1924 NFL season

1924 National Football League season
Regular season
Duration N/A- November 30, 1924
Champions Cleveland Bulldogs

The 1924 NFL season was the fifth regular season of the National Football League. The league had 18 teams play during the season, including the new clubs Frankford Yellow Jackets, Kansas City Blues, and Kenosha Maroons. The Louisville Brecks, Oorang Indians, St. Louis All Stars and Toledo Maroons folded.

Before the season, the owner of the now-defunct Cleveland Indians bought the Canton Bulldogs and "mothballed" it, taking the team's nickname and players to Cleveland for the season. The new team, the Cleveland Bulldogs, won the 1924 NFL title with a 7–1–1 record.

Championship race

The Cleveland Bulldogs, Buffalo Bisons, Frankford Yellow Jackets, Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears were the contenders for the title in November. However, Buffalo faltered down the stretch, dropping their last three games to drop from 6–2 to 6–5, squarely in the middle of the pack. Green Bay similarly fell from 6–2 to 7–4. This left Cleveland and Chicago to contend for the title, since Frankford had two losses and the other two teams only one. Teams such as the Duluth Kelleys and the Rock Island Independents would have been contenders for the title but their more limited schedules (6 games for Duluth and 9 for Rock Island) effectively ruled them out of title contention.

The official end of the season was designated as November 30, 1924, with Cleveland atop the league standings. After this date, Chicago challenged Cleveland to a post-season rematch and won, setting up a repeat of 1921, when the Bears (at that time still known as the Staleys) were able to take the championship from Buffalo (at the time known as the All-Americans) using exactly the same trick. This time, however, league officials declared any game after November 30 to be effectively exhibition games, null and void with regard to the season standings, which allowed the Bulldogs to keep their title.

In terms of pure win-loss differential, the Frankford Yellow Jackets would have easily won the NFL title, as they had 9 more wins than losses, compared to the +5 of both the Bulldogs and Bears. Had the current system of counting ties as half a win and half a loss been in place at the time of the 1924 season, the Duluth Kelleys (5–1, .833) would have tied the Bulldogs (7½–1½, .833) for the league title, and the tiebreaker would not have applied because the Kelleys and Bulldogs did not play each other. Frankford (11½–2½, or .821) would have finished in third place, significantly ahead of the Bears (at 8–3, or .727). However, at the time, ties were discarded when calculating win percentage until the 1970s.

Standings

NFL standings
W L T PCT PF PA STK
Cleveland Bulldogs 711.87522960W2
Chicago Bears 614.85713655W3
Frankford Yellow Jackets 1121.846326109W8
Duluth Kelleys 510.8335616W1
Rock Island Independents 522.7148838L1
Green Bay Packers 740.63610838L1
Racine Legion 433.5716947W1
Chicago Cardinals 541.5569067L1
Buffalo Bisons 650.545120140L3
Columbus Tigers 440.5009168L1
Hammond Pros 221.5001845W2
Milwaukee Badgers 580.385142188L2
Akron Pros 260.25059132W1
Dayton Triangles 260.25045148L6
Kansas City Blues 270.22246124L2
Kenosha Maroons 041.00012117L2
Minneapolis Marines 060.00014108L6
Rochester Jeffersons 070.0007156L7

Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.

References

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