Duration N/A- November 30, 1924 Champion Cleveland Bulldogs | Champions Cleveland Bulldogs Start date 1924 | |
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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.
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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
Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.