RetroSeasons
RetroSeasons recaps past sports seasons through stories, photos, videos, and stats from every team, league, and stadium in history. Coverage includes the NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL, as well as vintage media from defunct teams and leagues.
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Recap
The New York Yankees were a short-lived professional American football team from 1926 to 1929. The team was a member of the first American Football League in 1926, and later the National Football League from 1927 to 1929. They played their home games at Yankee Stadium. The team featured Red Grange at halfback.
The Yankees arose as a result of a contract dispute between Grange and his previous team, the NFL's Chicago Bears. During the early 1920s, Grange was the star attraction for the Bears, and his play had done a lot to promote the fledgling NFL. However Red's agent C. C. "Cash and Carry" Pyle challenged the Bears owner George Halas in 1926, by stating that Red's contract was owned by himself, and not Halas. Pyle then approached Halas to demand for Grange a generous salary and one-third ownership of the Bears. Halas refused.
Pyle then took his quest for an NFL franchise to the NFL's 1926 winter meeting. There he showed to the other owners that he had the rights to Grange. As a result, he wanted an NFL team of his own and he wanted it in New York City's Yankee Stadium. If he would be denied, Pyle threatened to start his own league. However a market in the New York market was not available. Tim Mara held exclusive NFL rights to the New York Giants. Mara had just struggled through his first year as an owner, and was saved from financial disaster ironically by Grange's exhibition appearance. Nearing the end of their first season, the Giants had gone largely unnoticed by New York fans and newspapers, and Giants' owner Tim Mara was deeply in the red. But Grange's appearance drew 73,000 people to the Polo Grounds; in one afternoon Mara was in the black financially, and professional football had gained new respect among New York's influential sportswriters. Now Pyle wanted to take away half of Mara's market.
The other franchise owners backed Mara, however they did not want to lose Grange and his drawing power. They were well aware of what a game against Grange could mean to their finances. They were also aware that Pyle might actually carry out a threat to start a new league if they refused his request. As a result, the league proposed a compromise. It was proposed that Pyle could have his "New York" franchise but it would be located in Brooklyn, which was a part of New York City. However Pyle had already gone ahead and rented Yankee Stadium, and that was where he intended to play. Rejecting the NFL's offer, he set out to make good on his threat. With his new New York Yankees franchise as its flagship, Pyle put together a league called the American Football League.
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