 points to 14 points.

We split our games and you know, we won by a wider margin, so we're the champions.

Which ended up being the convincing factor for the rest of the owners from a very impassioned George Hallis, who had a way with words and had a little bit of leverage with some of the other owners to get that Chicago Staley's team, the championship.

It would be the next year they would become the Chicago Bears, the reigning champions of the apfa and their first year in the NFL as a Chicago Bears because the league would change its name that year too.

After two years in Joe Carr and the owners decided to change it to the National Football League, which we know today and have been playing under that scheme for over 100 years now.

So pretty exciting stuff.

So that's our what if for today.

Maybe if Buffalo doesn't play that game, the what if would have been they would have been reigning champions, but maybe they wouldn't have had a team the next year.

So some things to think about here in early football history.

Thank God we don't have to think that way anymore.

We've got enough scandal and going things going on with a postseason and you know, a strong leadership of the NFL and very organized and pre scheduled to not have to worry about that.

So we'll come back next week with another what if scenario here in on pigskindispatch.com but in the meantime we'll have our regular programming filled with football history and guests and we have some exciting things coming up.

So I hope you enjoy that.

So till next time everybody have a great gridiron day.

That's all the football history we have today, folks.

Join us back tomorrow for more of your football history.

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This podcast is part of the Sports History Network, your headquarters for the yesteryear of your favorite sport.

You can learn more@sportshistorynetwork.com RA.