Unless you’re as old as Lester Townsend, you don’t remember pro football’s earliest days.
Lester is 111.
Happy birthday, Lester.
Believe it or not, I wasn’t around in 1919 either.
I recall seeing my 1st televised pro football game in New York in 1961.
It was Y.A. Tittle’s 1st year at quarterback for the NY Giants and they beat the Washington Redskins.
Only 100 years
Rome, my father liked to say, wasn’t built in a day.
He was talking about my own lack of patience.
Neither was the National Football League. It’s taken a long and often rocky 100 years to get where it is.
Pro football’s influence led the NFL to touch us in politics, food, gambling, business, fashion, books, movies and, of course, in newspapers and on TV.
“History usually requires a long lens to truly assess empires and influence,” Anthony Gulizia and Jeemy Willis wrote in USA Today.
“It has grown and expanded along with America. When factories ruled the Midwest, pro football came, too. When Americans moved West and Baby Boomers spurred the economy, football grew.”
When Atlanta, Houston, Nashville, Seattle and Charlotte became major cities, the NFL expanded.
 With TVs in most all of our homes, 46 of the 50 best watched programs last year were pro football games.
The early days
Playing pro ball 100 years ago had little prestige or the money that players and their agents enjoy today.
What became the NFL was born in the northeast corner of Ohio. There football was nothing more than a weekend game and a way for college athletes to make a bit more money.
 The games were organized by athletic clubs and paid for by business and industry, often the players’ employers.
Like the old textile league baseball teams in our state years ago, the players were on the payrolls as workers but their work was practicing during the week and playing on the weekends.
Their families, friends, neighbors and fellow employees were devoted fans.
Loyalty to the teams brought pride in the companies they worked for.
 Pro football was a financial crap shoot. The Akron Pros, pro football’s first champions, folded after 6 seasons. From 1920 to 1930, 46 teams folded.
 What’s the future?
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s goal is $25 billion in revenue by 2027.
That will undoubtedly make the league find ways to limit concussions, other injuries and long-term health problems.
Also uncertain is if the league’s international games produce enough revenue to make teams or conferences outside the US promising for foreign owners who can afford the risks.’
By the way, which pro team do you root for?
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